Internally, your study notes are stored with specially formatted text. You can see this source text and modify it with the View Source dialog (Select Edit | View Source from the main menu).

Formatting and embedded references are added to a reference work using "tags" and a "compiler." While this may sound technical, it isn't. Let's look at an example. The following text is from a personal commentary, attached to the book of 1 John:

When Moses wrote, "In the beginning God..." (Genesis 1:1) he was writing purely under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But when John takes up the pen in this letter, he is writing both under the influence of the Holy Spirit and from personal experience.

In formatting this portion of text, the author wanted to emphasize the words "both" and "and". This is done by applying any one of the text styles that are defined in OneTouch®. In this case, the text type Emphasized satisfies the need. (You can view a complete list of all available text styles, and their attributes, by selecting the Options | Text Styles menu item under OneTouch®.) The <BTT> tag (short for "BEGIN_TEXT_TYPE") is used to mark the beginning of the formatted text and to name an existing text style, while the <ETT> tag (short for "END_TEXT_TYPE") marks the end. Hence,

When Moses wrote, "In the beginning God..." (Genesis 1:1) he was writing purely under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But when John takes up the pen in this letter, he is writing <BTT:Emphasized>both<ETT> under the influence of the Holy Spirit <BTT:Emphasized>and<ETT> from personal experience.

This text contains one Bible reference, Genesis 1:1, which would be "tagged" as follows:

When Moses wrote, "In the beginning God..." (<BIBLE:Genesis 1:1>) he was writing purely under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But when John takes up the pen in this letter, he is writing <BTT:Emphasized>both<ETT> under the influence of the Holy Spirit <BTT:Emphasized>and<ETT> from personal experience.

This commentary text is now completely "tagged." When it is saved, OneTouch® will convert (or "compile") the tags. When the commentary text is next viewed, you will be able to double-click the Genesis 1:1 reference and instantly bring up that Bible text. And the formatted text will be displayed with whatever attributes you have assigned to the Emphasized text type (italics, by default).

The following tags will be useful in creating your personal commentary. Click any of the tags below to display complete information for that tag. (A similar button in each of these Help topics makes it easy to return here.)

<BIBLE> to indicate an embedded Bible reference, which can then be used to access the corresponding Bible text.

<TOPIC> to indicate an embedded topical reference, which can then be used to access the corresponding Encyclopedia articles.

<STRONGS> to indicate an embedded Strong's number reference, which can then be used to display the corresponding Strong's definition(s).

<BTT> and <ETT> for marking portions of text as a particular text type.

<PARAGRAPH> for marking paragraphs of text as a particular paragraph type.

<TAB> to insert a tab character.

Press the Close button to close the dialog. Press the Save button to save any changes to your notes.