Verbum 9 Tip 9x: Guide section: Compare versions

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Compare Versions

From Verbum Help:[quote]

Compare Versions Section

This section compares items in a specified list of Bibles ("Top Bibles" by default) and maps the translation similarities in two distinct ways:

The left side of the comparison shows a "cluster graph," which is a kind of scatter plot, in either two or three dimensions depending on user settings. Each dot in the scatter plot represents the guide’s key passage in a single Bible translation, indicated by the abbreviated title which labels the dot. Dots that are closer together in the diagram are more similar in their word choice for translating the current passage. Dots that are farther apart are less similar.

The strip along the right side of the comparison diagram shows a "version river", or flow diagram.

Note: this diagram will be more informative when the guide is run on multiple verses, such as a pericope or whole chapter.

The version river displays the given passage from top to bottom, with the first verse in the passage appearing at the top and the last verse at the bottom. Each band of color represents a translation. Band thickness measures variations in word choice. Where the diagram appears thinnest, the verse that corresponds to that part of the flow has less variation in word choice. Where the diagram appears thicker, those verses exhibit more variation in word choice.

See more about these kinds of diagrams under Passage Analysis.^[1]

Prerequisite reading:

• Comparing translations using multiple target languages
• 5 Useful Data Visualization Tools For Translators (analyticsvidhya.com)

Resources included: Bibles

Section heading bar

The section heading bar includes a settings option which results in a settings option in the section heading bar menu. The settings menu allows one to set two features:

• The collection of Bibles to be used in the comparison.
• Whether the visualization on the left is presented in two or three dimension format.

Two dimensional view with the settings menu open. The left side is static. On the right side, values exist only for the full verse points. The space between actual entries is filled with a continuous flow to give a sense of the movement of the text.

Three dimensions view which can be allowed to move continuously or dragged by the user to emphasize particular perspectives.

Contents

The contents are simply:

• A cluster chart in either two or three dimensions
• A version river

Interactions on data

(1) Text comparison tool

(2) 3 dimensional display with the statistics for a specific pair

Search

As the output of this section is a visualization on data available only in the text comparison tool, the section may be verified but not replicated.

Supplemental materials

In some sense, one can consider the text comparison tool as a supplement to the Compare Versions guide section. From Verbum Help:[quote]

Text Comparison

Compare Bible translations side by side. Choose versions and view options in the toolbar.

1.   Click Tools > Passage > Text Comparison

2.   Click into the Reference box and type a passage.

•    A verse map can be specified with a Bible reference to use when parsing (for example, type BHS Psalm 3:1 to compare the Psalm title that comes before verse 1 in most English Bibles). This also works with other texts that have the same mapping (i.e., Early Church Fathers, Code of Hammurabi).

3.   Choose Bible versions or texts to compare.

•    Type the name or abbreviation to filter Bibles or other resources, and select the checkbox for the desired Bibles.

•    Drag titles up or down to choose the order they display in.

•    Click outside the pop-up for those selections to be applied.

4.   If the user owns a collection that includes the Compare Parallel Bible Versions feature, two additional options will display:

•    To display the differences between versions, click the a next to the passage box.

•    With Show differences enabled, users can also Show base text with the other texts by clicking the a to the right.

5.   Open the panel menu to choose Layout and Ignore options from the menu:

•    Automatic layout

•    Horizontal layout (columns)

•    Vertical layout

•    Ignore case

•    Ignore marks

•    Ignore punctuation

Interlinear View [Net]

Click Verses to switch to Interlinear mode (New Testament only), which will compare different translations line by line. Interlinear view will only work with translations that have a reverse interlinear.

Quick Verse Compare

To see a quick comparison of a passage from an open Bible or commentary, press F7 in Windows and Mac. It isn’t necessary to have the Text Comparison tool open for this to work.

Print/Export

Print/Export is only available in Verses mode.

1.   Open the Text Comparison anel menu and choose Print/Export. Users can also press Cmd+P (Mac) or Ctrl+P (Windows).

2.   Click Print or Copy to the clipboard, or save as Rich Text Format (Word, etc.), Text Document, Web Page (HTML), PDF Document (Mac), or XPS Document (Windows).

See Also

•     Text Comparison: Dataset Documentation^[2]

^[1] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).

[Net] Some or all of the features in this section require a live internet connection to be fully functional.

^[2] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).