WM-Dict Version 2.0 Now Available

The creators of WM-Dict recently announced:

We are happy to announce the release of WM-Dict --- Version 2.0. This new version has many changes. The Windows Desktop Version and the Windows Mobile Version have both been nearly entirely rewritten. It is - in comparison to v1.3 - much faster and offers nice new features. We invite you to watch the video "Overview of WM-Dict v2.0"-Video, recorded by Chris. It can be found at our website http://sites.google.com/site/wmdict/.

Here are their directions for obtaining download information:

Since WM-Dict is available not only to our brothers, we would appreciate if publishers who newly register on our website (the restristration form is at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pVpFMjgkCYuu584WbQGjzHQ) would

• Choose "Theocratic education" as the reason why they would like to use WM-Dict.
• Also, it would be very appreciated if they would use the "Other" field in order to write the name of their congregation and some privileges they have in the congregation (like elder, ministerial servant, regular pioneer, publisher etc.).

That way we will recognize them as our brothers and sisters.

God’s Love Bk. Questions Material Up To Ch. 9 Posted

3-line material for the questions up to the end of chapter 9 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Note that the files with the questions material now include the material for all the questions from the beginning of the book to the end of chapter 9. A table of contents has also been added for your convenience.

Since some may be able to get by with just the questions, I will post these ahead of corresponding material for the main body of the book, which will continue to be produced.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 7, Par. 9 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 7, par. 9 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Questions Material Up To Ch. 8 Posted

3-line material for the questions up to the end of chapter 8 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Since some may be able to get by with just the questions, I will post these ahead of corresponding material for the main body of the book, which will continue to be produced.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To the End of Ch. 6 Posted

3-line material up to the end of chapter 6 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Questions Material Up To Ch. 7 Posted

3-line material for the questions up to the end of ch. 7 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Since some may be able to get by with just the questions, I will post these ahead of corresponding material for the main body of the book, which will continue to be produced.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 6, Par. 11 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 6, par. 11 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Spanish Version of tiandi.info Launched

¡Hola! I am happy to announce that the Spanish version of tiandi.info has been launched. The direct link to it is:

http://tiandi.info/blog-en-espanol/

Thanks to O. Aceña for the idea and for assisting in translating into Spanish.

(Note that the link address has been adjusted from http://tiandi.info/blog-espanol/ to http://tiandi.info/blog-en-espanol/ to be more grammatically correct. Sorry for any confusion.)

News feeds for this can be found at:

http://tiandi.info/blog-de-noticias

God’s Love Bk. Questions Material For Ch. 6 Posted

3-line material for the questions for ch. 6 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Since some may be able to get by with just the questions, I will post these ahead of corresponding material for the main body of the book, which will continue to be produced.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To the End of Ch. 5 Posted

3-line material up to the end of ch. 5 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Appendix Material Up To the End of Topic 3 Posted

3-line material for the Appendix of the God’s Love book up to and including the third topic, referred to in ch. 5, is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 5, Par. 10 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 5, par. 10 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Minor 2008-11-09 Links File Update Posted

A minor update to the Links file, dated 2008-11-09, has been posted to the Chinese Links File page. Access information in Links emails of the last several months is still valid. If you would like to receive a Links email with information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Featured are updates to the section describing WM-Dict, which has a new web site, and which is now available for Linux as well as Windows, Mac OS X, and Windows Mobile. Also, version 1.3 is now available, which features major updates to the Chinese dictionaries.

Minor 2008-11-06 Links File Update Posted

A minor update to the Links file, dated 2008-11-06, has been posted to the Chinese Links File page. If you would like to receive an email with information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Mainly, this update features a beefed-up Featured / Commonly Requested Tags (Index Headings) section, which now includes quick links to the God’s Love Book, Blogs (including tiandi.info), and other Index headings.

God’s Love Bk. Appendix Material Up To the End of Topic 2 Posted

3-line material for the Appendix of the God’s Love book up to and including the second topic, referred to in ch. 4, is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To the End of Ch. 4 Posted

3-line material up to the end of ch. 4 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Talk 12 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 12 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 4, Par. 11 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 4, par. 11 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To the End of Ch. 3 Posted

3-line material up to the end of ch. 3 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

3-line material for the first topic of the Appendix, referred to in ch. 3, is also available there in a separate file.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 3, Par. 11 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 3, par. 11 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Talk 8 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 8 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To the End of Ch. 2 Posted

3-line material up to the end of ch. 2 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

God’s Love Bk. Material Up To Ch. 2, Par. 11 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 2, par. 11 of the God’s Love book is now available from the God’s Love Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

Talk 137 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 137 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

2008-09-03 Links File Update Released

To help get your new service year off to a good start, the 2008-09-03 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

The Links file recently underwent a major redesign, which debuted with the 2008-02-18 version. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions.html file be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, this file also discusses redistribution of the Links file.

Based on recent feedback, a few tweaks to the new design appear in this update.

• Since some seemed to be confused by the term “Tags”, this term has been replaced with “Tags (Index Headings)”. Hopefully this will make it clear that clicking on a tag takes one to the corresponding heading in the index.
  


• Some were not intuiting that the titles in the Links section were the links (although it has been that way since the Links information was first published years ago), so the URLs (web addresses or email links) will also be listed as live links below the link titles.
  


• There is now a Document Structure section at the beginning, which shows the overall structure of the Links file. From this section, one may note that:
  
  
  • Right near the beginning, in addition to the complete list of tags, there is now a Featured / Commonly Requested Tags (Index Headings) section, which hopefully is self-explanatory.
    
  
  
  • The Index and the Links sections have traded places. Now, the Links section is closer to the beginning, making it easier to find for those who just want the straight list of links. Also, the structure of the file is now more like that of a book, with something resembling a table of contents at the beginning, the body in the middle, and the index at the end.


• The ‘Go to...’ quick navigation links have been beefed up a bit, and they now appear at the beginning of each major section, and at the end of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be used by downloading its zip file from the web page linked to in the email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

New resources this time around include:

• 3-line material (pinyin, Sidney Lau, and Yale) for the Creation book
  


• 3-line material for the new God’s Love book

One major update of note is that the J’s Day book 3-line material is now listed as being available at the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... and “A large door to activity has been opened” web sites.

Creation Book 3-Line Material With Cantonese Romanisation Now Available

In addition to the pinyin 3-line material now available for chapter 3 of the Creation book, equivalent material with Cantonese Yale and Sidney Lau romanisation is now available as well. Many thanks to the brother who did the conversion. (Note: The Cantonese romanisations were generated automatically by computer, and have not been proofread.)

I plan to add access information regarding the Creation book 3-line material download page to the next Links file update. Meanwhile, anyone who would like to access this material may email me for the access information, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Pinyin Songbook Revised

Here is a message from the one who produced the pinyin songbook, which is available for download from the Publications (Mandarin) page:

I have just posted a revised pinyin songbook. The main corrections are to songs 165, 175, 184 and 212. In the April 2007 version each of these songs has the last line of the last verse missing. A few other minor corrections have been made and these can be corrected manually by the brothers and sisters - click "List of Corrections" on the webpage for details.

First Creation Book 3-Line Material Available

The first Creation book 3-line files are now available for download. Since time to work on Creation book material is limited, I have decided to start with chapter 3, which marks the beginning of the solid technical discussions regarding evidence of the Creator’s existence. This is a basic question that many Chinese people need to have answered before meaningful further progress can be made.

I plan to add access information regarding the Creation book 3-line material download page to the next Links file update. Meanwhile, anyone who would like to access this material may email me for the access information, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Spanish Aug. 1, 2008 What We Learn... w Magazine Article Material Posted

Spanish 3-line material for the Aug. 1, 2008 What We Learn... w magazine article has been posted to the Spanish Enseñanzas de Jesús (Chino + Pinyin + Español) web page. Evidently, these articles were designed to be studied with householders, and they will appear four times a year.

Information on how to access this material is included in the current Links file (2008-06-20).

La Edición Original Completa del Folleto Exige en Español Está Disponible

Material en 3 líneas en español de la edición original completa del folleto Exige (sólo en Simplificado) ya ha sido incluido en la página web Folleto Exige (Chino + Pinyin + Español). El material de la edición del 2007 (Simplificado y Tradicional) desde el principio hasta el capítulo 4 está también disponible.

Información sobre cómo acceder a este material está incluido en el archivo Links (2008-06-20).

English:

Complete Original Edition Require Brochure Spanish Material Posted

Spanish 3-line material for the complete original edition of the Require brochure (Simplified only) has been posted to the Spanish Folleto Exige (Chino + Pinyin + Español) web page. Material for the 2007 edition (Simplified and Traditional) from the beginning up to chapter 4 is also available.

Information on how to access this material is included in the current Links file (2008-06-20).

Talk 95 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 95 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

3-Line J's Day Book Material Available for Download!

The first 3-Line J's Day book material is now available for download!

The new News & Info section of the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... site contains the following item:

7/21: Great News!! The 3-line JD Bk is coming 8/3/08

Clicking on this item takes you to the download page, from which the files for chaps. 1 and 2 are available for download as of this writing.

[UPDATE 2008-07-24: Now, to get to the download page for the 3-line J's Day book material, just click on the Book Study button.]

Aug. 1, 2008 What We Learn... w Magazine Article Material Posted

3-line material for the Aug. 1, 2008 What We Learn... w magazine article has been posted to the What We Learn... (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page. Evidently, these articles were designed to be studied with householders, and they will appear four times a year.

3-Line J's Day Book Material Available Soon

As we near the end of the Revelation book in our book studies, many are understandably getting anxious about pinyin and 3-line material for the next book study textbook, the J’s Day book.

First of all, make sure you order your pinyin books from the Society. Even if you don't get them on time, you should eventually, and at the very least, this way you help them get a more accurate idea of the real extent of the need.

Secondly, I’m happy to be able to confirm that 3-line J’s Day book material is being worked on, and it should appear soon on the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... site, which is listed in the Links file. This 3-line material should only be used along with the Society’s Chinese and/or pinyin J’s Day books, if available, not instead of them.

[UPDATE 2008-07-22: The new News & Info section of the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... site contains the following item:

7/21: Great News!! The 3-line JD Bk is coming 8/3/08

Clicking on this item takes you to the download page, from which the files for chaps. 1 and 2 are available for download as of this writing.]

[UPDATE 2008-07-24: Now, to get to the download page for the 3-line J's Day book material, just click on the Book Study button.]

Talk 36 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 36 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Design Refresh

The design of this blog has been refreshed. This is still the place to get news regarding things mentioned in this Links file—it just looks a little different now.

Worship Bk. Material Up To Ch. 3 Par. 6 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 3, par. 6 of the Worship bk. is now available from the Worship Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page.

2007 Ed. Require Br. Material Up To Ch. 5 Posted

Material up to ch. 5 of the revised 2007 Chinese Require br. is now available from the Require Brochure (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page. The Chinese translation of the 2007 version has been significantly updated compared to the original version.

The completed files based on the original pinyin Require br. are still available.

In view of the announcement about the Require br. in the July km, I do not plan to produce any more 3-line material for the 2007 version of the Require br. From what I’ve heard, many still seem to only have stocks of the original version for placing anyway.

tiandi.info

As shown on the current Links file, I have started a new blog over at tiandi.info. Here is a quotation from its About page:

“Matthew 13:38 says ‘The field is the world’, and ‘田地’ (tiándì) is the Chinese term used there to translate ‘field’. The Chinese field is indeed worldwide, reflecting the presence of Chinese people all over the world. ... This blog will contain original content that I hope will provide a deeper look at this worldwide Chinese field and at what is involved in being in it. Some of the thoughts expressed may be relevant to other fields as well.

“Some of the themes I am thinking of exploring regarding how they relate to the Chinese field and those involved in it include:

• Culture / Pop Culture / Media
• News
• Technology
• Language
• Experiences & Interviews
• History
• Travel

“You may also find it interesting to check out the list of Chinese proto-groups (not official groups yet), groups, and congregations that I know of around the world. It can be accessed by clicking on the List link in the Navigation section at the right side of each page. The Map page contains links and information about how to view the locations of these proto-groups, groups, and congregations in the amazing program Google Earth. You might be surprised and delighted to find out where in the world fellow workers are active in the Chinese field.

“...I hope you fellow workers will find this site to be a good alternative to worldly web sites, magazines, etc. It is meant to be a source of information and commentary on topics like the ones listed above, but written specifically for you, not worldly people.

“...there will be a certain amount of personal observation and personal opinion on this blog. Commenting will be enabled, so feel free to contribute to the discussion in an upbuilding and encouraging way. Note that Comment Moderation is enabled, so anonymous comments will not appear until they have been cleared.”

Notes:

• For better security, do not check the Remember Password option.
• The hosting service for tiandi.info does not support news feeds on password-protected blogs, so a related blog and its news feed have been set up here to provide notification of new content at tiandi.info. You may use a news reader program or web sites like Bloglines, Google Reader or NewsGator Online to get notification of new entries in this blog as they are posted.

Folleto Exige en Español - Material hasta el cap. 4 disponible

Material en 3 líneas en español hasta el final del capítulo 4 del folleto Exige ya ha sido incluido en la nueva página web Folleto Exige (Chino + Pinyin + Español). Esperamos terminar este material tan pronto como nos sea posible para obtener el máximo provecho de los folletos Exige que queden.

Información sobre cómo acceder a este material está incluido en el archivo Links (2008-06-20).

English:

Spanish Require Brochure Material Up To Ch. 4 Posted

Spanish 3-line material up to the end of ch. 4 of the Require brochure has been posted to the new Spanish Folleto Exige (Chino + Pinyin + Español) web page. We hope to finish this material as quickly as possible to get as much benefit as possible out of the remaining Require brochures.

Information on how to access this material is included in the current Links file (2008-06-20).

Artículos de La Atalaya Enseñanzas de Jesús en Español. Material Posteado

Material en 3 líneas en español de los artículos Enseñanzas de Jesús de La Atalaya, de los números del 1º de Febrero de 2008 y 1º de Mayo de 2008 han sido posteados en la nueva página web en español: Enseñanzas de Jesús (Chino + Pinyin + Español). Evidentemente estos artículos fueron designados para ser estudiados con los mamos de casa, y aparecerán cuatro veces en el año.

Información sobre cómo acceder a este material está incluido en el archivo Links (2008-06-20).

English:

Spanish What We Learn... w Magazine Article Material Posted

Spanish 3-line material for the Feb. 1, 2008 and May 1, 2008 What We Learn... w magazine articles has been posted to the new Spanish Enseñanzas de Jesús (Chino + Pinyin + Español) web page. Evidently, these articles were designed to be studied with householders, and they will appear four times a year.

Information on how to access this material is included in the current Links file (2008-06-20).

2008-06-20 Links File Update Released

The 2008-06-20 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

The Links file recently underwent a major redesign, which debuted with the 2008-02-18 version. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, the directions also discuss redistribution of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be used by downloading its zip file from the web page linked to in the email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

New and updated resources are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings.

New resources this time around include:

• CaenChina, a French blog


• Spanish 3-line material for What We Learn... w magazine articles, which were designed to be used for studying with interested ones


• Spanish 3-line material for the Require brochure


• 3-line material for certain NWT scriptures


• Revelation book audio files


• tiandi.info, a new blog with information and commentary on various subjects that may be of interest to those in the Chinese field

Different Windows Zip Program

The download page for the Windows zip program ZipCentral, which for many years had been the zip program I recommended to Windows users who needed one, seems to have gone offline. So, after some research and testing, I have updated every reference to that page in my Links resources download pages to now point to http://www.7-zip.org/ instead. WinZip is a well-known Windows zip program, but it is not free. Of course, you may use whatever zip program you find works for you.

Talk 53 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 53 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Worship Bk. Material Up To Ch. 2 Posted

3-line material up to the end of ch. 2 of the Worship bk. is now available from the Worship Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page. More will be added when it is ready.

Talk 132 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 132 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

This talk is about the resurrection, and the speaker mentions how this subject is especially relevant in view of the recent disasters in Burma and China.

Talk 61 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 61 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

2007 Ed. Require Br. Material Up To Ch. 4 Posted

Material up to ch. 4 of the revised 2007 pinyin Require br. is now available from the Require Brochure (Chinese+Pinyin+English) page. More will be added when it is ready. The Chinese translation of the 2007 version has been significantly updated compared to the original version.

The files based on the original pinyin Require br. are still available.

Talk 73 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 73 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Worship Bk. Material Up To Ch. 2 Par. 9 Posted

3-line material up to ch. 2, par. 9, of the Worship bk. is now available from the Worship Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page. More will be added when it is ready.

Recordings of Chinese Assemblies and Conventions

Br. P. Sawyer has informed me that he plans on making video recordings of as many Chinese assemblies and conventions as he can, and that he can share these. If you would like more information, you may email him.

Talk 104 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 104 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

May 1, 2008 What We Learn... w Magazine Article Material Posted

3-line material for the May 1, 2008 What We Learn... w magazine article has been posted to the What We Learn... (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page. Evidently, these articles were designed to be studied with householders, and they will appear four times a year.

WM-Dict Version 1.2 Now Available

Sorry to be a couple of weeks late with this, but version 1.2 of WM-Dict is now available.

What’s new?

• Chinese Character lookup: The Chinese dictionaries now support lookup by Chinese character, in addition to the ability to search for Chinese definitions with Pinyin and English.


• Search the definitions: Some of the language dictionaries include sample sentences for various translated terms. WM-Dict now supports searching these definitions.


• Smart Scrolling: In the search box or in the list of available terms, if you press the left or right arrow key, the definition window will scroll the content window up and down. This makes it easier to read a definition that is longer than the available space of the window without having to use the mouse.


• Chinese/Serbian language dictionary: A new dictionary. The authors think it is the first of its kind.


• Definition window improved: The definition window (the window where translations are displayed) now allows you to copy definitions easily into the clipboard or to lookup new words in WM-Dict based on the definition.


• And about a dozen bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Note that the old Chinese/English dictionary files are not compatible with this new version, so the new Chinese/English dictionary files will have to be installed for it.

For more information on the new features, click here.

Reminder: Links Files No Longer Attached to Links Emails

For those who have not yet noted this: The Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be used by downloading its zip file from the web page linked to in the Links email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera.

Didn’t Receive the Recent Links Emails?

It seems that some of the ones that are on the mailing list for the Links update emails are not receiving them. (Recent Links update emails were sent out on 2008-02-18 and on 2008-03-16.) Perhaps their mail providers’ spam filters are a bit overzealous about filtering out emails with multiple recipients. If you believe you have been affected by this, please email me and I will send you the Links email separately. I will also put your email address on a separate mailing list for those in this situation.

2008-03-16 Links Update Released

The 2008-03-16 Links file update has been released. Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

The Links file recently underwent a major redesign, which debuted with the 2008-02-18 version. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, the directions also discuss redistribution of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the Links files are not attached to the Links emails anymore. Instead, the Links file should now be used by downloading its zip file from the web page linked to in the email, extracting it with the supplied password, saving it to a drive, and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

In addition to the new design, there are also a significant number of new and updated resources on the list. These are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings. Resources that were new or updated as of the 2008-02-18 version have been kept under those headings for now, since it has been such a short time since then.

New resources this time around include:

• 3-line material for the Suffering (T-27) tract


• 3-line material for What We Learn... w magazine articles, which were designed to be used for studying with interested ones


• WM-Dict, a dictionary program that can currently be used to help translate among Chinese, English, German, Italian, and Serbian. It is available in Windows, Mac OS X, and Windows Mobile versions. (The Mac version is the first native Mac custom software for the Chinese field that I know of!)

Updated resources include:

• The recently renamed Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page, which now also offers MP3 audio files of the listed public talks (This page was previously named Mandarin Public Talks in DVD or iPod Video Format.)


• The Worship Book (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page, which now offers 3-line material for the complete first chapter of the Worship book (This link is still listed under the *** NEW *** heading for now.)

Talk 74 Recordings

Audio and video recordings of Mandarin public talk 74 are now available from the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page. The recordings are available in MP3, iPod video, CD, and DVD formats. Chairmen's information is also available in Simp+Pinyin+English 3-line PDF format.

For information on how to access this page, email me, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

MP3 Audio Versions of Mandarin Public Talk Video Recordings

MP3 audio file versions of existing Mandarin public talk DVDs/iPod video files are now available, and they will also be made available for all new Mandarin public talk recordings posted. MP3 audio files can be played on computers using iTunes and other programs as well. They can also be burned onto CDs or loaded onto portable music players such as iPods.

To reflect the addition of these audio files, the title of the download page has been changed from Mandarin Public Talks in DVD or iPod Video Format to Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video, and additional explanatory text has been added to it. The next Links file update will reflect this change as well.

If you’d like to obtain these audio or video recordings, you may email me for the information on how to access the Mandarin Public Talks Audio & Video page, providing information such as what group or congregation you're with, who referred you to this site, etc.

3-Line Material for What We Learn... w Magazine Articles

3-line material for the first What We Learn... w magazine article is now available. This article appeared in the Feb. 1, 2008 issue. Evidently, these articles were designed to be studied with householders, and they will appear four times a year.

The next Links file update will contain a link for downloading this material. Meanwhile, if you’d like to obtain it, you may email me for the information on how to access it.

3-Line Material for 2008 Memorial Invitations

3-line material for this year’s Memorial invitation is available at the 3-Line Translations - Theo. Study Aids... site. Click on the Misc. button, then on 2008 Memorial Invites on the resulting page to be taken to the download page.

There are Pinyin + Trad., Pinyin + Simp., Sidney Lau, and Yale versions.

Thanks to all who were involved in making these available.

OpenOffice.org Macro File Password

The password for the zip file at the Pinyin Macro for OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice & IBM Lotus Symphony page has been changed because some of the characters in the old password were causing incompatibilities.

The Links file available at the Chinese Links File page has been updated with the new password, and it is now dated 2008-02-20.

Internet Explorer and Selecting Passwords

I just discovered that Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista will not let you “select the complete password, NOT including the quotation marks” from the Links update email when it is displaying it when logged on to Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail—it insists on automatically selecting the quotation marks as well. I would not be surprised if it behaved this way on Windows XP as well, or if other versions of Internet Explorer did the same thing on whatever version of Windows they are running on, although I have not yet tested this.

This feature was surely meant to be helpful, but in this case it causes a problem instead. Here are a couple of ways to get around this:

• Select the password along with the quotation marks, then paste it into another program, like Notepad. Then, in that program, proceed to “select the complete password, NOT including the quotation marks”, etc. (Note that MS Word will behave the same way as Internet Explorer 7 unless you dig into the options and set it to not do that.)


• Use a different web browser, such as Firefox, Safari, or Opera. They are all free downloads, and they work well as web browsers. [Update 2009-04-08: Another good browser that’s now available is Google Chrome. I have not had a chance to test Internet Explorer 8 in this regard. If any of you have done so, let me know.]

Interestingly, Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista will let you exclude the quotation marks when selecting passwords from the Links file itself. The Links email is in plain text to accommodate email systems that do not support HTML mail, while the Links file itself is made up of HTML code, one of the main types of program code used for web pages.

2008-02-18 Links Update Released

The next Links file update has finally been released! Those of you who are on the list to receive email updates have been sent an email with directions on how to obtain this updated file. If you have not received this email update and would like to, email me about receiving the update and getting added to the mailing list.

Those of you who have used previous versions of the Links file will notice that it has undergone a major redesign. This redesign is intended to help make it easier to find things in the growing list of resources. Besides helping you to find what you are looking for, the system may even help you to discover resources that are available, but that you had not thought of looking for.

Hopefully it will not be too difficult to figure out how to use the redesigned file. However, I recommend that the included directions be read first. Besides including instructions and examples on how to use the new design, the directions also discuss redistribution of the file.

One of the results of the redesign is that the file may not work right when it is attached to an email. The HTML code of the file itself is standards-compliant, but I found in my testing that some email systems would not run it properly. So, the file should now be used by saving it to a drive and opening it in a modern web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. After you open it, you may want to bookmark it or add it to your Favorites for easy retrieval later on.

In addition to the new design, there are also a significant number of new and updated resources on the list. These are listed under the *** NEW *** and *** UPDATED *** index headings. Resources that are new to the list include

• blogs,


• Spanish resources,


• iPod-compatible video files,


• and 3-line Worship book material.

Hopefully, you will find this update to be worth the long wait. And now that the re-architecting has been done, future updates should follow in much less time than this one took. Enjoy!

Mr. 1-16 Audio Files

The audio files for Mr. 1-16 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

The Offline Links Are Back Online

The links that were offline, as mentioned in the previous post, are now back online. Again, sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Some Links Offline Temporarily

Some of the links will be offline temporarily while a problem with the web host is attended to, including the links for the Chinese courses and those for the km magazine presentation and computer-generated NWT audio files. The br. who arranged for this web host for us tells me it should be resolved in a few days. If there are some files you need during the next few days that are offline, just email me and I will send them to you directly. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

I have decided to delay the release of the next Links update until this is resolved, to help ensure a good experience with it for everyone. It should give me time to squeeze in at least one more goody...

Links Update Almost Ready

Work on the next Links update is nearing completion. It should only be a few more days now...

Which Course?

We are blessed to have several Mandarin courses for English-speakers listed among in the Links resources. A question that both teachers and students may face is: Which one should I/we use?

This reminds me of the question: Which one of the Gospel accounts should I read? Well, who said you could only read one? It is, in fact, generally recommended that we try to arrange to read and benefit from all of them! They have each been made available to us, and they each take a different approach, but they don’t have to be viewed as competing with each other. Rather, they can be viewed as complementing each other.

Similarly, each of the available Mandarin courses takes a different approach to teaching Mandarin, but they can also be viewed as complementing each other. Additionally, they are each also quite available—their creators have graciously made them freely available for use by those learning Mandarin for the field, and none of them are an unreasonable burden on download bandwidth or disk space.

So, why not download them all, look them over, and use whatever parts of each best suit whatever needs you or your students have? Situations and people differ, and one size may not fit all. You may end up choosing one course to be your main outline to follow, but you may also benefit from using parts of the others for certain particular things if you find they are particularly good for those things.

Speakers for Jamaica Memorial Wanted

The Mandarin Chinese group in Montego Bay, Jamaica would like to have a speaker for this year’s Memorial. If you think you may be able to help, please email Br. K. Markland by clicking here.

Lasting Peace Br. Files With New Questions Integrated

At the Lasting Peace Brochure (Chinese + Pinyin + English) page, complete files integrating the new questions from the 2005-11 km and other changes are now available in addition to the original files.

Mt. 16-28 Audio Files

The audio files for Mt. 16-28 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.

Labels Tags

“Labels” have been renamed “tags” on this blog. Also, on the right, there is now a complete list of tags used in this blog.

The service that hosts this blog uses the term “labels”, but “tags” seems to be more commonly used. For more information on labels tags, check out this old blog post and this Wikipedia entry.

Mt. 1-15 Audio Files

The audio files for Mt. 1-15 have been posted to the NWT Audio Files page.