WrittenWord
Reference
Free
WrittenWord is a free Bible study app built for iPad, featuring the complete NASB 1995 text with original language and annotation study tools — no subscriptions, no ads, no account required. Everything runs entirely on your device.
Annotate directly on the page with Apple Pencil — underline phrases, circle words, draw connections, and write margin notes that stay anchored to the text. Open a full-page drawing view for detailed study notes on any chapter.
Tap any word while in Original Language mode to see its Greek or Hebrew source, transliteration, definitions, and every occurrence across Scripture.
Create your own cross-references and footnotes to build a personalized study system alongside the built-in cross-references with confidence scoring.
Study & Annotation
- Handwritten annotations that allow for freeform annotation (Apple Pencil or stylus)
- Full-page chapter drawing view
- Full-page chapter drawing journaling template
- Text highlighting with multiple colors
- Custom cross-references and footnotes
- Note-taking system with margin indicators
- Track reading progress in up to 8 distinct locations using bookmarks
- Interlinear for Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and original language lexicons
Reading & Navigation
- Global search across all verses
- Cross-references from Lockman
- Multiple reading themes and customizable fonts
- Completely offline — no internet connection needed
Scripture quotations, cross-references and footnotes taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
more Improvements
- Annotation Diagnostics (Settings → Help) now does a better job of telling apart notes you moved yourself from notes that shifted after an iCloud sync or on their own
- If your handwritten notes shift unexpectedly, the shared diagnostic record now includes what was happening in the moments just before, to help track down the cause
1.2.2 8h ago
Improvements
- Highlights, Notebook, Footnotes and Tags now share one consistent layout, with each entry showing its reference and the date it was last edited
- Sort any of these lists by Recent, Date, or Book. Book sorts in Bible order
- Sort & Filter and Select now sit in the same place on every list
- Select several footnotes and delete them at once
- Opening a highlight or a tagged passage now briefly highlights every verse in it, not just the first
- Reading a tag in canonical order now briefly highlights each verse as you arrive
Fixes
- Swipe-to-delete no longer appears while you're selecting items in a list
1.2.1 1d ago
New Features
- Tags: label verses by theme. Select a verse and tap the tag button to create tags and add up to four tags per verse
- Choose from 20 tag colors
- Rename, recolor or delete any tag. Changes apply everywhere the tag is used
- Tagged verses show colored dots in the margin beside the verse number
- Browse all your tags from the sidebar. Sort them A–Z, Z–A, by number of verses, or in your own order
- Open a tag to see every verse in it, in Bible order or most recent first, or tap Read in Canonical Order to step through them one by one (helpful study tool)
- Export a list of all your tags and their verse references from Exports & Backups
- Tags sync across your devices with iCloud
Improvements
- Bookmarks are now sorted by most recently modified
1.2.0 2d ago
New features
- Interlinear view: select a verse and tap Interlinear to see every Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word with its transliteration, English and Strong's number, then jump to the lexicon entry and back
- Turn the chapter with a finger swipe. Choose Always, When No Tool Selected, or Off in Settings; Apple Pencil never turns the page
- Adjustable spacing for margin writing lines (Settings → Handwriting & Annotations)
- Optional bold verse numbers where a paragraph begins, as in the printed NASB (Settings → Appearance)
- Chapter references in note titles now take you to that chapter
Improvements and bug fixes
- Poetry and prose are laid out more faithfully: prose that resumes after poetry starts on its own line (as in Judges 5:31), and quotation marks and verse markers line up cleanly
- The lexicon sheet drags smoothly, closes with a tap outside, keeps your verse in view, and highlights the whole phrase you tapped
- Dragging a lasso selection past the edge of the screen now scrolls the page with it, even when zoomed in
- Cleaner original-language English, with grammatical markers like "obj." shown in grey italics
- Clearer, shorter descriptions throughout Settings, and Exports & Backups redesigned to match
- Color themes are more consistent across the app
- Updated data-source credits on the About screen
Fixes
- Exported highlights now show clean text with italics instead of formatting codes
- If a full-page note can't be saved, you'll see an alert and your writing stays on the page
1.1.4 3d ago
New Features:
- Journaling template for full-page notes
- Share any full-page note as a PDF
- Pinch to zoom in full-page notes
- Custom cross-references now link both ways: add one from Psalm 23:1 to Matthew 1:1 and it appears in Matthew 1:1 too
Bug Fixes:
- Full-page notes now autosave, so navigating to another chapter no longer lose in progress work
- Lasso selection no longer lingers when starting a new selection
- Chapter header and annotation toolbar now match chosen theme
- Added Annotation Diagnostics (Settings → Help) so users can share a log with support if handwritten notes ever shift position — this helps support track down the cause
- Updated privacy policy to describe the new diagnostics
1.1.3 Sep 4
Minor bugs and feature enhancements
- Fixed an issue where OL mode for Aramaic texts would not return an original language words
- Enhanced the full page note/drawing view user experience
- Fixed spelling errors
1.1.2 Jul 30
Fixes:
- Reliability and stability improvements, including safer backup restore and a fix for a rare word-tap crash.
- Dark mode ink and annotations fixed; pencil now writes in white on dark backgrounds, and existing annotations that were invisible in dark mode display correctly.
Enhancements:
- Improved and clarified the categorization of the settings view.
- Full-page notes now open in a floating window you can drag anywhere and resize — tuck it into the margin and keep reading or annotating while you write. The note page grows as you write, so scrolling always reflects where your notes actually end.
1.1.1 Jul 24
Bugs:
- Fix to address annotations unintentionally snapping to a line or into a line shape
- Fix to address annotations shifting (until an action) when navigating to WrittenWord chapter with annotations from another iPad app
- Fix to address chapter/verse mismatch when verse selector is enabled in the sidebar
- Fix to address out of order and out of place footnotes and cross-references (e.g., Joh 1:43)
- Fix to expand the selection for highlights and notes to allow user to select and delete one or more entry
- Fix to eliminate accidental selection of verse or OL word by shrinking the “tappable” verse boundary, especially in the whitespace at the bottom of the chapter and in the right margin (behavior is same as the default [‘null’] tool)
Features:
- Added guided tutorial for some of the common features (tutorial can be launched in the settings)
- Added setting option to never auto-reset the “finger in place” (off by default)
- Added setting option for lines in the margin for note taking (off by default)
- Added search history (allows for easy access to previously searched words and topics)
- Added book-by-book view for search results (allows filtering by category [e.g., poetry, prophets, gospels, epistles, etc.] and book)
1.1.0 Jul 21
Bug fixes and feature enhancements:
Features:
- Added feature to allow OL word and verse selection when a tool (pen, highlighter, lasso or eraser) is selected
Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug that was introducing a blocker when scrolling at the top and bottom of the chapter
- Fixed bug that caused annotations to shift when scrolling at the top and bottom of the chapter
- Fixed bug that caused annotations to shift when navigating using cross references
- Fixed bug that showed a native Swift popup when selecting an OL word or verse when a tool is enabled
1.0.2 Jun 24
Various bug fixes and feature enhancements:
Features:
- Full page drawing view toolbar modifications (makes this more similar to main annotation tool functionality)
- Updated copy/paste formatting (predominantly for poetry books)
- Increase max bookmarks to 8, changed formatting to make display more conducive for max bookmarks
- Added additional colors to match the increase in bookmarks
Bug fixes:
- Fixed unexpected behavior where tapping above the annotation bar scrolled either the canvas or the chapter view to the top
- Fixed bug with floating keyboard cutting off text
- Removed residual "re" and "ref" tags from lexicon data and OL sheet
- Fixed issue where navigating to a specific cross-reference double jumps to the bottom of the page
- Fixed issue where annotations do not persist when moving them with a lasso tool without additional touch
1.0.1 Jun 19
Improvements
- Annotation Diagnostics (Settings → Help) now does a better job of telling apart notes you moved yourself from notes that shifted after an iCloud sync or on their own
- If your handwritten notes shift unexpectedly, the shared diagnostic record now includes what was happening in the moments just before, to help track down the cause
more Version 1.2.2 8h ago
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