Tuesday tip: The Browser part 2

Last week, we talked about how the Browser can be used with services to choose different options and build your worship step-by-step. This week, we thought we’d show you a little more about the Browser and how you can both use it on its own and some useful tips for searching.

One of the useful things you can do with the Browser is use it as a quick look-up tool for a particular text. If all you need is to grab the Collect for the day or print out a reading, you don’t need to open a service or burrow down through the lectionary. Just use the Browser.

To get to the Browser, click on the Binoculars icon in the tool bar as usual.

Using the Browser, you can search for the item for which you are looking. For example, you could search for the Collect for Pentecost by typing in “Collect Pentecost” and clicking GO.

When the results appear in the results window, click on the Pentecost Collect to highlight it and preview it in the third box at the bottom of the Browser.

If you want to copy this item in order to paste it into Microsoft® Word or another software package, right click with your right mouse button anywhere in the preview window and a small menu will appear. On this menu, you will see the option to “SELECT AND COPY ALL TEXT”. Click this option and you can now copy and paste the item straight into your other software.

Searching with the Browser

I like to describe the Browser as a poor man’s Google. While we can never attempt to get such a powerful tool as Google with their millions of dollars of investment money, the Browser works in a similar method by making use of keywords.

If you type in “Collect Trinity Traditional”, the Browser will find all of the traditional language Collects for the Trinity season. If you type in “Collect Traditional Trinity”, it does the same thing. It doesn’t matter what order the words are in – it just matches keywords in your search against the database.

Another thing to do is give the database enough to work with but not too much. Like Google, if you put in one word, you will get lots and lots of results. If you put in too many words, you might not get anything at all. So aim for the middle of the road with a short phrase or collection of keywords to get the best chance of good results.

You can search by the title of an item (as above) or the first line – e.g. “God, who of thy generous mercy didst send the Holy Spirit” for the 15th Sunday after Trinity Collect in traditional form.

You can search by author – so you might search by Wesley or Kendrick when looking up hymn and song choices. You can also search by Bible reference, so “John 1” to find all the references from the first chapter of John’s gospel.

You can search by code, which is especially useful for New Patterns for Worship (and will be useful for Times & Seasons in VL Live) where all of the resources have a code number. For example, if you type in B32 and click GO, you will get item B32 from New Patterns for Worship.

There is even a full text search. If you type in “x.” followed by your search so “x. ever abiding in thee” will search every line of code in the database for the phrase “ever abiding in thee” even if it appears midway through a particular text.

However, please do note that if you have an older computer such a meticulous search could take a while. You might want to go away and make a cup of tea or even your dinner if your machine is really old!

Lastly, a quick tip on what not to search for. Don’t type in “O God” or “Jesus” as a search – you might get a lot more results than you care to look through!