Keep Thy Heart Bible Reader
Keep Thy Heart Bible Reader is a Bible study application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It runs entirely on your own computer: your translations, commentaries, notes, and highlights are stored locally, and nothing requires an internet connection once your modules are installed.
What you can do
- Read Scripture in a clean, typographically careful layout, in any translation you have installed, with three display modes ranging from distraction-free reading to full interlinear study.
- Study deeply with commentaries, dictionaries and Strong's lexicons, cross-references, and topical indexes — all reacting to the verse you have selected.
- Search by keyword or by meaning. If you remember the sense of a verse but not its wording, semantic search can still find it.
- Write as you study. Verse-linked notes, long-form documents, a dated journal, and prayer lists all live in the same window as the text.
- Mark up your Bible with colored highlights, underlines, bookmarks, and collections that persist across sessions.
- Arrange the window your way. Panes can be split, rearranged, and popped out into separate windows, and the whole layout is remembered.
Where to start
If this is your first time, work through these in order:
- Installation — download and install the app.
- Quick Start — a short guided tour of the main window.
- Installing Modules — add translations, commentaries, and dictionaries.
The user guide
Once you have the basics, go deeper on whatever you need:
- Reading the Bible — navigation, translations, display modes, parallel view.
- Study Tools — commentaries, dictionaries, Study mode, cross-references, topics.
- Searching — quick search, advanced options, semantic search, saved searches.
- Notes & Highlights — verse notes, documents, journal, prayer, highlighting.
- Bookmarks & Collections — saving verses and organizing them.
- Copying & Exporting — copy formats, templates, exporting your work.
- Sessions & Layout — layout presets, splitting and popping out panes.
- Personalizing — themes, fonts, text size, preferences.
- Backup & Restore — protecting your notes and highlights.
- Keyboard Shortcuts — the complete reference.
Help inside the app
You don't have to come back here for everything. The app has its own built-in documentation at Help → Documentation, and a shortcut reference at Help → Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+/).
If something goes wrong, Help → Report an Issue… files a report from inside the app. You can also open an issue on the issue tracker.