One Markup Idea: The Arrow.

I like this, but it creates some difficult UI problems.

I agree, but I think a workable sollution can be had.  I do not have a problem with it being Modal.  In know that you're trying to get away from that in L4 but this makes great sense to me. 

Here's a possible non-modal setup (for a related example see how Jing draws arrows).

1. Select the circle and arrow markup from the list
2. Click the first word which should have the circle around it (The circle appears and the pointer changes to an arrow)
3. Drag (stay clicked)  the arrow to it's destination word.  The arrow should "snap" to each word it contacts so that it's easy to lock it in by simply releasing the drag.

That solution is not modal but has a few faults:

• It's limited to ONE word, not a phrase, and sometimes I'm going to want phrases - on one or both sides of the link.
• if the areas I want to connect are not  in the same screen, I have to be able to scroll - that's not easy.  It can work with a wheel mouse, but what about a touchpad? 
• There is no cancel, it's just like every other markup.  You can highlight it and remove it though, just like any other markup.
• It's also limited to only one arrow per markup.  So multiple arrows as my other example shows would require doing this three times.  IMHO that's not really a burden for me.

A modal solution could solve some of those faults but potentially introduces some additional complexity from the user's standpoint.

1. Select the circle and arrow markup from the list
2. Click the first word and drag to highlight the word or phrase that should be circled.
3. The UI will "fade" or an overlay would appear, perhaps a tooltip that says, "click on arrow destination or ESC to quit"
4. ESC would cancel the process.
5. now you can scroll as far as you want (gen to rev if you care to) to locate the next phrase.  Note that when hovering over any text the arrow should appear to follow your progress as the above modeless method indicates.
6. Click and drag over the destination word/phrase to anchor the arrow.
7. the UI remains faded and says, "point to more text and ESC when finished." and continues to show another arrow.  In this manner you can perform a link like the one I've shown with three arrows.

Some observations to the modal method:

• It's modal and L4 isn't really like that.  (But I think it's clear enough for even aunt Gertrude).
• It works with touchpads.
• um... I wish I could think of something else to say - but don't worry someone will.

Further suggestions:

• The arrows should have a slight curve which "tries" to stay out of the way of other text.
• The arrows should have some translucence so they don't block text.
• I'm not concerned perhaps about varying line widths but the addition of a few colors would be great, red, yellow, green, puce (ok, well maybe not puce).  
• If this was tied to interlinear data than the same arrows would appear in every version with interlinear data (ESV, NA27, NASB etc.)  That would be useful.

I can "see" both of these examples in my head and like them both, I wish I could figure out how to do a video mockup, but alas I'm left hoping my description is clear enough.