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Josh Bond

Member Since 08 Jun 2011
Offline Last Active Nov 01 2026 02:33 PM
*****

#57935 Seems like the spamers have taken over the site

Posted by Josh Bond on 27 May 2026 - 07:26 AM

Alright folks, we've moved to a trust-based system that I started a decade ago but never fully implemented.

 

We have two basic membership categories that apply to this discussion. New members are automatically enrolled in "Members", which requires approval to post (posts/replies go into a queue for manual approval). Trusted members will go into "Veterans" or "Members(T)", and do not require any approval to post. I moved a lot of people to these groups years ago as they became regular contributors. 

 

I think I have it so that existing Members which have interacted with us before can post without approval. However, if you have trouble posting or replying, just message me or one of the moderators and we'll move you over to "Veterans" or "Members(T)" which will fix any edge cases where people may slip through.

 

Josh




#53422 Seems like the spamers have taken over the site

Posted by Josh Bond on 24 May 2026 - 03:20 PM

Thanks to TJ (and anyone else who helped) for cleaning up the spam. I've let this forum software get sooooo far out of date, that upgrading is going to be a huge project and with a lot of custom programming to replicate the features we have. 

 

I may have to go to a moderated post/reply system where users' posts/replies go into an approval queue. That could work if there's a way to exempt people after we know who they are (or recognize them). I'll look more into this and how I and moderators can leverage this.

 

My webhoster is getting upset that some of the links involved links to cryptocurrency brokerages. That's likely going to force some pretty big changes to how we handle posts. I've locked down the forums a little more, tried to do some basic anti-spam stuff, and I have banned certain cryptocurrency brokerage URLs and even their name from being mentioned, in case others make it through.

 

Josh




#38326 A Tribute to My Friend, Brent Hildebrand

Posted by Josh Bond on 09 June 2020 - 11:09 AM

Everyone,

 

Unfortunately, Brent passed away a few days ago. He was an anesthesiologist in California, a husband, a father of two sons, a hobbyist programmer who wrote a number of tools for e-Sword, and an avid student of the Bible. 

 

He was always reflecting on the Bible and refining what he believed. I always admired how he wasn't a "insert denomination name here" because of the way he was raised. He went his own way trying to arrive at the truth of biblical interpretation. That's so rare these days. I believe that's why he liked Bible study software like e-Sword--because it aided in his relentless study.

 

My original post (see first message in this thread) tries to summarize what he meant to our community!

 

Josh




#38282 Scammers

Posted by Josh Bond on 03 June 2020 - 08:48 AM

Thanks, Bill! 

 

I'm making some adjustments on the backend. This should be over now.

 

Thanks,

Josh




#35586 Permission to Post a Module from Copyright Owner

Posted by Josh Bond on 12 March 2019 - 03:15 PM

RIght, if the copyright owner wants the material distributed through e-Sword itself (the downloads within e-Sword), then they need to speak with Rick Meyers.

 

If the copyright owner wants to produce an e-Sword module for distribution through this website, then they don't need any permission. They/you can simply create the module with the content, since they own the rights to its distribution.

 

Josh




#35273 how to move my beefed up e-Sword from old PC to new PC?

Posted by Josh Bond on 05 February 2019 - 10:56 AM

Perhaps one day soon I will create a utility program that will copy all modules from one PC to the cloud and then from the cloud to the new PC. This is a common request.

 

For now, you must copy the files yourself. Do you feel comfortable copying files from one folder to another and using a USB drive?

 

The general steps to copy e-Sword modules is:

 

1. Go to your old PC and insert a USB drive.

2. Use File Explorer to navigate to C:\Program Files\e-sword or C:\Program Files (x86)\e-Sword

3. Copy all files from this location to the USB drive

4. Remove the USB drive from the old PC and insert the USB drive into the new PC.

5. Copy the files from the USB drive to e-Sword's location on the new PC, either C:\Program Files\e-sword or C:\Program Files (x86)\e-Sword

 

The e-Sword notes are in a different location under Documents\e-Sword and if needed, should be copied to the same location on the new PC.




#34849 "W32.Adware.Gen" in e-Sword EXE?

Posted by Josh Bond on 12 December 2018 - 12:34 PM

Katoog is correct. I've run into this several times before when releasing a new exe file (module installer, various utilities, etc.) Certain anti-virus/anti-malware are so aggressive, they flag an unknown (or unpopular) exe file. Since e-Sword is so widely used, this false positive will disappear as the anti-virus software sees more of this new version. (Interestingly, some of these anti-virus/anti-malware programs "phone home" quite a bit of information about you and your PC.) 

 

I don't care for programs that resort to this type of "detection" because they acknowledge they apparently cannot detect malware. Thus, they resort to simply comparing any program against their database of known programs, and then flagging any new program. This is less about malware detection and more about application whitelisting.

 

I once had a guy throw such a tantrum about the Module Installer being flagged as malware by one of the anti-malware programs, I went to the anti-malware's website and submitted a report for it being a false positive. They updated their software and the guy was happy. 

 

In web root's case, here's the link to submit a false positive report: https://mysupport.we...URCE=ENTERPRISE




#34818 Old Spanish Bible Character Wont Display :(

Posted by Josh Bond on 07 December 2018 - 10:48 AM

Since the remaining portion of this topic was splitting into a KJV debate, I split off the topic here to separate the resolution of the technical issue with translation opinions. All of the translation debate was moved here: http://www.biblesupp...582-kjv-debate/




#34778 e-Sword 11.2.2 & Windows 10 problem (blurry font; DPI issue)

Posted by Josh Bond on 29 November 2018 - 04:59 PM

Hello,

 

Your account was just created a day or two ago. So, you wouldn't have an unanswered question from years ago, at least not on this forum under your current username.

 

I removed a few of your comments in your original post. Let's try not to make all caps derogatory comments about a free software product and its author. Let's also remember that e-Sword for the PC is free to use and no one owes us anything, outside of perhaps troubleshooting paid modules. Let's try to keep things respectful, please.

 

Thanks,

Josh




#34553 A Tribute to My Friend, Brent Hildebrand

Posted by Josh Bond on 15 October 2018 - 10:08 PM

Just before starting this website in 2011, I met Brent Hildebrand who also became a great friend. Brent was creating ToolTip (sometimes called T3 for ToolTip 3 and then T4  for ToolTip 4 and later just ToolTip NT). ToolTip is the software tool used to author most e-Sword modules on this website, along with a few commercial ones as well. ToolTip has been used for a lot of non-intuitive things over the years, such as creating modules destined for other Bible software formats and using e-Sword only as an intermediary format. The bottom line: Brent's impact has been huge!

 

When I met Brent and asked if I could promote his software on this website, I asked for a few changes to the program. I was surprised that later that day that he made the changes so quickly. I've had real (paid) employees over the years (in real businesses) who weren't as responsive as Brent's volunteer work for this volunteer website. Brent would go on to manage this 82 page thread on ToolTip, answering questions and adding features.

 

That's really just the tip of the iceberg because over a hundred other support threads popped up over the years, and I know a number of people contacted him directly as well. I have over 1,100 emails from Brent in the 7 years I've known him!  When e-Sword started using the TextControl add-on, Brent licensed a copy for ToolTip using his own money (and TextControl is not inexpensive!). Brent has invested thousands of hours in ToolTip and other non-authoring utility programs, like e-Sword Hot Key and Bible Search Tool. 

 

What makes this most impressive to me is Brent is not a programmer by trade! Most (in real life) know him as Dr. Brent Hildebrand, an anesthesiologist in California.  

 

With Brent's permission, I wanted to let everyone know that Brent was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months ago. After various treatments appeared to have initially worked, the cancer is now spreading extremely fast and has impacted his mobility. I wanted to announce this publicly for a couple of reasons: 

 

1) I am exceptionally grateful for Brent's work on ToolTip which made this website's ministry possible. With him responsible for the authoring tool, I could focus on putting together module content and assembling this site. His ministry made mine possible.

 

2) Absent divine healing in the next few months, there will come a day when Brent will no longer be able to respond here for support and feature requests. I wanted to let everyone know what is happening, since he interacts here so often. 

 

I would like everyone to remember Brent, and his family, in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate the road ahead.

 

Thank you for reading, and thank you to Brent for your great service for so many years!

 

Josh 




#34120 Esword module convert to Wordsearch 12

Posted by Josh Bond on 18 July 2018 - 10:41 AM

David,

 

No, unfortunately most commercial Bible software do not allow you to convert material into their format. They need to sell you things and easy conversion into their format undermines that goal.

 

Josh




#34072 Bible in the Karen Language

Posted by Josh Bond on 07 July 2018 - 04:43 PM

As TJ noted, you need to download ToolTip NT, the module creation tool.

 

It's much easier to create modules without using a specific font. Instead, the modern trend is toward unicode. This way, no special fonts are needed. It gets more complicated when trying to create Bible modules with specific fonts, both with module creation tool (ToolTip NT) and with the distribution (and installation) of the fonts with the module.

 

Josh

 

I work with the Karen people of Burma and would like to pursue getting a bible module of the Karen language available in e-Sword. I am reasonably capable technically, but would like to get some instructions of where to begin by those who have done this kind of thing before. Is there anyone who could give me some pointers as to where to begin this project?

 

Obviously, I need to locate the Karen fonts and a Karen electronic bible. However, assuming I have these, what steps are necessary to create an e-Sword module using this data?

 

Thank you,

—Otto Gershon




#30943 I'd like to delete a file from Biblesupport..... how?

Posted by Josh Bond on 26 June 2017 - 09:38 AM

Hi,

 

In the future, just edit the existing upload when make a change. At the bottom of each file listing (that you upload), you'll see this:   Edit this upload   Is this file subject to a copyright?

 

In the meantime, I removed the original version you uploaded, leaving only the second version.

 

Thanks,

Josh




#29914 Reference Question

Posted by Josh Bond on 26 January 2017 - 03:01 PM

It's an older reference for "etc.": http://english.stack...diction-yours-c

 

(I once had the same question)




#29811 donnations

Posted by Josh Bond on 12 January 2017 - 10:30 PM

David,

 

The e-Sword.net website promises to send a flash drive for a donation.  I looked and this site has not received a donation from you. I think you're confusing this website with e-Sword.net.

 

Best,
Josh