Graduate Class: Every other year Birch teaches a one week class at Bob Jones University (his alma mater). It is a class for their graduate level Bible translation majors on technology for Bible translation. It takes a lot of time to prepare for this class each year because software is constantly changing and new things are always coming out.

Blog: Birch has started a new blog about the equipment we use to do our work called MissionsGear.

Standardize inputting of the Bible: Until now each translation input the text of their Bible into the computer however they chose. Some translations would have several different typists and they will each type in the text as they like. Often even the same typist will use different methods at different times. The problem is when it is time to publish the Bible it is a nightmare trying to format it. You can't just tell it to put all the chapter numbers in a certain size character and certain font. The computer has no way of knowing which are chapter numbers because they are formatted so many different ways. This means the publishing department has to go in by hand, select each chapter number and change its formatting. Then they have to repeat this process for each book title, verse number, verse, quote, etc. So even though the Bible is all ready and checked with our consultants, it still takes hundreds of man hours before it can be published. If everyone entered their Bible the same way into the computer every time, it would be an easy process for the publishing department to convert it to whatever format they wanted when it was time to publish.

During the Fall 2004 workshop Birch worked with each of our translations to teach their typist how they should enter the text. Each language has to be taught a little differently depending on if they have regular access to a computer, occasional access to a computer or only access to an Alpha Smart. He taught them to use Standard Format Markers and style sheets to keep everything consistent. He has worked with the publishing department to develop a list of styles for chapters, verses, poetry, footnotes, etc. and as he trains the typists he is teaching them the proper way to format.

Manipuri: Birch has been working on the Manipuri text (see photos). The Manipuri was started over 10 years ago. Back in 1993 the Bengali fonts were very expensive and they came with a hardware security key. The key card uses an ISA slot (older type) so we haven't been able to transfer this work to the newer computers. SO...Birch got a new TrueType Bengali font that can be used for free, then he took the raw data from the files that had been input on the older machine and copied it to his machine. Of course the new font was mapped completely different from the old one, so we took a print out of all the characters from the old machine and matched them by hand to the new font. There are around 250 characters and many of them are very similar, so it took about 6 hours to match all of the characters. Then Birch wrote a program to convert the old text to the new font values. At first he thought it would be just a byte for byte conversion, but with combined symbols (diacritics) it's only slightly more complex. The great thing is that this all worked! There were a few characters we had missed and one that wasn't included in the new font, (because it's only used in the state of Assam) so Birch used a font editor to add the character. Now we can put the Manipuri on any machine. We can also use the checking tools to show where there are missing verses, extract parallel passages, key terms, etc. As a test Birch ran a chapter/verse checking program on Daniel and found 3 missing verse numbers.

The Manipuri Bible is to go to the publisher in 2005. They have many corrections they are doing to their text. Once that is finished Birch will run word lists for them so they can check for typos and inconsistencies in spelling before it is printed.

Database: Bibles International has found it has grown so much it can no longer keep track of all its projects and what each person should be doing. Birch has been working the past year and a half to write a database that will help everyone know what has happened on each translation, what needs to happen and what they should be doing. He has the basic bones of the database installed. There is still a lot to do, however. All the critical information that is now in notebooks needs to be entered into the computer by the staff at B.I. He also needs to conduct a training seminar for all the missionaries at B.I. to teach them how to use the software.

Software for checking accuracy: Birch has a new project he has been trying to get to for over a year now. Each time we are overseas he is chomping at the bit to get it done because the need is so overwhelming. There are a number of different checks he has been doing for the translations using several different pieces of software. He would like to bundle them into one package he can put on the translator's computers. He then plans to write a manual with instructions on how to run each of the checks using the software. He had hoped to do this before we went to in India this past fall but with the database there was no time. Now that the database is operational it is going to become his main focus. He is hoping to finish it before our next workshop so he can begin training our translators how to use the software.