New Resources: NWT Bible (Pīnyīn, Web) Pages

We are undoubtedly grateful for the provision of the official Pīnyīn New World Translation Bible. The paper edition has been available for many years now, and the PDF version recently became available for download from jw.org as well. However, many find the paper edition to be too big and heavy to take out in the preaching work, since it includes the text of the entire Bible in both characters and Pīnyīn at legible sizes. The PDF version, of course, doesn’t add any bulk or weight to your mobile device, but it can take a lot of time and effort to find scriptures in it, since the only links in it are from the table of contents to the book headings. Also, the PDF file’s page size was meant for pages the size of those in the paper edition, so on smaller mobile devices especially, a lot of zooming and panning is required to navigate through the PDF.

Now, some new unofficial resources have become available that make it quicker and easier than ever to use mobile devices, etc. to look up proofread Pīnyīn text for many commonly used scriptures:

• NWT Bible (Pīnyīn, Web)
   (proofread, incomplete, unofficial,
   mobile-friendly, chapter-level links,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• NWT Bible (Pīnyīn, Web, Night Theme)
   (proofread, incomplete, unofficial,
   mobile-friendly, chapter-level links,
   black background, gray text,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/bi)

Note that:

• The material in the above resources has been carefully rendered and proofread.
• The above resources are mobile-friendly—they are quite legible and usable on everything from desktop/laptop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
• Using the links in the above resources, you can “teleport” from the table of contents to a particular book heading, from there to a particular chapter heading, from there back to its book heading, and from there back to the table of contents.
• Many of the scriptures in the above resources were collated from Pīnyīn resources prepared for the Jehovah’s Will brochure, the Good News brochure, etc. Many commonly used scriptures are already included in the above resources, and more scriptures will gradually be added to them over time.
• Turning mobile devices to landscape orientation causes the text in the above resources to become large-print text.
• For your convenience, a short link is available for the above resources.

Also, the introductions explain why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

Good News Brochure Pīnyīn Web Material For All of Lesson 5 Added

Good News brochure Pīnyīn web material for all of Lesson 5 has been added to:

• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn, Web, Scriptures)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn, Web, Scriptures, Night Theme)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly,
   black background, gray text,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/fg)

Note that:

• For your convenience, a short link is available for the above resources.
• The full text in Pīnyīn of all the cited scriptures is included in the above resources.
• The above resources are mobile-friendly—they are quite legible and usable on everything from desktop/laptop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
• Turning mobile devices to landscape orientation causes the text in the above resources to become large-print text.

Also, the introductions explain why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

See the below post for an introduction to the above resources:

• New Resources: Good News Brochure (Pinyin, Web, Scriptures) Pages

Good News Brochure Pīnyīn-English Web Material For All of Lesson 2 Added

Good News brochure Pīnyīn-English web material covering all of Lesson 2, including the full text of the cited scriptures, has been added to:

• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn-English, Web, Scriptures)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly)
• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn-English, Web, Scriptures, Night Theme)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly,
   black background, grey text)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/fg)

Note the following re the above resources:

• For your convenience, a short link is available for them.
• The full text in Pīnyīn-English of all the cited scriptures is included in them.
• They are mobile-friendly—they are quite legible and usable on everything from desktop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
• The Recommended Browsers: sections in them contain information about how to get the best viewing experience.
• Besides being viewable online, the web pages can also be downloaded and used offline. Of course, they can be printed out from your web browser as well. (More details are included in their Offline Viewing and Printing sections, which include a link to a special PDF file for printing out the content of the web pages.)

Also, the introductions explain why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

See the below post for an introduction to the above resources:

• New Resources: Good News Brochure (Pīnyīn-English, Web, Scriptures) Pages

Close to Jehovah Bk. XLP-iPhone-A5 Size LN-A 3-Line Material for Ch. 2 Posted

3-line XLP-iPhone-A5 size files for Chapter 2 of the Close to Jehovah book are now available for download:

• Close to Jehovah Book
   (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A, Scriptures,
   Revised Text PDFs)
   (linked scriptures)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/cl)

The files have LN-A (LinkNav and annotation (notes & highlighting)) support and the linked full text of cited scriptures. Pinyin+Simp. Chinese and Sidney Lau+Trad. Chinese versions of the files are available.

To help explain how the XLP-iPhone-A5 files may work well on a variety of mobile devices, the following paragraphs are included on the Close to Jehovah Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A, Scriptures, Revised Text PDFs) page:

While the regular files use letter size as the paper size, these files named with “XLP-iPhone-A5” use A5 as the paper size, and are especially suited for use on devices such as the iPhone, the iPod touch, and other devices with similarly sized screens, such as Android phones. (See the 3-Line Material on the iPhone and the iPod touch page for instructions on how to use these files on an iPhone or an iPod touch.)

The XLP-iPhone-A5 files should also be a good fit on 6" (15.2 cm) screen Kindles and other similarly sized devices, as well as on tablets with 7" (17.8 cm) screens, as long as these devices have PDF support. (Note that landscape orientation may work best, as explained on the 3-Line Material on the iPhone and the iPod touch page.) Some may prefer to use these files on larger mobile devices like the Kindle DX or the iPad as well. (See the 3-Line Material on the iPad page for instructions on how to use these files on an iPad.)

Also, instructions are included re how to download the files on an iPhone or an iPod touch using GoodReader for iPhone, and how to download the files on an iPad using GoodReader for iPad.

The relevant folders at the 3lines.org site contain an HTML file (web page) with a link to the Close to Jehovah Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A, Scriptures, Revised Text PDFs) page.

Related links:

• 3-Line Material on the iPhone and the iPod touch


• 3-Line Material on the iPad


• Printing Extra Large Print 3-Line Material


• PDF Link Navigation


• PDF Annotation (Notes & Highlighting)

Good News Brochure Pīnyīn Web Material Up to Lesson 5, Question 3 Added

Good News brochure Pīnyīn web material covering up to Lesson 5, Question 3 has been added to:

• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn, Web, Scriptures)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• Good News Brochure
   (Pīnyīn, Web, Scriptures, Night Theme)
   (proofread, mobile-friendly,
   black background, gray text,
   device to landscape ▶ large print)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/fg)

Note that:

• For your convenience, a short link is available for the above resources.
• The full text in Pīnyīn of all the cited scriptures is included in the above resources.
• The above resources are mobile-friendly—they are quite legible and usable on everything from desktop/laptop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
• Turning mobile devices to landscape orientation causes the text in the above resources to become large-print text.

Also, the introductions explain why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

See the below post for an introduction to the above resources:

• New Resources: Good News Brochure (Pinyin, Web, Scriptures) Pages

New Download Page and New Short Link for the Close to Jehovah Book

A new download page and a new short link for the Close to Jehovah book have been posted:

• Close to Jehovah Book
   (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A, Scriptures,
   Revised Text PDFs)
   (linked scriptures)
• (Short link: tiandi.info/cl)

[UPDATE, Jan. 9, 2014: The Trad. + Sidney Lau file for chap. 1 (revised text) is now available for download along with the Simp. + Pīnyīn one.]

Here is the Introduction of the Close to Jehovah Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A, Scriptures, Revised Text PDFs) page:

The XLP-iPhone-A5 size material posted below complements the Chinese Close to Jehovah book by adding romanization and English, both to the main text and to the full text of the cited scriptures.

The material is currently available in these versions:

• Simplified Chinese + Mandarin Pīnyīn
• Traditional Chinese + Cantonese Sidney Lau Romanization

While the linked full text of cited scriptures has appeared in the Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn/Sidney Lau-English web pages and EPUB files, I believe this is the first time they have been available in 3-line PDF files.

New Printing Selected Pages From a PDF Information Page Posted

A new information page has been posted:

• Printing Selected Pages From a PDF
• (Short link: tiandi.info/pdf)

Here is the Introduction of this page:

This information page contains links to instructions for printing out selected pages from a PDF using a couple of the most common PC/Mac PDF-viewing apps.

As of this writing, early in 2014, more than half of the visits to the 3lines.org website are being made with tablets like the iPad and smaller mobile devices like the iPhone, and all signs indicate that this percentage will continue to grow rapidly. Suitably formatted Chinese language-assistive material (3-line, etc.) can just be viewed on such mobile devices without having to be printed out onto paper. This makes it much easier for users to have at their fingertips all the material they need, when they need it. It also saves users from the ongoing costs of the paper, ink/toner, and time and attention needed to print that material out onto paper.

Of course, for various reasons many still need or want to print out onto paper. However, they may not always need or want to print out an entire file at a time. This is especially the case with files that contain an entire publication rather than just a chapter of one. (Examples of files that contain an entire publication include the official Pīnyīn and Sidney Lau PDF files, and the existing unofficial Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn/Sidney Lau-English web pages and PDFs.) Even with a file that contains “only” a chapter’s worth of material, often users will only want to print out a few selected pages of it, rather than the whole thing.

Something that may understandably confuse some users is that with some PDFs, the page numbers shown in the content do not match with the page numbers that must be used for printing purposes. Also, some PDFs do not even have page numbers indicated in the content at all. For example, the official PDF files (English, Chinese, Pīnyīn, etc.) for the Jehovah’s Will brochure do not have visible page numbers, probably since the big Lesson numbers already provide strong indications of where one is in the publication. Another example is that the PDF files produced for more convenient printing of web pages like the Jehovah’s Will Brochure (Pīnyīn-English, Web, Scriptures) page omit visible page numbers in the content because:

1. The Lesson numbers already provide strong indications of where one is in the publication.
2. Commonly-used PDF-viewing apps clearly display the page numbers used for selecting pages to print, regardless of whether page numbers in the content match these, or even appear.
3. With the best overall way that could be found to produce the PDFs, the only way to add visible page numbers would have produced visually unattractive results.
4. With the best overall way that could be found to produce the PDFs, the only way to add visible page numbers would have added significantly to the number of pages that would have needed to be printed out, raising paper, ink/toner, and printing time costs for users.

The below information can help users to print out only selected pages from PDFs without unreasonable difficulty, even in cases such as those mentioned above.