Recently in RefTagger Category

We’re constantly expanding our offerings at Bible.Logos.com. If you’ve been watching closely, you might have noticed the addition of the GOD'S WORD translation to Bible.Logos.com—which also means you can link to GOD'S WORD using Ref.ly and RefTagger.

What is the GOD'S WORD translation? This new translation renders the best available texts into readable English with the closest possible accuracy. This commitment to accurately translating the Bible includes expressing the meaning naturally and in a style that preserves the characteristics of the source text. The result? An eminently readable Bible translation for all ages.

David Dockery recently called the GOD'S WORD translation "a remarkably fresh, accurate, and readable translation that communicates well the original text for modern readers." It has also been endorsed by Billy Graham, Josh McDowell, D. James Kennedy, and lots of other pastors and scholars.

Start reading now on Bible.Logos.com!

To link to GOD'S WORD using RefTagger, add the version abbreviation after the reference in one of the following three formats, and RefTagger will properly identify and tag your references with the appropriate version.

• Heb 12:1-2 GW
• Deut 5:5, GW
• Rev 21:1 (GW)

You can also share the GOD'S WORD translation on Twitter using Ref.ly. With Ref.ly, you can specify a particular version by simply adding ; followed by GW, the version abbreviation. For example, to share John 3:16 on Twitter using the GOD'S WORD translation, simply type http://ref.ly/Jn3.16;GW or http://ref.ly/John3.16;GW.

Learn more about the translation on the GOD'S WORD page, or start reading it right now on Bible.Logos.com.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

When people ask me what I do for work, I half-jokingly tell them that I Twitter for a living. At any given time I can have up to 4 different Twitter clients up on my screen. I monitor a lot of different conversations and do my best to keep tabs on the vast number of discussion taking place. This can be a little crazy since @Logos has almost 5,000 followers and we follow all of them (spammers and SEO experts excluded, of course).

While there is a lot of information being thrown at me, there was one tweet that caught my eye the other day. @pastorjamie tweeted this:

I immediately stopped and thought, "Wow, what a great use of Twitter." Here we have a pastor using Twitter to not simply share that he's having a cup of coffee, or that he's washing the dog. Rather, he is using Twitter to lead his church, or at least those following him on Twitter, to engage in the study of God's Word. I was also pretty happy that he used our tool, Ref.ly, to do it.

The advancement of technology, especially in the social sphere, is nothing short of amazing. The challenge is how we can harness this technology for the kingdom and glory of God. At Logos, we are trying to do our part with projects such as Ref.ly (for Twitter and Facebook), RefTagger (for blogs and websites), and Bible.Logos.com. We hope that these tools serve you well and help you engage in a meaningful way.

So, how about you? Are you using Ref.ly or RefTagger? Drop a comment below with a link. Also, what are your thoughts on social media? What ideas do you have for engaging people in a meaningful way?

You should follow us on Twitter here.

A little over a year ago we launched RefTagger. Since launching, RefTagger has been installed on thousands of sites and helped bloggers and site owners engage readers with the text of the Bible.

The other day we began talking about how cool it would be to have something like RefTagger, only for Twitter. A couple emails, a designer, and one developer later, we launched ref.ly.

Ref.ly is a URL shortening service with a twist. Simply go to ref.ly, type in a Bible verse, and a custom link is automatically generated that you can use to link your friends and followers to the Bible. The added beauty of ref.ly is that the URL structure is really easy to remember, so you can simply create the link on your own. In fact, ref.ly recognizes almost every conceivable Bible referencing scheme, so you can share Matthew 16:18 as http://ref.ly/Mt16.18, http://ref.ly/Mat16.18, http://ref.ly/Matt16.18, or http://ref.ly/Matthew16.18.

Along with an easy to remember structure, you also have the ability to share a single verse (http://ref.ly/Ro8.28), a range of verses, (http://ref.ly/Jn1.1-18), a chapter (http://ref.ly/Ps23), or an entire book (http://ref.ly/3Jn). You can even specify a particular version by simply adding @ followed by the version abbreviation (http://ref.ly/1P2.2@ESV).

With ref.ly you can now help your Twitter followers and Facebook friends engage more deeply with scriptures you reference in your updates.

ref.ly – To the point.

RefTagger is the perfect tool for making the Bible references on your blog or website more useful for your readers. Thousands of people have installed it, and we’ve delivered more than 100,000,000 Bible verses so far. If you don’t have it on your site yet, why don’t you give it a try?

We’ve received lots of good feedback regarding features you’d like to see implemented. Many of the improvements that we’ve made since we launched RefTagger a little over a year ago are the result of suggestions you’ve sent. So, thank you!

One of the things that has been requested on several occasions is the ability to use RefTagger in desktop applications like Microsoft Word or in emails. Based on the technology that RefTagger uses, it is not currently possible to use it anywhere other than on the web. So, unfortunately, I’m not announcing a desktop version of RefTagger (perhaps eventually—we’ll have to see).

However, there is a way to get some of the benefits of RefTagger on your desktop. You can use the power of RefTagger to add hyperlinks to Bible references in your sermons, papers, articles, books, emails, etc. You won’t get the tooltips, but at least you (and the people you share your content with) will have one-click access to the passages at Bible.Logos.com.

Here’s all you need to do:

1. Copy the content of your Word document or email into a page or post on a website of yours that has RefTagger installed.
2. View the page on your site.
3. Copy and paste the content that RefTagger tagged back into your original document.

Voila! You now have the Bible verses in your document or email hyperlinked to Bible.Logos.com. If you have lots of Bible verses that you want to have hyperlinked, this will definitely be a big timesaver.

If you’re on the techie side, you might want to check out Sean Boisen’s post “A RefTagger Hack,” where he explains how to create a simple form that makes this even easier.

bbPress is free forum software from the makers of WordPress. Though it's not as popular as some of the other options, it's looks to be a nice, simple alternative to more complicated platforms. It also has the advantage of integrating nicely with WordPress.

The latest version of bbPress, 0.9.0.2, does not allow you to edit your theme from the admin panel, and no one has developed a RefTagger plugin yet either. So to add RefTagger, you'll need to do it the old fashion way—via FTP access to your site's files.

Here's how to get it set up:

1. Navigate to your bbPress folder.
2. Open the bb-templates folder, and then open your theme's folder. The default theme is kakumei.
3. Locate footer.php and save a local copy (and a backup copy too).
4. Open the file in Dreamweaver, WordPad or your favorite code editor.
5. Scroll to the bottom and paste the customizable RefTagger code right before the </body> tag.
6. Save the file and upload it back to your server.

You're all set. RefTagger is now transforming your bbPress site.

If you're using RefTagger on your bbPress site, send us an email and let us know!

WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful blogging platforms. It comes in two flavors: the hosted version (i.e., WordPress.com) and the self-hosted version (i.e., WordPress.org). This tutorial addresses how to add RefTagger to a WordPress.org blog since it is currently not possible to add it to a WordPress.com blog. WordPress.com bloggers, jump to the bottom to find out how you can help to change that.

There are two ways to set up RefTagger on your WordPress.org blog: (1) use the plugin or (2) set it up manually. The plugin is the best option since it keeps the code separate from your theme, which allows you to change themes without having to reinstall the code. It also enables you to keep up to date easily with future changes and feature additions to RefTagger with WordPress's simply one-click plugin updates. But some of you may prefer the control of the manual route or may just not know how to find your WordPress files via FTP.

So take your pick with either of the below methods.

Method 1: Using the Plugin

To use the plugin, you need FTP access to your site's files—at least for now. With WordPress 2.7, you will be able to browse and install plugins right from the admin panel!

If you're like me and happen to be using WordPress 2.7 Beta 2, adding a new plugin like RefTagger is amazingly easy.

1. Simply navigate to Plugins > Add New (i.e., http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/plugin-install.php) and search for RefTagger. RefTagger should show up as the top search result.
2. Click "Install" on the far right, and then click "Install Now" in the window that opens. It takes just a second or two to install, and then you're taken to a screen where you can activate it.
3. Click "Activate Plugin," and then navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you'd like.

If you're playing it safe and running WordPress 2.6.3 or earlier, here's what you need to do to set it up.

1. Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/reftagger/, and click "Download." Save the zip folder, and then extract the contents.
2. Fire up your favorite FTP program. (FileZilla is a nice free option.) Then navigate to the place where you installed WordPress. It's probably in a folder called "public_html" or "www." Locate the "wp-content" folder, and then open it. You'll see a "plugins" folder inside. Open it, and then copy the RefTagger.php file that you extracted from the zip folder into that folder.
3. Log in to your WordPress admin panel, and then go to your Plugins page. Find RefTagger in the list of inactivate plugins, and then click "Activate."
4. Navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you'd like.

Method 2: Adding the Code Manually

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel, navigate to the "Design" page, and click on "Theme Editor."
2. Find your theme's "Footer" template, and click on it to open it.
3. Scroll to the bottom, paste the customizable RefTagger code immediately before the </body> tag, and click "Update File."
4. Navigate to the RefTagger page under the Settings menu to customize it, if you'd like.

WordPress.com users, are you feeling a little left out? We want to help, but there's only so much we can do. The good folks at WordPress.com are willing to consider adding built-in support for RefTagger, but they need to see that there is enough interest. One of the things that they look at is the number of times that our plugin has been downloaded and installed. If you have friends using WordPress.org, encourage them to download and use the plugin.

Finally, a word to those of you who create WordPress themes or help churches and ministries get websites set up with WordPress: please consider adding RefTagger as a standard part of your theme or site set-up process. It's a great way to improve the service you provide to people—at no cost to you and with very little effort.

If you manage your own website or blog and use RefTagger, you get to choose the default Bible version that is used for the tooltips and the links to Bible.Logos.com. But your readers probably don't all have the same favorite version as you do. Wouldn't it be cool if they could all see the Bible passages in their preferred version?

Now they can with the RefTagger control panel. Every one of your visitors gets to chose their favorite Bible version and decide whether or not they want to see the links to Libronix. All you have to do is add one of the small control panels anywhere on your site—like in your sidebar—and your readers will be able to set their own preferences. The control panel uses a cookie to remember these preferences every time they return to any page on your site.

Try It Out

The control panel is now in the sidebar here on the blog, so test it out to see how it works. Watch what it does to these Bible verses: 1 Thes 2:13; Exodus 5:5ff; Rev. 1:1-3.

Add It to Your Site

Set up is a simple, two-step process. Just click on one of the sample control panels to get the necessary code and instructions on how to add it to your site. We provide you with eight different options to choose from, but we invite you to style the control panel any way you'd like to match the look of your site.

If you have RefTagger on your site, consider adding the control panel to make RefTagger even more useful for your readers.

Spread the Word

If you frequent a site that uses RefTagger, drop the site admins a note and encourage them to add the control panel. We don't have contact information for all of the 4,000 sites using RefTagger, so we need your help to let them know about this cool new tool.

Joomla! is one of the the most popular Content Management System software. It’s a great choice for church and ministry websites, and I’ve seen many build some sharp sites with it.

Setting up RefTagger on a Joomla! site is quite easy.

There are the simple steps to getting it up and running in no time:

1. Log in to your admin panel (http://yoursite.com/administrator/).
2. Hover over the “Extensions” tab and click “Template Manager.”
3. Click on the name of the template that you are using. The default with Joomla! 1.5.2 is “rhuk_milkyway.”
4. Click the “Edit HTML” button at the top right.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the code and paste in the customizable RefTagger code from the RefTagger page right before the </body> tag.

That’s it! RefTagger is now working on your entire Joomla! site!

vBulletin is perhaps the most popular forum software on the market. If you've been to a forum site, chances are you've been to a vBulletin site.

Do you administer or moderate a vBulletin site that has biblical content? Why not add RefTagger? Your site will instantly become much more useful for your readers, and the immediate access to the Bible will no doubt have positive effects on your site.

Here are several possible benefits to consider.

RefTagger . . .

• promotes citing the Bible more carefully.
• encourages citing the Bible more frequently.
• makes reading the Bible easier.
• keeps people at your site longer.

TheologyOnline is a nice example of how RefTagger can really enhance a forum site.

By following these brief steps, you can have RefTagger up and running on your site in just a couple of minutes.

1. Log in and navigate to your admin control panel (e.g., http://www.yoursite.com/forums/admin/).
2. Click on "Styles & Templates" in the left column to expand it, and then click on "Style Manager."
3. Locate your style in the list (i.e., the one with the checkbox checked), and choose "Edit Templates" from the dropdown box.
4. Locate the "footer" template in the list on the left, click on it, and then click "Edit" under "Controls."
5. Scroll to the very bottom, paste in the customizable RefTagger code, and click "Save."

That's it. Your Bible references are now interactive and far more usable for your readers.

If you frequent a forum site that still has plain old bare Bible references, perhaps it's about time to contact a moderator or the site administrator and let them know about RefTagger.

Get more help setting RefTagger up on your site at the tutorial section of the RefTagger page.

Over the last few weeks our web team has been working hard on even more cool enhancements to RefTagger, so we have several updates to share with you.

1. RefTagger Now Links to Bible.Logos.com

As of Monday, RefTagger is now directing all links to our new online Bible site, Bible.Logos.com. This allows us to bring you a more tightly integrated experience and to continue to improve RefTagger by adding more functionality. We also think Bible.Logos.com is a pretty cool place to read and search the Bible online. :)

2. Several New Bible Versions

Not too long ago we added support for the NIV, TNIV, and NIrV. On Monday—after numerous requests—we were finally able to add the NASB as well. If one of these is your default version, you'll now see the appropriate text in the tooltip windows. If we still don't have your favorite version, please let us know.

3. User Control Panel

As a webmaster you get to decide which Bible version RefTagger will display on your site. But what if your readers prefer a different version? To solve this problem, we've created the RefTagger control panel. Adding the small control panel somewhere on your site allows your readers to set their preferences, like which version they want to see and whether or not to display the icons linking to Libronix.

You should be able to get the control panel from the RefTagger page very soon—perhaps later today or Monday. I'll update this post as soon as it is available.

4. Multiple Version Citation Support

Until now RefTagger allowed you to specify a single version to use for all Bible references on your site, but what if you want to cite a version different from your default for comparative purposes? You're readers could click the link to Bible.Logos.com and then switch versions to compare, but we can do better than that—and we have. Now RefTagger will recognize when you cite a version other than your default and display the appropriate version when you use one of the following three formats:

• John 3:16 NLT
• John 3:16, NLT
• John 3:16 (NLT)

5. Easier Plugin Upgrades for WordPress Users

Our RefTagger WordPress plugin is now proudly hosted at the official WordPress Plugin Directory. This is good news for users of WordPress.org (i.e., the self-hosted version). No more having to manually check for updates. WordPress's built-in plugin update notification system will inform you when new versions are available, and one-click automatic updating allows you to get the latest version with ease.

This is also potentially great news for users of WordPress.com (i.e., the version they host), who, unfortunately, can't use RefTagger right now. We've been in talks with the folks at WordPress.com about getting built-in RefTagger support for WordPress.com. If our WordPress.org plugin is popular enough, they said they will likely make it available on WordPress.com as well!

So if you're a user of the self-hosted version of WordPress, please download and install the plugin and give it a good rating. WordPress.com users need your help!

Spreading Across the Web

We're thrilled to see the response to RefTagger. Dozens of new sites are adding it every day. It's now on more than 2,600 sites! RefTagger keeps getting better and better because of the helpful feedback you send. If you find a bug or have a cool idea for a new feature, please let us know.

Movable Type is probably the most common platform for corporate blogging and happens to be the software that we use to power our blogs. It's also used by many for personal blogging.

Adding RefTagger to a Movable Type blog is can be accomplished in just a few minutes. Here are the steps you need to take to get RefTagger up and running on MT 4.21, which is presently the latest version.

1. Navigate to your admin panel (http://yoursite.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi or something similar).
2. If you have more than one blog, select the blog you want to add RefTagger to first from the main dropdown menu at the top left.
3. Hover over the "Design" tab, and click on "Templates."
4. Scroll down to Template Modules, and click on "Footer." (If you don't see anything under Template Modules, then you're probably using an outdated template. Considering updating to a new one, or see the additional instructions below.)
5. Scroll to the bottom, and then paste the customizable RefTagger code right before the </body> tag.
6. Click "Save."
7. If you have more than one blog, repeat steps 2-6.
8. Publish your changes.

You're good to go. RefTagger is now working on your entire site—no matter how many years you've been blogging.

If you're using MT 3.x or a pre-MT 4 template that lacks built-in support for template modules, you'll need to add the RefTagger code to the following templates. Repeat steps 4-6 above for each of the following templates:

1. Main Index (under the Index Templates)
2. Category Archive (under the Archive Templates)
3. Date-Based Archive (under the Archive Templates)
4. Individual Entry Archive (under the Archive Templates)

If you need help, don't hesitate to send an email to reftagger@logos.com and let us know.

Most of us still use desktop applications when we want to do serious work, but web applications are improving rapidly and fast becoming viable alternatives, at least when it comes to basic functionality. Desktop applications simply can't compete with the convenience of being able to access your data from any computer connected to the web.

That's why Logos continues to develop web-based tools and applications.

WBSA

A little over a year ago we re-released a site that's come to be referred to as WBSA (short for "What the Bible Says About"), an interactive online version of the New Nave's Topical Bible. WBSA allows you to enter a Bible topic and quickly get access to relevant Bible passages.

RefTagger

Then about six months ago we launched RefTagger, a powerful free tool that makes your Bible references come alive and gives websites the feel of your Bible software.

Bible.Logos.com

Now we're releasing a beta version of our online Bible site.

Why another Bible site? What makes Bible.Logos.com different? Here are a few reasons we think Bible.Logos.com will soon become your first choice for searching the Bible on the web.

• Efficient UI: Its unique user interface allows you to do more—more quickly and more conveniently—without having to continually load new pages and without losing your place. (1) Search results and Bible text are side by side. (2) Both use infinite scrolling. (3) Switching to a different version is seamless; your location and search results are instantly mapped over.
• Incredible Speed: It's blazingly fast. Searches are instantaneous, and pages load in a flash.
• Smart Searching: It uses cutting-edge fuzzy searching technology so you can search the Bible more like you search the web. Search results are prioritized so you get the best hits first.
• Seamless Integration: WBSA, RefTagger, and Bible.Logos.com will all be tightly integrated into a growing family of websites allowing you to have a more connected Bible study experience—both on and off the web.

Help Us Test It

As soon as Bible.Logos.com is ready to handle all the traffic that RefTagger is generating, we're going to flip the switch and connect the two.

This is where we need your help. We've been beta testing the site with a small group for the last two weeks, and we're ready to open it up to a broader audience to help us work out any remaining bugs. We want to make sure that it's really ready.

Here's what you can do. Spend 5 or 10 minutes looking up passages, running searches, and navigating through the various translations that are available. Give it everything you've got.

Type in things like:

• all sorts of Bible references using a variety of formats and abbreviations (e.g., Jude; Job 22; Mal. 3:11; Jn 5:5-10; Mt 6.1-3; Rv 4:8-9)
• words and phrases from the Bible (e.g., good, love, lion, in Christ)
• words and phrases that you think might be from the Bible (e.g., honor your parents, I love Jesus)
• words and phrases that sound like they could be from the Bible, but aren't (e.g., God helps those who help themselves, cleanliness is next to godliness, do your best and let God do the rest)
• anything you want to (e.g., I'm very tired, drink milk)

Go give it a try.

Please send your bugs and feedback to bible@logos.com or drop us a note in the comments.

Over the weekend I got an email from a forum moderator in Australia who convinced the admins to add RefTagger to their site. He requested that we provide some instructions specific to phpBB, which is popular free forum software.

So for all you phpBB forum users out there, here's how to add RefTagger. (You need to be an admin to do this, so if you're not, just pass these instructions on to the guys who control the site.)

1. Log in and navigate to your admin panel (http://yoursite.com/adm/).
2. Click on the "Styles" tab at the top, and then click on "Templates" in the left sidebar.
3. Find your template, and click "Edit."
4. Click the drop-down and select "overall_footer.html" under the "overall" section.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the code and paste the customizable RefTagger code from the RefTagger page right before the </body> tag.
6. Click "Submit."

You're done. With just a few minutes of work, RefTagger is now doing its thing on your entire site! It doesn't matter if your site is new or 10 years old or whether you have hundreds or millions of Bible references. You'll see the results instantly on any page you navigate to on your site.

If you frequent a forum that has lots of Bible references, why not contact the admins and ask them to add RefTagger? We're happy to provide instructions for other platforms as well. Just let us know: reftagger@logos.com.

We launched RefTagger at the end of February, and in the six months since it has spread to more than 1,000 websites. Read the press release that went out yesterday: "1,000+ Christian Webmasters Install RefTagger."

You'll now find RefTagger powering the sites of major ministries like Grace to You and Desiring God Ministries and a host of church websites like Compass Bible Church and Park Street Church. You'll also find it on wiki sites like Theopedia and on the blogs of prominent bloggers like Doug Wilson and Ray Comfort.

No matter what kind of site you run or how much traffic you get, if your site has Bible references and you want a simple, free, time-saving solution for providing instant access to the text of Scripture, RefTagger is for you.

For most sites it can be set up in less than 5 minutes. All properly formatted Bible references—past and future—are instantly transformed. You don't have to do a thing after the initial setup. We even provide step-by-step tutorials for a number of common platforms.

Isn't time to add it to your site?

MediaWiki is the open source wiki software behind Wikipedia and the lesser known Theopedia, which is now powered by RefTagger. (See an example at http://www.theopedia.com/God.)

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded and installed MediaWiki so I could test it out with RefTagger. It worked very nicely.

Here's one method for setting it up via FTP access to your site's files:

1. Use an FTP program like FileZilla to navigate to the folder where you installed MediaWiki.
2. Open the "skins" folder.
3. Locate the file for the skin you are using. The file for the default skin is MonoBook.php. Save a local copy, and a backup copy too.
4. Open the file in Dreamweaver, WordPad, or your favorite code editor.
5. Find the </body> tag and paste the customizable RefTagger code from the RefTagger page right above it.
6. Save the file and upload it back to your server.

You're done. RefTagger is now transforming your MediaWiki site.

For help with other sites, see the tutorials section on the RefTagger page.

Drupal is popular open source Content Management System (CMS) software. Many churches and ministries use it.

A few days ago I got a request from an individual who wants to add RefTagger to his Drupal site but isn’t sure how to get it set up, so I thought I’d provide a quick tutorial.

Unfortunately, Drupal doesn’t allow you to edit the code of your themes from the admin panel, at least not that I can see. But if you have access to your site’s files via FTP, you can add RefTagger very easily.

Here are the simple steps you need to follow:

1. Use an FTP program to navigate to the folder where you installed Drupal.
2. Open the “themes” subfolder, and then open the folder for the specific theme you are using. (The default theme is Minneli, which is a subtheme of Garland, so you’ll find the file in the “garland” folder.)
3. Locate the page.tpl.php file, and save a local copy (and a backup copy too).
4. Open the file in Dreamweaver, WordPad, or your favorite code editor.
5. Scroll to the bottom and paste the customizable RefTagger code before the </body> tag.
6. Save the file and upload it back to your server.

That’s it. RefTagger is now transforming the content of your Drupal site!

If you’re using RefTagger on your Drupal site, please let us know. We’d love to see how you are putting it to use.

For help with other sites, see the tutorials section on the RefTagger page.

When we first launched it back in February, RefTagger simply turned Bible references into hyperlinks to BibleGateway. Then in May we added the ability to have the text pop up when you hover over references, making the web a little more like your favorite Bible software.

Now RefTagger’s got style!

We used to control the look of the tooltip windows. We intentionally made them plain and neutral colored so they would load quickly and work well with the broadest number of websites possible.

Here’s the default look for John 3:16:

We realize, though, that the default style may not be the best fit for every site.

Recently a major ministry that was planning to add RefTagger to their site contacted us and asked if they could override the default styling of the tooltip windows to make them match their site. We thought it was a great idea, so we decided to add it as a new feature.

Now you can have full control over the styling of the tooltips and change the font, font size, font color, background color, padding, line spacing, etc.

Here are some examples of how you can style your tooltips:

You can see customized tooltips in action at the resources section of the Grace to You website and at Desiring God's Resource Library.

To override the default styling, just follow these three simple steps.

We hope this makes RefTagger an even more useful tool for your website. Thanks for providing great feedback. Please send any problems or further feature requests to reftagger@logos.com.

Over the last couple of months, several people have asked me if it is possible to add RefTagger to a forum site. I’ve set it up on a couple of different test installs, and it works very nicely. Forums are perfect places for RefTagger. If you run a forum site that deals with the Bible—or have plans to start one—I’d encourage you to give RefTagger a try. If you frequent a Christian forum site that has plain old naked Scripture references, why not send the administrators an emails and ask them to look into adding RefTagger?

There are a variety of different forum programs. vBulletin is probably the most popular, but since it's not free, many use Simple Machines Forum (SMF) or phpBB.

Here’s a quick tutorial for adding RefTagger to your SMF site.

You simply need to add the RefTagger code immediately before the closing </body> tag in the index.template.php file in all of your active themes. (There are three installed by default.) You'll find the </body> tag in the fourth section of code.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to your Admin Center (http://yoursitename.com/index.php?action=admin).
2. In the left sidebar, click on “Themes and Layout” under “Configuration.”
3. Click “Modify Themes.”
4. Select a theme, and click “Browse the templates and files in this theme.”
5. Click on “index.template.php.”
6. Navigate to the bottom of the fourth section of code and find the </body> tag (or just use Ctrl + F to find it).
7. Paste in the RefTagger code immediately above the </body> tag.
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click “Save Changes.”
9. Repeat steps 3-8 to add the code to your other theme.

I don’t see how to edit the default theme “SMF Default Theme - Core.” There’s probably a way to do it in the Admin Center, but I don’t see how. There are a couple of workarounds. You can switch your default theme to something else and uncheck the box “Allow members to select the 'Default' them.” If you like the default theme, you can always Create a copy of it and set the copy as your default.

If you have FTP access to your site’s files, it is fairly easily to add the RefTagger code manually. Just navigate to the Themes/default folder, locate the index.template.php file, and save a local copy (and a backup copy, too, just to be safe). Open the file with Dreamweaver or WordPad (or whatever program you like to use to edit code), locate the </body> tag, and paste in the RefTagger code. Save the file. Upload it to your server, overwriting the original file. You’re all set. RefTagger should now be up and running on your SMF site.

A few days ago someone asked if we would make it possible to use RefTagger on a Blogger blog. I was happy to let him know that RefTagger works very well with Blogger, and I explained to him two ways to get it up and running on his blog in just a couple of minutes.

It occurred to me that not everyone who has a blog is used to messing with code and editing template files, so I thought I’d do a brief tutorial here on the blog.

If you use Google’s Blogger and would like to add RefTagger to your site, here are two methods for setting it up.

Method 1: Adding a Page Element

Perhaps the simplest way for beginners to get RefTagger up and running is to add a page element. From your Blogger dashboard, click “Layout.” You’ll be taken by default to the “Page Elements” tab. Click “Add a Page Element” at the bottom of the page (not the one in the sidebar), and choose “HTML/JavaScript.” Leave the title blank, and paste in the customizable code that you get from the RefTagger page. Then click “Save.” Blogger should add the new page element to the bottom of your layout page automatically. If it appears in your sidebar, simply drag it to the very bottom of the footer. If you make any changes, make sure to save it before leaving the page.

When you’re done, your page should look something like this:

Method 2: Modifying Your Template File

The alternate method is to manually add the code before the closing body tag in your template file. From your Blogger dashboard, click “Layout.” Then click “Edit HTML.” Scroll all the way to the bottom of the code and paste in the customizable code that you get from the RefTagger page right before the closing body tag (i.e., right before </body>). Then click “Save Template.”

That’s it. RefTagger should now be up and running on your Blogger blog.

If you have any trouble or would like to see a tutorial for another blogging platform, leave a comment on this post or send an email to reftagger@logos.com.

At the end of February, we introduced RefTagger, a free tool for your website or blog that instantly turns your Bible references into links to the version of your choice at BibleGateway.com and, if you choose, Libronix.

Scores of sites are using RefTagger. If you haven't seen it yet, you can check it out right here on the blog or at any of these sites:

• Grace to You
• Blog and Mablog
• Evangelical Outpost
• Park Street Church
• Bible Places Blog
• Compass Bible Church

The links that RefTagger creates are very helpful and make it easy for your readers to look up the passages that you cite, but it still takes time to open new web pages. Even careful readers will probably look up only a reference or two.

Problem solved. RefTagger now makes looking up Bible references even easier. Instead of clicking a link to navigate to another web page, now you can immediately see the text of the passage. Simply hovering over any link created by RefTagger will instantly give you a pop-up window containing the text of the passage.

For now we have the New Living Translation and the King James Version available. The NLT is used by default. To use the KJV, you need to choose it as your online Bible version. We hope to add more versions in the near future, so stay tuned.

These new pop-ups are on by default. So if you already had RefTagger on your site, there's nothing you need to do to see them. If you'd like to disable them, you'll need to add the line Logos.ReferenceTagging.lbsUseTooltip = false; to the code. When you customize the code at the RefTagger page, all you have to do is uncheck the box and the code will be created for you automatically.

If you've been holding off on adding RefTagger to your site, why not give it a try? It's incredibly easy to add and remove. Help us continue to make RefTagger better by sending your feedback and suggestions to reftaggerlogos.com.

One of the benefits of reading books in Libronix is the ease with which you can "look up" Scripture references. Oftentimes in print books they get ignored. It's simply too much work to flip manually to every passage. But what about Scripture references on the web? There are tens of thousands of Christian blogs and websites with millions—or perhaps even billions—of Scripture references. But we usually face the same problem with Scripture references on the web as we do with print books. They're just too time consuming to look up. What if you could provide your readers with some of the same conveniences of Libronix on your website? With RefTagger now you can—and without all the time and hard work it takes to create the links manually!

If you have a website or blog, you will definitely want to check it out. It's a very customizable, free tool that turns all of your Scripture references into hyperlinks to an online Bible. You can even have RefTagger add an icon that is hyperlinked to the passage in Libronix. This gives your readers the opportunity to easily look up the Bible passages that you discuss.

To add RefTagger to your site, all you need to do is paste a few lines of JavaScript code to your template file(s). RefTagger will instantly be applied to all of your site's content, adding new life to your old blog posts and web pages. When you write a new blog post or upload your latest sermon, it will also instantly have all the added functionality.

If you are a blogger and use WordPress with your own domain name (i.e., not WordPress.com), you can download and install our WordPress plugin and add RefTagger without even having to edit any of your files!

All the details are at the RefTagger page. Head on over to get the code or the plugin and start using it on your site. Once you have it set up, please be sure to let us know by sending an email to reftagger@logos.com. We will put some of the coolest examples on display at the RefTagger page.

If you want to see RefTagger in action, it's running right here on the Logos blog. Check out these sample posts:

• Who Cares About Participles? I Do!
• Why Use the Septuagint?
• Thanksgiving in the Bible Word Study Report