Session 2 of today’s Accordance seminar (see also my notes on session 1) ran from 11:05–12:15. Again, much of the information presented was old news to me, demonstrating capabilities I use almost every day. However, I was very excited to learn about “fuzzy” searches, which I think was new in Accordance 8.

“Fuzzy” searches allow you to search a text for hits or near hits. If you want to find a particular phrase in the Bible, but you don’t know its exact wording, you can use the command “[FUZZY n]” in the Accordance search box, where n is the number of words that you will accept being different from your search text. For example, the search “in the beginning God [FUZZY 1]” will match Genesis 1:1 in the NRSV, even though the NRSV reads, “In the beginning when God …” To see another example, watch this quick screen capture.

We broke for lunch at 12:15. I’ll be back later with notes on session 3, which focuses on Greek and Hebrew searching.