USX_test_versions

USX Test Versions folder

In this folder we provide USX XML Bible files converted from USFM to USX by Paratext 9 in order to be sure that the test Bibles are in the best official form of USX.

(Our own BibleOrgSys can also convert USFM to USX, but we didn’t want the SILE programmers to be distracted by any possible defects or differences in the XML produced by BibleOrgSys.

Copyright issues

Of course, we can’t reformat or publish copyrighted Bibles here. We are very grateful to eBible.org for providing access to open-licenced USFM Bibles (that we then converted to USX with the now unsupported Paratext 9.0.100.10238 running on Ubuntu Linux).

Metadata

Unfortunately, the raw Bible book USX files contain very little metadata (beyond the "book" titles, etc.) Obviously to typeset a Bible, we need "work" metadata including the work title, the copyright, the licence, etc. Some of this may be in a FRT (preface) or INT file if they exist (see here), but many versions don’t supply this information (especially older works).

(We expect that for new and current works, in the future they might be packaged in Scripture Burritos which will help considerably.)

So meanwhile, we may need to define and create some metadata files in order to typeset the title pages, etc.???

Updates

For those translation projects that are still in process, we will attempt to update the USX copies from time to time.

Note that Paratext does include many open-licensed Bibles as resources, but sadly it doesn’t enable exports for anything it considers as a "resource" (even if they are open-licensed).

This means that the process works like this:

1. Download open-licensed Bible files from eBible.org or other sources
2. Optional: Copy only the USFM files into another temporary folder (thus removing any non-USFM files)
3. Create a new USFM3 project in Paratext -- set Language, Type of Project, and select All Books, then Ok, then USFM3
4. (The above creates a folder in your Paratext8Projects folder containing the following files: Settings.xml, ProjectProgress.xml, .ldml, CommentTags.xml, and unique.id)
5. In the project window, use Manage books / Import book(s)… to select and import only the USFM files Note: Fortunately Paratext uses the \id lines containing the book id, and not the filenames, because eBible.org uses a custom book numbering scheme.
6. In the project window, use Advanced / Export project to USX… to create the desired folder and export the USX files