Printing portions out of order in one chapter

Question

I am printing selections of Bible passages. For Mark 4 I would like to typeset the story of the paralytic before the parable of the sower. I assumed that in “portions or Multiple books” window I could type MRK 4:34-41; MRK 4:0-20; and it would typeset the two sections in that order. However, this is not the case. It provides the sections according to the biblical order. I cannot find a work around.

Answer 1

HA! Resolved it. In between the portions I inserted the reference to a blank chapter in a different book. Now the passages show in the order I need.

Answer 2

The other way to do this would be to use a module file. The simplest module just needs to contain a list of references (or reference ranges) something like this:

\ref LEV 20:07
\ref DEU 16:17
\ref DEU 33:27
\ref JOS 1:9
\ref JOS 24:15
\ref 1SA 15:22
\ref 2SA 22:31
\ref 1CH 28:9

But if you want other material interleaved with the scripture portions, you can add other markers. (These are described in Paratext’s help system).

\s Holiness
\r $(LEV 20:07)
\ref LEV 20:07
\s Giving
\r $(DEU 16:17)
\ref DEU 16:17
\s God’s protection
\r $(DEU 33:27)
\ref DEU 33:27
\s Courage
\r $(JOS 1:9)
\ref JOS 1:9
\s Serving God
\r $(JOS 24:15)
\ref JOS 24:15
\s Obedience
\r $(1SA 15:22)
\ref 1SA 15:22
\s God’s protection
\r $(2SA 22:31)
\ref 2SA 22:31
\s Seeking God
\r $(1CH 28:9)
\ref 1CH 28:9

Note that you don’t have to use Paratext’s XXA-XXG books for the module; instead you can point PTXprint to the file directly as shown:

Comments

Thank you Mark
This is super helpful. I was unaware of this feature. I assume that it works for left to right languages as well? I found instructions for modules in Paratext, but you seem to suggest something different in that we “can point PTXprint to the file directly” rather than using the existing XXA-XXG books. How would I create this “.sgm” file and upload it to “modules”?
thanks

Answer 3

Hi Mark, a Bible module definition file (usually with a .sfm extension) is just a plain text file (often just edited in Notepad) with the required references listed in it. Save it wherever you want, but ideally, you would use a sub-folder within C:\My Paratext 9 Projects\_Modules or in a sub-folder of the project.

This article explains things in a lot more detail in case you need the specific steps.

And if you want to download and use other people’s modules, there are several examples available here and others here.

Note that slides 27-32 in this presentation also mention modules. And there is a How To page on the main PTXprint website too.

I trust all this is helpful as you get creative!

Comments

Thanks so much. This is great.