Tap Bible Help

📖 Reading the Bible

When you open Tap Bible you land directly in the reader. Text is displayed verse by verse for easy reading. Scroll continuously through the text — previous and next chapters flow in seamlessly as you scroll up or down, in both Bible and commentary documents. Use the Navigator at the top to jump anywhere in the Bible.

The app remembers your position, and all tabs are synchronised — navigating to a new passage in one tab moves all tabs to the same location.

🧭 Navigating Books & Chapters

Tap the book/chapter reference shown at the top left of the screen to open the Navigator — it holds the book and chapter lists, your history, and your bookmarks. From there:

• Select a book from the list — Old or New Testament sections are shown separately
• Then pick a chapter from the grid

Press Back to close the Navigator without changing your position.

🕐 History

Every passage you visit is recorded in your history, making it easy to return to a previous verse or pick up where you left off in a reading plan.

• Open history from the Navigator
• Tap any entry to jump straight back to that passage

🗂 Using Tabs

Tabs let you keep multiple documents open at the same time — for example, two different Bible translations, or a Bible alongside a commentary or dictionary.

• Tap the tab strip at the bottom to switch between open tabs — swipe it sideways when you have more tabs than fit on screen
• Use the tab edit button (pencil icon, to the right of the strip) to add, remove, or reorder tabs
• All tabs stay synchronised — switching tabs shows the same passage in each document

Split Tabs

Split a tab to read two documents together — for example, two Bible translations, or a Bible with a commentary.

• On the tab edit screen, tap the split button on a tab and choose a second document
• The two are shown one above the other, or side by side when the screen is wider than it is tall
• Drag the grip between them to change how much room each one gets
• Scrolling a Bible moves the other one to the same verse
• To go back to one document, remove the second one on the tab edit screen

🔊 Read Aloud

Tap the play button (▶) at the top of a Bible tab to hear it read from the verse you are on. The text scrolls to follow along as it is read, and you can pause, resume or stop at any time.

• Reading continues into the next chapter and stops at the end of the book
• The voice is chosen for the Bible's language, using the voice set in your device's text-to-speech settings
• Change the speed with Speech Speed in Settings

⬇️ Downloading Bibles, Commentaries & Dictionaries

Tap Bible uses free modules from the CrossWire and eBible catalogs — there are hundreds of Bible translations, commentaries and dictionaries available across most languages.

1. Open the catalog with the + button on the tab edit screen
2. Browse or filter by language
3. Tap a document to download it
4. Once downloaded, it is available offline

On first launch the app may ask before downloading content, depending on your region. You can always download documents later from the catalog.

The catalog also includes Tap Bible's own modern commentaries, derived from Matthew Henry and available in a range of languages. Installed documents update in place — when a newer version is available, the catalog shows an upgrade indicator so you can refresh it with a tap.

📚 Dictionaries

Bible dictionaries open in their own tab. A dictionary suited to your language is set up automatically where one is available, and many more — including the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) — can be downloaded from the catalog.

• Tap the entry name at the top of the screen to open the entry list
• Type in the search box to filter the list as you type, then tap an entry to open it
• Scroll continuously — previous and next entries flow in as you scroll, just like Bible chapters

The app remembers your place in each dictionary, so switching tabs or restarting the app brings you back to the entry you were reading.

🔍 Search

Full-text search is available for any downloaded Bible translation or commentary.

• Open search with the magnifier icon at the top of the screen
• Type a word or phrase and tap the search key (or press Enter) to run the search
• Results show the verse reference and a snippet — tap any result to jump to it
• Previous searches are saved in a history list below the search box

Search is scoped to the translation in the current tab. Dictionary tabs don't show the search icon — to find a dictionary entry, use the filter box in the dictionary's entry list instead.

✋ Selecting & Copying Verses

You can select a single word or verse, or a whole passage, then bookmark or copy it.

• Long-press to select a word or verse
• Keep your finger down and slide up or down to extend the selection across a range of verses
• Tap the copy icon to copy the selected text to the clipboard — a brief confirmation appears
• Tap the bookmark icon to bookmark the selected verse or range

🔖 Bookmarks

Save any verse or passage with a bookmark so you can return to it later.

• Select a verse or range (see above), then tap the bookmark icon
• When a verse is bookmarked the icon appears filled — tap it again to remove the bookmark
• View all bookmarks from the Navigator
• Tap a bookmark to jump straight to that verse

Bookmarks are stored locally on your device and are never sent anywhere.

🔤 Word & Verse Popup

Long-press any word in the text to open a tabbed popup with two views:

• Word tab — shows the Strong's concordance entry for the word you pressed, including the original Hebrew or Greek word, its definition, and how it is used across the Bible. If you have a dictionary installed for the translation's language, the matching dictionary entry is shown below it, labelled with the dictionary's name. Useful for deeper word studies.
• Verse tab — temporarily highlights the whole verse and shows a list of cross-references, helping you find related passages across the Bible.