• Twitter TempleStudy.com Profile – follow me here on Twitter to get the latest updates from the site in your Twitter stream.
• Facebook TempleStudy.com Page – become a fan of the TempleStudy.com page on Facebook, and see updates from the site in your Facebook News Feed, and easily share them with friends from there.

Now you don’t need to be updated about my frequent 5K runs anymore, if you don’t want to (I’m training for a half marathon in June).  But if you are interested in my personal activities, you might like to know that I just finished version 1.0 of BryceHaymond.com, my design consultancy business I call Blackpool Design.  As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I’m out of full-time work, and I’m looking for clients who need freelance design, whether product design, graphic design, or web design.  If you know of someone who is looking for design, I’d be very grateful for your referral.

Once I get my house in order a bit more, I’d really like to get back to studying the temple, and sharing with you what I learn.  This is truly an inexhaustible subject.

TempleStudy.com is now on Twitter and Facebook

Example of a popup using the new WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

For some time I’ve been using the excellent LDS Linker WordPress plugin, developed by Joey Day, to automatically link all scripture references on TempleStudy.com directly to the Church’s online scriptures at scriptures.lds.org.  It worked very well, and continues to be one of the most popular WordPress plugins for LDS bloggers to link their scripture references to the online scriptures.

Recently I was thinking how much easier it would be to just hover your mouse over a scripture reference and see a popup with the scripture reference written out.  It would make reading the scripture references that much quicker in a blog post, rather than clicking a link to another site. 

A couple months ago I began some conversations with Steven Lloyd, developer of DearScriptures.com, the same person who developed the ability to search the scriptures via instant messaging (a feature I use often).  He began work on a WordPress plugin that would give LDS bloggers the ability to have scripture reference popups on their blogs.  Over the last month Steven has worked hard on the plugin.  He asked me for feedback, and I gave him some tips and suggestions along the way.

I’m pleased to announce that the LDS Scripture Linker plugin for WordPress blogs is now available for download and use.  Here is what the plugin does:

1. Any scripture references written in a blog post are automatically converted into a link when published.
2. The link contains a hidden popup with the scripture reference written out in full.
3. When you mouseover the link, the popup appears, displaying the scripture.
4. When you move your mouse away, the popup disappears.
5. (If you want the popup to stay, such as when you want to scroll longer references, click on the link.  To make it disappear, click on the “close” link.)

Below are a few examples of what this plugin can do.  The scripture references below were written out normally, without any linking or anything else done before being published.  The plugin does all of the fancy work.  Move your mouse over the references to see the popup of the scripture.  For longer references, click on the link, which will make the popup stick, and you can then scroll the reference; use the “close” link to close the popup.  (Note: This functionality only works if you are viewing the post on the website, and will not show in an email or RSS feed).

• James 1:5-6
• D&C 121:7-8
• Alma 32
• 1 Ne. 3:7, 15-16
• 1 Ne. 4:1, 5:8, 16:8

As you can see, you can string multiple references together, in different parts of the same chapter, or different chapters of the same book.  You can write out the scripture books in full, or use the standard abbreviations.  Even entire chapters are linkable.

The plugin also includes several customizable options on the administration interface:

• Customize the link hover color
• Customize the link click color (for references over 1000 characters)
• Customize the border color (IE only)
• Customize the scripture reference box background color
• Underline or not the scripture links
• Index the scripture reference text in full on Google, or not

I am very pleased with the work Steven Lloyd of DearScriptures.com has done with this plugin.  I am now using this new scripture linker plugin across all of TempleStudy.com.  It is particularly useful in posts which deal with the scriptures heavily, such as Matthew B. Brown’s excellent guest post about D&C 124.  Check out that post for a great example of this plugin in action.

I hope this plugin provides more value to you here on TempleStudy.com, and across the Bloggernacle where it’s used.  What are your thoughts about this new feature?  Any tips or suggestions?  Please tell us in the comments below.

New WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin for Bloggers

FollowTheProphet.net logo, a portrait by LDS artist Ken Corbett of President Thomas S. Monson. Used with permission. KenCorbettArt.com

My brother and I are pleased to announce the launch of our latest project--the FollowTheProphet.net website!  This new website has been in design and development for the past month, and we are happy to finally be able to announce today that it is available.

FollowTheProphet.net is a website that allows members of the Church to follow the living prophet more closely.  We go from General Conference to General Conference often not hearing or knowing what the prophet is doing, saying, or teaching.  Not long ago, the activities of the prophet were much more well known among the membership of the Church.  The prophet and members lived very close geographically, and members could even meet personally with the prophet.  Today, with over 13 million members scattered worldwide, the activities of the prophet are much lesser known.  Members who don’t live in Utah may only know what the prophet is doing every six months at General Conference.

FollowTheProphet.net helps to fill that gap of knowledge.  With advances in search technology, we are able to aggregate all public information we find about where the prophet is, what he is doing, saying, teaching, visiting, etc., and post it all in one central place at FollowTheProphet.net.  Any talks or speeches he gives, we will post links to his words.  Any trips he goes on, we will post information about his visits.  Any temples he dedicates, we will inform you about the events.  Hopefully this will help you feel a closer connection with God’s living prophet, and stay up-to-date about his activities and his counsel.  We believe that in these turbulent times, we will be safe if we stay close to the living prophet of God and heed his word.

More information about the new website can be found on the About page at FollowTheProphet.net, such as the ability to “follow the prophet” via Twitter, RSS, email, or Facebook.

We are excited to bring you this new service, and hope you will enjoy it!  Please give us any tips, suggestions, or feedback that you may have that would help us improve the site.

FollowTheProphet.net website launches!

DearScriptures.com

I’m always looking for better ways of accessing, searching, and reading the scriptures.  They are truly the words of eternal life.  Whenever I hear of a new way of encountering the scriptures, I check it out.  DearScriptures.com is an online version of the scriptures that now allows you to text message (SMS) or instant message (IM) scripture references to it, or search for scriptures, and it will reply with the references and/or text of the scripture(s). It includes other great features as well, such as searching hymns and retrieving hymn lyrics.  And it’s all free!

DearScriptures.com is an online scripture database that allows you to “read, study, listen, annotate, take notes, search, look up a word's dictionary definition in multiple online dictionaries, and look up the Greek or Hebrew translation of nearly any word in the Old Testament or New Testament using Strong's Concordance”.

The thing that really interests me is the new powerful ability to interface with the scriptures (and hymns) through text messaging and instant messaging.  Sometimes I just need to look up a scripture quickly, I don’t have my physical scriptures with me, and if I’m by a computer, I don’t want to take the time to open up LDS.org or a scripture program or the scriptures on my iPhone.  Sometimes I just need a scripture really fast, such as when I’m emailing, or in a conversation with someone.  That’s where DearScriptures.com new features come into play.

Features

You can send a number of different commands to the service (via either text or IM), and it will respond almost instantly:

• scripture reference -- by simply sending the scripture reference, the service will respond with the verse(s) requested. Examples, “Amos 3:7″ or “Amos 3:7,10″ or “Amos 3:4-7″
• chapter reference -- sending any scripture chapter, with no verse, will return all verses in the chapter. Example, “Amos 3″
• s[earch] text -- this basically searches all the scriptures for the text following the “s”, and returns all scripture references it finds. Example, “s revealeth his secret” returns the following “Amos 3:7″
• d[efine] text -- this searches for the word following the “d” in a number of different dictionaries, and returns the definitions.  Dictionaries include The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, WordNet, Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary. Example, “d prophet”
• r[ead] text -- this searches similarly to the “s” search command above, except that it returns the references and the text of the scriptures it finds. Example, “r revealeth his secret”
• m[astery] text -- this command searches only the scripture mastery scriptures for the text after the “m”, and returns the references and text of the scriptures. Example, “m prophet”
• h[ymn] text -- you can use this a couple different ways.  Put in some text after the “h” and it will return the numbers and titles of all hymns with that text in their titles or lyrics.  Put in a number after the “h” and it will respond with all the lyrics of that hymn number.  Examples, “h prophet” returns 30 hymns with prophet in the title or lyrics, “h 19″ returns the lyrics to the hymn “We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet.”
  
• b[ug] text -- this command will send a bug notice or enhancement request to the developer, so he can fix the problem or enhance the service.
  
• h[elp] -- this will respond with a shortened version of these commands, so you don’t have to remember them.  It will also include any new commands when they are added.
  

I’ve tested sending these commands via text message and instant message, and the service works great at replying with the request in just a couple seconds.  This is certainly the fastest way I’ve ever seen to access the scriptures. No more excuses for not having a hymn book too!

One limitation with the SMS texting side of the service is the length of text message allowed.  Usually the length of a text message is limited to something like 170 characters, depending on the service used.  Any references/scriptures that are returned that are longer than this will be cut off.  The developer is planning on adding a feature to send only the top results, and allowing the user to request “more” by sending such a text back.  Google Talk seems to have the longest character limit.

Set up Instant Messaging

To set up the instant messaging, you have to be using Google Talk (or Gmail chat), MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo, or Jabber.  Just add the respective address below to your account:

• Google Talk, add the user dearscriptures@gmail.com as a friend.
• MSN Messenger, add the user im@dearscriptures.com as a friend.
• AIM, add the user dearscriptures@aim.com as a friend.
• Yahoo, add the user dearscriptures@yahoo.com as a friend.
• Jabber, add the user dearscriptures@bot.im as a friend.

Then all you have to do is send a chat message to that user, using any of the commands above, and it will reply almost instantly.

Set up Text Messaging

(Update 5/9/11: The text messaging service is no longer functioning.)

To use the service through text messaging, just send a text of any commands listed above to the phone number 206-552-8927.  It will reply with a text message in seconds.  That simple.

This is a great new service, that I think will get lots of usage.  If you like it, try out the website version too at DearScriptures.com.

What are your thoughts about the ability to look up scriptures quickly by IM or text?  Any situations you can think of in which this would be really handy?  Please share with us in the comments.

Access the Scriptures via SMS Text or Instant Message

How do you feel this video does in explaining in simple terms what the temple is for? Could it be used for sharing with family and friends what the temple is about? Please share with us your thoughts in the comments.

Mormon Temples Made Simple Video

Now that they are providing that service, I’m curious to ask again: (poll below shows only on website)

Live Video Streaming of 2009 FAIR Conference

Dr. Hamblin used a new technology called Gigapan to create the gigapixel panorama.  The results are nothing short of amazing.  The image loads fast, and you can zoom into any portion of the temple and see exquisite details very close-up. I have embedded the photo below for your convenience (if you are reading this in email or RSS, it will only display on the website). If you’d like to see the photo fullscreen, click here.

Dr. Hamblin has also produced a short guided tour of some of the architectural features of the eastern facade of the temple in this photo. It includes the building dedicatory inscription or plaque, sun stones, star stones, clouds, squared-circle stones (sometimes called “Saturn” stones), all seeing eye, moon stones, Alpha and Omega, the Right Hand of Fellowship, and the Angel Moroni.  To see these, click here, and then click on the “Snapshots.”

0.41 Gigapixel Photo of Salt Lake Temple

TempleStudy.com on the iPhone

In honor of my purchase of an iPhone a few days ago, I decided it was time to make TempleStudy.com more mobile.  Now you can access and read TempleStudy.com in a much more reader-friendly way just by visiting the website in your browser on your mobile device.  The website will automatically detect the type of device, and will reformat the design of the site to load much faster, and look much nicer, on the small screen.

Hopefully this will make TempleStudy a much better experience for you folks who live on-the-go.  Of course, you can always fetch the RSS feed too, but that doesn’t offer as much functionality.  With the website on your mobile you can browse categories, tag clouds, do searches, leave comments on posts, subscribe to posts, and more.  Be sure to check out the menus on the navigation bar.

On a side note, I love now being able to stream General Conference talks to my car on the way to and from work.  I truly believe these emerging technologies are helping the work of the Lord roll forth in remarkable ways.

TempleStudy.com Now on iPhone, iPod Touch, Android & Blackberry Devices

I will be attending the conference and liveblogging it using the innovative CoveritLive tool.  I’ll have my laptop and providing a running live commentary of the presentations as they happen, all available here at TempleStudy.com.  I’ve done this sort of thing before for FAIR Conferences, BYU Conferences, and last year’s General Conference.  You can tune in here at TempleStudy.com and get the gist of what is going on at the conference in real-time.  If there is a particular presentation that you’re interested in, you can come to the website just during that hour to participate and see the happenings live.  It won’t be a word-for-word transcript by any means, nor even a summary.  But it will be my impressions of what I think is interesting, or insightful, or worth taking note about.  You can send in your comments or questions too, and I can respond directly from the conference, all live.

I’m looking forward to the conference, and hope you will take the time to participate with me online.  If you want a reminder of the event, you can enter in your email address in the “Event Reminder” widget in the sidebar of TempleStudy.com.  An RSS feed of the event will be available at this address.  If you will be attending the conference, you can help with the liveblog and commentary.  If you have a laptop, I can invite you to be a panelist (let me know if you’re interested).  Or, if you just have a cell phone, you can add your comments by Twitter.  I propose a hashtag for this conference’s Twitterers, #mormonstudies.  Any tweets sent with that hashtag will show up in our liveblog stream here on TempleStudy.com.

Of course, the day after the Mormon Studies Conference ends is the commencement of the church-wide semi-annual General Conference (April 4-5, 2009).  I’ll be liveblogging that too, like we did last October.  I always look forward to watching General Conference, and it makes it even better being able to take notes, and communicate with others also watching Conference.  You’ll be able to watch conference live here, see our liveblog coverage, and Conference Twitter activity all here on TempleStudy.com.  The twitter hashtag that was established last October, which I imagine will be used again, is #ldsconf.  You’ll notice that some twitterers are already writing about the General Young Women Meeting right now using that hashtag.  One twitterer jetsnow notes, “President Monson gives a shout out to facebook, blogging and text messaging in the #ldsconf YW session!”  I wonder what he said!

Let me know if you have any questions about these liveblogs.  I look forward to participating in them with you.

Liveblogging Mormon Studies Conference and General Conference

RSS icon

I’ve updated the ways that you can read posts and subscribe to TempleStudy.com.  So you now have multiple methods of reading posts here:

• TempleStudy.com – this website, of course
  
• Full Post RSS Feed – full articles in your RSS reader
  
• Summary RSS Feed – introductory snippets of articles in your RSS reader (with a link to the full post)
• Comments RSS Feed – allows you to read the comments on all posts sitewide
• Subscribe by email – receive TempleStudy in your inbox

I’ve also added support for Odiogo, which converts TempleStudy.com posts into audio podcasts.  It’s a computerized voice, and isn’t always pretty (because it reads every footnote and related post text), but could be useful for those who don’t have time to read, but could listen to the articles while exercising or commuting to and from work.  It could also be a way for those who are visually impaired, or have other disabilities, to access TempleStudy.com:

• Odiogo Podcast of TempleStudy.com (viewable in most RSS readers)
• Other ways to subscribe to the podcast include iTunes, Juice, Zune, MP3 playlist, etc.

TempleStudy.com is also now multi-lingual!  If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see a widget in the sidebar titled “Translate This Website.”  You can now choose from any of 40 different languages from the dropdown box, and this entire website will instantly be translated into that language.  Translation is provided by Google Translate, so it won’t be perfect, but it works.

I’ve also made a change to the homepage.  As I noted a few days ago, I changed the homepage to be a full-page embedded video of “Between Heaven and Earth.”  It is a great introduction to LDS temples and what our temple worship means to us.  I’ve changed that slightly now.  Now the video will only be displayed to new visitors to the website.  Returning visitors will not see the video.  (Thanks Naomi!)

Thanks again for everyone’s support of TempleStudy.com.  You’ve greatly blessed my life, and the lives of many others.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Note: If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, please see this great intro YouTube video called “RSS Feeds in Plain English.”

New Ways to Read or Listen to TempleStudy.com