USFM to SAB: are hyperlinks between different Book Collections possible?

The organization I work with has a plan to create a Bible study material which is a Theological Concordance in a mobile app format. The text exists as a printed book and as a path of The Shepherd Staff book. I guess some of might know The Shepherd Staff book – it is translated into 18 languages. The author of the Theological Concordance is the founder of our mission; therefore, we are holding the Copyrights.

I really hope that the Paratext and USFM plus SAB is the right way of doing the App, not only because it is easy (no deep programing), but also because out team has a firm desire to share the app and the USFM file with the whole SIL society of translators and Bible publishers.

It is my first project in Paratext and I tried to get to understand how it is working and how it relates to SAB.

I have one major question which is:
If I upload two or more projects (Paratext Book Collections) into SAB and one of them is the Bible (let’s say WEB), can I link a Bible reference from another Book Collection (The Theological Concordance) to the WEB? I imagine hyperlink which opens a pop-up field with the verse/s.

The easiest way would be to put mu material as an Extra Book (XXA, or CNC) but it won’t work well, won’t be user friendly at all. The Theological Concordance is more than hundred pages and has thousands of Bible references, 14 main topics and 70+ subtopics.

I tried creating many app files experimenting with different reference codes in different kinds of extra books, but the hyperlinks work only when the Bible books are in the same book collections.
In SAB I also tried creating separate content pages(screens) to separate the Bible books from the Concordance books. The problem comes when you try to navigate from the top bar dropdown menu - then you see all the books in the Book Collection and it’s not good.

Hope I was clear enough in my explanation and trust the solution is there :blush:

I would love to find out what do you think! Is it possible to what I want with Paratext and SAB?
Thank you!

Take a look at this answer:

Thank you Chris!
I haven’t came across with this markdown format before. It looks very useful when you want to create a link to another non-Bible book. Basically you write whatever text you want in the square brackets and the target is in the round brackets. It should be one reference in round brackets per line.
I guess I can use it for the interactive table of content in the beginning of each book.

The problem is that this works only in the same Book Collection in SAB. I need to know if a hyperlink across book collections could work.

I don’t want to use Word files sins it will make the translation proses harder.

Other suggestions, please!

Did you try to include the book collection code?

actually when I tried again I found that few references on the same line can work to: \pr [Matthew 1:2](MAT 1:2), [2:6](MAT 2:6); [Luke 3:4](LUK 3:4)

No I didn’t. I told it is only if you use Word document.
I will try.

Wow it worked! I can’t tell how exited am I :slight_smile: adding the Book Collection Id made a hyperlink. Thank you for the tip @ChrisHubbard

Now I need to find a way of automation the process of adding this markdown formats, since there are about 7000 Bible references in the book.

Markdown formatting works perfect when I use it in Module and want to hyperlink to a single verse, or few sequential verses: [Psa 119:98‑100](C01/Psa 119:98‑100), [130](C01/Psa 119:130) Shows: Psa 119:98‑100, 130 as two separate links.

I cant find how to link which includes a reference from two, or more sequential chapters. I tried different dashes with and without space before and after the dash.
Here are two examples:
[Gen 9:1 – 10:32](C01/Gen 9:1 – 10:32) Shows this:

[Gen 6:1 – 8:22](C01/Gen 6:1–8:22) shows that:

Do you know if there is solution for this issue? Can I link sequential parts of two or more chapters in one reference?
Thank!

SAB will display a range of verses.

You could simulate a range by putting serial links to the first chapter range and the second chapter range:

[Gen 6:1-22](C01.Gen.6.1-22) – [7:1-24](C01.Gen.7.1-24) – [8:22](C01.Gen.8.22)

I checked my reference syntax works. Everything is separated by periods not the traditional markup. But your markup works too.

I was not able to get a range across chapters to work.

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This is an area where other platforms fall short.
They can’t display more than one chapter at a time so any linking over a chapter range is broken.

This would fill a much needed gap if SAB could handle chapter ranges e.g.

Destruction by way of a universal flood Gen 6:1 - 8:22

With the pop-up initially showing the ranges by chapter:

Gen 6:1 - 8:22

  1. Gen 6:1-22
  2. Gen 7:1-24
  3. Gen 8:1-22

Or

Gen 6:1 - 8:22 (1Gen 6:1-222Gen 7:1-243Gen 8:1-22)

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@Prabhu_Bilagi - Please see this post.