Happy Birthday to us

In the fast paced world of the Internet and all things digital the concept of yearly birthdays are a little passe. We measure things by the month, by the week even daily. In fact when it comes to stats we even care about what time of the day people are looking at the site. With this in mind I wanted to point out that WordLive is almost three months old... so happy birthday to us.

I also wanted to share with you some really encouraging numbers we are picking up from our stats. We don't have exact figures yet but WordLive is being accessed by several thousand people each day. This is very encouraging and a wonderful three month birthday gift. So we'd like to thank everyone who has visited the site and we'd also like to hear some feedback from you too. So please leave a comment here if there is anything you'd like to share or ask the WordLive team about.

National survey reveals the depth of our secrets

WordLive has just released results of a survey showing that 3.4 million people in the UK are currently cheating on their partners. For more about this head on over to the link below and see what you think.

Scripture Union - Have we lost our moral compass?

Don't sit back and relax

‘Are you ready? Are you prepared?’

‘For what?’

On 12th march the WordLive Pray First activity starts with these very words. The activity continues with a call to seek God's will, but I want to tell you something else. There have been even more changes to WordLive to make things easier for your good selves.

If you are using the Flash navigation carousel you'll now notice that the activity you are now on is highlighted with a nice blue shadow. Before, the icon was grayed out and gave the impression you couldn't do anything with it. You'll also notice that the carousel can now be paused and restarted whenever you want. The constant wheeling around had been distracting to some so we've listened and acted. Personally I was hoping for a speed up and slow down button too, but we can't have everything. If you are not getting this wonderful new addition you may need to delete your temporary internet files from within your tools tab.

But that isn't all, we've redesigned the daily email. Several of the web based email clients weren't rendering the email code properly, meaning that some people were receiving a lovely black screen. That should all be different now. However, as I type this we are experiencing some minor technical difficulties the email hasn't been sent. But we are working on this, now sorted.

If there are any other things that you'd like us to consider then please do post a comment here and we'll see what we can do.

Spread the word[live] - pimp my site

Have you been looking at your blog or webspace and thinking it really needs a little something to liven it up? Well you can now add a cool banner to link through to WordLive if you are so inclined. WordLive now offers a horizontal or square banner for you to use and to be honest we would appreciate any promotion you could do.

With this in mind there are also some posters and other informational pieces you can download and use. So if you want to promote WordLive, and spread the word around, then pop along to the new resource page we have here.

Assisting your choice

As I mentioned previously (scroll down) WordLive offers a variety of content for you to choose from. But more than that we actually give you a little bit of help in deciding what to choose. This is done quite subtly though and so i thought I'd type a few words on the matter.

As the carousel spins around and you mouseover each of the pretty little icons, you'll notice a lozenge opens in the middle of the carousel. Inside the lozenge you'll see some short text explaining what activity you'll be taken to if you click on the icon. What you may have noticed are that the colours of the lozenge change depending on what icon you mouseover. The colours are very pretty too, and will become prettier in the very near future (more about that in another post). In the meantime let me tell you about the different colours.

Each of the colours represents a particular style of activity. The orange / yellow colour means that the activity is of a general nature. The podcasts, Bible passage and other activities that may relate to a whole week's sessions will be this colour. The purple colour represents activities that we feel are of a practical nature. They won't be too deep or heavy and they won't be overly creative or touchy feely.

On the other hand the green lozenge represents a more reflective approach. These activities may well be creative, meditative and touchy feely. You'll also find a little more music in this stream of activities. That leaves us with the blue lozenge. The activities here are a little deeper in nature and more study based. You may even find the odd theological term thrown in for good measure.

So there you have it. The colours of the lozenge revealed.

Freedom to choose

WordLive offers a large amount of content each day. We do this partly out of love, partly because we can, but primarily because we want to offer the user, you, the best chance of hearing God through the Bible. With this in mind we create different activities for each day, as displayed in the revolving carousel. (If you can't see the revolving carousel, then you'll need to install Flash from Adobe, it is a free plug-in, and makes WordLive even more alive.)

Wordive is built around a central Bible passage. This Bible passage is explored in the activities for that day... BUT you don't have to do everything on offer. Some of the activities will make the same point in a slightly different way, perhaps being more creative, more practical or in a deeper more studious way (it may even use long words). Some activities use music, others images, while others are more interactive.

The point is, there is a lot of material for each day, but you may not find all of it useful. Some content works better for some people while other content works better for others. Of course, you may want to click on everything and that is fine, but after reading the Bible passage, the choice is yours. You can do a little or as much as you like. WordLive is for you.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

WordLive gives you the Bible, prayer and various other items to help you get into the Bible. To help you, understand it a little more, to think over what it said and most of all catch a glimpse of God through its words.


One thing we noticed during our closed beta test was that after the day's Bible passage had been read, and you moved on to a different activity, you couldn't refer back to the Bible passage without closing the activity. This, we thought, and also a large number of you too, wasn't for the best. And so, being the caring souls that we are, we sweated night and day, thinking and creating a solution... actually it wasn't just the royal 'we', it was the rest of the the team at SU and also those lovely people at baigent, but we don't want to give them all the credit (okay, most of the sweating was from them). And that solution is now live on the site.


The first major update to WordLive is now there for you all to use. You'll notice a tab on the top, right hand side of the activity page that is titled Today's Bible Passage. If you click on this, the tab extends and reveals Today's Bible Passage, for you to read alongside the activity you are doing (not too difficult to grasp). Then if you click the little x in the top, right hand corner of the Bible passage window, the window closes. Voila, the Bible passage in all its glory, to be looked at alongside the activity you are doing.

This is the first, but by no means last, development of WordLive.

You talk, we listen and we do our best to improve your experience!