Most Bible translations have a variety of footnotes throughout the text, giving you instant access to cross references, alternate translations, text-critical notes, and more. These notes are helpful when studying the Bible on your computer, but you may not need them when you copy the text into a sermon or paper.

A fairly common question we hear from new users is how to copy text from a Bible without including the internal footnotes. Let’s take Romans 12:1–2 in the ESV, for example.

You’ll notice 10 notes in these two verses. The superscript letters are for cross references, and the superscript numbers are for alternate translations, comments on manuscripts, etc. Sometimes you may want to include these when copying and pasting, but often you want just the bare Bible text.

There are three ways to accomplish this.

Method 1: Switch to “Bible Text Only” Viewing Mode.

With your Bible open and active, go to the View menu and select “Bible Text Only.” This will strip out all footnotes and allow you to copy only the text with chapter and verse numbers. The downside to this method is that you lose the paragraphing; each verse is formatted as its own paragraph.

Method 2: Uncheck “Include Footnotes When Copying.”

Another option is to go to Tools > Options > General > Interface and uncheck the box “Include Footnotes When Copying.” This will tell Libronix to skip any internal footnotes when copying text from your resources. Formatting and paragraphing will be preserved, but the potential downside to this method is that it applies to all resources and not just Bibles. So if you like having footnotes appear when you copy text from a commentary, for example, then you’ll want to try the next method.

Method 3: Use the “Copy Bible Verses” Tool.

This final method is far and away the best. If you’ve paid careful attention to the icons in your system tray (which is usually in the lower right corner of your screen next to the time), you’ve probably noticed that Libronix adds three icons when it’s open. The black one that looks like a Bible is the Copy Bible Verses tool.

There are two ways to use this powerful tool. You can double-click on the icon in your system tray, type in a passage, and click “Copy” (or “Copy and Paste” to send it directly to your open Word document, for example). Or you can highlight the text you want to copy and select “Copy Romans 12:1-2 to Clipboard” (instead of selecting “Copy” or using Ctrl+c).

One of the cool features of the Copy Bible Verses tool is that you can create as many different styles as you want—one for your sermons, another for your blog posts, another for papers, etc. For additional help creating styles, see the training article “Copy Text without Footnotes and Citations.”

If you copy Bible text frequently, you’ll quickly come to love this very handy little tool. It’s not hard to see why this is some users’ favorite feature.