What’s New in Paratext 9.3 Beta

It is our great privilege to announce to you the availability of the Beta version of Paratext 9.3! On behalf of the entire development team, we hope that this software is a blessing to you in your work.

What's New Video

Here is a demo video to introduce the new features that have been added to Paratext 9.3 Beta. We wanted to show you what is available in the latest beta version of Paratext.

Please note that these videos were made with a test version of Paratext 9.3.

See below for written descriptions of these new features.

What Changed Since Paratext 9.2?

Paratext Live users can now choose either to use the old server from 9.0 and 9.1 or use the new Paratext Live server that was introduced in 9.2 (more info here). Now all users are free to upgrade to Paratext 9.3 regardless of whether they need to do live sessions with older versions!
Study Bible Additions now have a compare versions feature.
Scripture references copied from Logos and other programs can be pasted into the Scripture reference control on the main toolbar to navigate to that reference:
Numerous usability improvements were made to the parallel passage interface to make the information clearer. For example, the Greek and Hebrew text rows can now be collapsed or expanded:
You can now open a text collection directly from the main menu:
Synchronized scrolling with Logos or other compatible applications is now ON by default.
In addition to arranging windows in columns, you can now also arrange them in rows:
Floating windows now have a project dropdown that allows you to switch to a different project or resource:
Fixed the Bible Modules feature to honor chapter markers in extra books.
RegEx Pal is now available in the Project > Advanced menu.
The Paratext plugin API has been expanded to include:
- Access to Text Collections
- Access to Resources (protected by an API key)

Paratext 9.3 has had a lot of behind the scenes work on components that are not user-facing features but which will vastly improve our ability to:

write Paratext help topics
localize the user interface into more gateway languages
improve the speed of language updates
localize the help files

Help files in the major languages should begin to be available as soon as they are translated.

Compatibility with Previous Paratext 9 Versions

Paratext 9.3 beta is fully compatible with 9.0 – 9.2, although the new features will only be accessible from the newer versions. Paratext 9.3 will also work with Paratext 8, but we encourage you to upgrade to Paratext 9 as soon as possible.

Thank you for your support!

We would love to hear from you, so please interact with us during the beta period as we work with you to fix any issues you may encounter. We’ve fixed 68 bugs and usability defects in the alpha so far and have what we feel is a reliable beta release for testing in live projects.

Please submit feedback from main menu of Paratext 9.3 beta:

Go to Help > Give Feedback
Fill out the form
Click “Send” to let us know how we are doing.

Your feedback is invaluable in identifying and fixing bugs. Positive feedback is also very valuable for team morale and for partnership development. So, please share your thoughts.

We are grateful to the many translation teams who work hard to make the Word of God available to all people throughout the world. We hope this software will bless your work and help make Jesus known throughout the nations!

Yours in Christ,

The Paratext Development Team (UBS/SIL)

Important information for Paratext Live users

Paratext 9.3 includes changes to Paratext Live so that you can use either the older 9.1 version of Paratext Live (“Internet using WCF”), or the newer 9.2 version of Paratext Live (“Internet using AMQP”). In order to be in the same Paratext Live session, all of the users must select the same server. The user interface for Paratext Live is still being improved, and we will make those improvements during the beta period. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work on this.

Regardless of how you use Paratext Live, all users can upgrade to 9.3 and use the version of Paratext Live that best suits the team. While the development team is not entirely happy with the performance of the AMQP server yet, we continue to work on it to improve your experience. Note: this does not affect Send/Receive, which still functions normally between all versions of Paratext.

Was this helpful?

Let us know if this post is helpful. That’s the only way we can improve.