a monthly newsletter with product updates, usages statistics, and a scripture that's been on my mind
Share
Type the Word Update January 2025
Published about 9 hours agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
January 2025
Type the Word
Hey Reader,
Hope your year is going well so far! This past month 52 people signed up, the biggest influx of people in any month so far, and Type the Word reached 120,000 verses typed milestone. That's nearly four Bibles worth of verses! π€―
Great work everyone!
January Updates
The Retypeability Update
The Problem: TTW's UX for indicating what you have typed worked well for your first time through, but lacked a way to reset your progression for retyping through sections of the Bible. If you wanted to retype a chapter:
It's text would be completely dimmed as you typed through it
And your `/history` page would be capped at 100% for that chapter.
This left you manually tracking your progression.
The Solution:
Whereas before the text was dimmed when you had previously typed a verse in general, now a verse's text is only dimmed when you are part of the way through its chapter. When you complete a chapter all dimming is reset.
With any type of progression reset I wanted to make sure that you could still see all the previous times you had typed something. So I added a "Log" at the bottom of each chapter with entries for each time you have typed in this specific chapter.
the new log section at the bottom of each chapter
I also did some similar work in the `/history` page. Whereas before your progression through books was a percentage, it is now a number of boxes indicating how many times you have typed through a specific book.
the new overview section with books being reset upon completion
This overview section is quite information dense so let me break it down.
a breakdown of the overview section
#1 is How many times you have typed this book with the last box being your current progression through the book.
#2 is information about your history in the book.
#3 is your current progression through each chapter. When you completely type the book, these boxes are reset so you can once again track your progress.
faith.tools
Part of the influx of users this month came from TTW being shared on faith.tools, an online app store for Christian software. In December, I met Cam, the creator of faith.tools and in January, he shared a short blog about how TTW was created.
Cam has a heart for God, and faith.tools is a great way to discover Christian software tools. I highly recommend checking it out next time you are looking for Christian tech of any kind.
Something I realized over Christmas was that I need to do a better job promoting TTW. Most of you found TTW through one of the RedditpostsI made in 2023. I'm really grateful those posts ranked in google search, but I think it's time for a new video.
Video is not something in my skill set or comfort zone. And I am about to start my fourth iteration of this video with some new camera gear I bought. I'm hoping to make something convincing soon. Thanks for typing! You're dedication to typing through the Bible has emboldened me to even go as far as making video. π
Fixes
Fixed a bug where TTW was not downloading the last verse of chapters in the ESV translation where verses are omitted. If you have typed these chapters and are not seeing 100% completion I would navigate to them now and check the last verse.
Fixed some bugs in 2 Timothy 1, 3, and 4 where it was incorrectly counting the number of verses on the `/history`page. If you have completely typed these chapters you should now see the correct percentage on your `/history` overview.
A scripture I have been thinking about
13 Come now, you who say, βToday or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profitββ 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, βIf the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.β 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
9 βDo not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I love rhetorical questions in the Bible, and these two scriptures have been ringing in my ears this month. What is my life? I am a mist. I will be gone very soon. Is this how I should be living? Where am I storing up my treasure?
I'm praying that we would use our time well and for God's glory not our own.
Josh
β
PS. Kings Kaleidoscope has a great song referencing James 4:14. I highly recommend it!
December 2024 Type the Word Hello again Reader, Since my last email in October we have almost typed an entire Bible worth of verses, and in total this year, 97446 verses have been typed. When I created TTW last fall, I would have never guessed that it would be used this much. My prayer is that God speaks to you as you type his word and fills you with hope. December Updates In the October update, I talked about three things in TTW's future: Tracking speed and accuracy statistics Enabling...
October 2024 Type the Word Hey there Reader, This month, we crossed 70,000 verses typed on TTW, which means we have typed the Bible over two times! Great work everyone! October Updates In October, I mainly fixed bugs and interacted with all of you to figure out what is next for TTW. There are three main feature requests on my mind right now: Tracking Speed and Accuracy statistics Enabling custom color themes And adding more translations like NLT and CSB Speed and Accuracy My original goal...
September 2024 Type the Word Hello there Reader, This month we crossed 54,000 verses typed on TTW, which means we are approaching two Bible's worth of verses! September Updates A New Home Page When I was creating TTW, I wanted new users to immediately be able to try the product without signing up. That's why I made the home page direct them straight to Psalm 23. This decision may have been ok for some of you, but I think it makes onboarding and understanding the product more difficult. From a...
β