White Harvest Software is no longer in business.
If you are seeking modules compatible with the SeedMaster software, most if not all of the currently available modules for the Bible Companion Series will work. I recommend this as the most viable source for the Septuagint in a data format due to the SeedMaster bridge to OLB materials. They DO offer support for SeedMaster, I have been assured, and I have been using their LXX quite successfully.
We have been advised that a free
trail version of the current software is no longer available at http://www.biblecompanionsoftware.com
Instead, they offer a sampler
of several modules, based on the Gospel of John.
The new company may be reached by the following means:
Their office hours are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday.
The modules sold with the current
Bible Companion Software are backwards compatible with the older
SeedMaster software. At least, the texts
are compatible; the Strong's numbers module is not.
(I purchased a Septuagint from them and it works nicely with
either SeedMaster or their new program.)
The Bible Companion program is nearly identical to the older SeedMaster software, except for the unfortunate dropping of support for OLB materials. The new software seems only to make a few primarily cosmetic changes and to eliminate OLB support. But see the letter below...
The older SeedMaster modules will also work with Bible Companion. What this means for OLB users is that the "OLB to SeedMaster" conversion program for OLB topics can be used to import OLB topics and notes to Bible Companion as well as SeedMaster.
Not all OLB note and topic modules are compatible with the OLB2SM conversion process. If a noteset is in a peculiar "radix" format, OLB2SM will skip every few notes. This should be easy enough to work around, if time consuming, but I haven't actually found the need to do it yet. You might be able to simply export the set and then import it using the basic radix of 50. This would produce a set that OLB would "truncate" on display, but should convert easily using OLB2SM. If anyone tries this, let me know!
If you are interested in how this conversion is done exactly, see the readme file in the SeedMaster install file.
Also, be aware that the NEW OLB has a completely new format which makes NEW OLB modules incompatible with prior versions of the OLB. Naturally, they will also be incompatible with SeedMaster.
What this means practically speaking is that if you want to search for all the references to the Spirit of God, you can eliminate the references to the human spirit and evil spirits which ordinarily would appear in your search results.
I'm not sure when else case-sensitive searching would really be helpful, but even this one search is helpful if you combine other search terms in various studies.
Now the bad news:
There seems to be no way for SeedMaster to access both CD-ROM material for OLB and hard drive material for OLB at the same time under the OLB installation. If you wish to use the CD-ROM, you must point SeedMaster to the correct directory on the CD-ROM and not the main OLB directory on you hard drive. Conversely, if you point SeedMaster to your hard drive installation, there seems to be no way to access the CD-ROM material. I have tried a number of permutations to try and resolve this problem, all to no avail.
Therefore, if you need to access OLB material on your hard drive with SeedMaster, you will need to copy the things off your CD-ROM which you would also like to use with SeedMaster. In my case, I have actually got OLB modules simply copied under the main SeedMaster directory.
Don't forget, however, that to use the SeedMaster search facility, you need to convert the OLB module and put it under the SeedMaster directory anyway. So, this limitation really only affects those who want to have OLB Bible versions in two places (such as those with an older CD-ROM and the new "interlinear.") Unfortunately, I am one of that number...
See OLB2SM for further compatibility issues.
Be aware that NONE of the NEW OLB modules are supported by SeedMaster...
A very polite gentleman from the Bible Companion company wrote me email which somewhat indirectly indicated his disagreement with my comments about Bible Companion being a mere cosmetic change from SeedMaster but lacking OLB support.
In the interest of fairness to these brothers, the most important parts of his comments to me are excerpted here:
I do think BCS made some nice additions to SeedMaster. I loved SeedMaster and first enjoyed studying the Bible electronically with it. However, we decided to move from shareware only to a retail product. To do so we had to change the name. At the time, we added several new features: desktops, colorization, enhanced searching, and created unique applications unheard of in our market with links to the GRAMCORD morphological search system and the Precept Ministries Inductive Bible Study Companion. These are truly unique and helpful study tools that are offered with Bible Companion. The features added are truly improved! You would be amazed by the Precept toolkit- with its symbols, highlighting, charting abilities, or the ability to search for a Greek word by T,V,M,N,G - fast and easy.
As you also indicated, we do still offer the BCS program as a free downloadable evaluation edition. I think we will always stay ministry focused, but we have several families being supported by the sale of our books and software.
I think the reason OLB support was dropped was because of a difference of opinion between Larry Pierce and the original programmer of SeedMaster, I don't think it was for any marketing reason.
Bible Companion was sold by White Harvest to Loizeaux Brothers, a Christian publisher. Several of us who worked at White Harvest went to Loizeaux with the sale of the program. White Harvest salesmen, tech support, converters, and programmers all work with BCS now. We are attempting to produce great software.
Last updated March 27, 2004