This newer page contains newer versions of many of the ebooks here.
This page describes ebooks in various formats, and programs for various platforms that can read the mentioned formats. This is not exhaustive: if you know of or create others, contact me using the link by the flag.
If you find problems with any of these links or any of the content of the ebooks, let me know, using the contact me link at the top right.
Printed versions of these books are available from their respective publishers. None of these ebooks are in an appropriate form for printing, they are meant to enhance the printed edition, to make finding a particular item easier by computer-aided searching. For books that have copyright restrictions in your country, you should only download these books if you already own a printed version. If you wish a printed version you should purchase it from the appropriate publisher or distributor. For the hymnbooks, the publisher usually has both words only and music editions available.
Recent changes to the site (thanks for the reports of issues)
2 January 2015: Updated the "HTML Hymns" column with new links and many more books included in that new format.
9 November 2014: Replaced Hymnbooks references with link to R. L. Allan & Son web site, where it can now be purchased. Removed .bookix and .bookindex formats, no supported software uses them directly. Removed the music bundles; the new and upcoming HTML Hymns supersedes them. Removed the following programs because they are no longer supported, and either no longer work for new installations, or have better alternatives on all platforms: Book Index, Hymns for Android, Hymns for BlackBerry. Fixed link to "Tips for using ebook readers" at top of page.
12 September 2014: New HTML Hymns ebook application created. Link to it added in a new section of the Recommendations.
30 May 2014: New version of HFMultiIndex, a cross-reference program.
6 March 2014: Add EPUBReader for Firefox and Hymns OandN for Android to software lists. Update list of Android Apps for other formats also.
31 October 2013: Add recommendation section; several music ebooks
1 October 2013: Add Evernote format for all book master formats, and music edition for English HON1987
1 October 2013: Add new English table grace
1 October 2013: New: Hymns.Afrikaans.Liedere Oud En Nuut 1989
1 October 2013: New: Hymns by Elma Wiebe 2013 and Poems by Elma Wiebe 2013 and Hymns by Ken Paginton
20 September 2013: New: HFMultiIndex, a cross-reference program.
29 July 2013: Add Evernote column and entry for English HON 1987. Evernote has a version for Macintosh, Windows, and many mobile platforms.
1 March 2013: Add instructions for installing .gbk.twm files for theWord
25 February 2013: Fix spelling error in 1979 Spanish book #237
11 November 2012: Add links to David's new iOS and Android apps
25 August 2012: Fix links to Portuguese and Chinese hymnbooks, as they were renamed.
11 August 2012: Add hand-crafted versions of Hymns Old and New 1987 in the epub and MySword formats, that were submitted by interested and clever users.
9 August 2012: Added 2012 edition of Sam Jones hymns. The corresponding music book has been partly renumbered, so the old edition is left to match the 2009 music edition.
9 August 2012: Himnos 1979, hymn #70, chorus formatting fixed.
9 August 2012: Added links for BlackBerry PlayBook, Overdrive Media Console
9 August 2012: Merged data columns for mobile hymns: Android, Blackberry, BlackBerry PlayBook, PhoneGap-developed program for iOS and several others.
9 August 2012: fixed links to Romanian book. Only .bookindex was working.
14 January 2012: updated Russian ebooks to include copyright information.
12 January 2012: fixed link for Russian .bookix file.
15 October 2011: Revised Hymns Old and New 1987 to contain author, composer, and metric indexes. Also add such indexes to other books where the data supported them in a reasonable way.
15 October 2011: Added limited support for Android MySword.
15 October 2011: Updated French book to use first lines instead of titles in the table of contents.
15 October 2011: Added a new "Indexed" form of PDF. The plain PDF files contain no indexes, and depend entirely on the reader's search facility to find things. They are small, though, so useful. The "Indexed" PDF (.x.pdf) includes a set of PDF bookmarks, and, at the end, a variety of indexes with links.
15 October 2011: The primary table of contents for epub format has been changed from individual hymns to ranges of hymns. This allows for faster navigation when you know the number of the hymn, on devices that do not support traversing hyperlinks. For devices that support hyperlinks, the full table of contents is also available as an index, and is listed near the top of the primary table of contents.
15 October 2011: Added Dziesmas
15 October 2011: Added separate English title index to Chinese book
15 October 2011: updated bookmaster documentation
5 September 2011: Added "Tips" section to this document
16 August 2011: Added theWord format ebooks, reference your Bible and hymnbooks in the same program at the same time! To support theWord, the BookMaster format changed slightly (of interest to programmers)
13 August 2011: Added Palm OS Documents To Go program
13 August 2011: Fixed download link for Hymn Finder 2010a
13 August 2011: Fixed links containing accented characters
13 August 2011: Added ebooks
Issues reported or known and not yet fixed
15 October 2011: Android MySword support is done by using a conversion program from theWord modules. The results are not pretty, but the text is complete. An alternative is to use an Android ebook reader and one of the ebook formats, until this can be improved. But the MySword search feature is reportedly faster than most ebook readers.
15 October 2011: Need 600x800 scan or photo of Dziesmas before I can produce the MOBI format of this book.
15 October 2011: The names of the indexes were translated by Google Translate. If they are awkward, and you know the language, please suggest better translations, I'll be delighted to adjust the files.
Recommendations
There are many varieties of ebooks for quite a large collection of hymnbooks, so this makes choosing the right one or ones a bit daunting. If you are already used to a particular one, and are just here to download it to a new computer or device, that is fine: the best one is one you already know how to use.
Words only, text searching options, music images, and music playback
The only solution I'm aware of that is cross-platform and includes words only display, text search, music images, and music playback is available here, but only for one book, so far. Music images and playback may never be available for some books in this format. Contributions welcome.
Words only, and text searching options
One of the most powerful ebook versions here are based on Evernote, a generic note-taking and note-searching software. Pre-created Evernote notebooks containing hymnbooks can be shared by following the "start" links in that column. If Evernote is available for your computer or device (many are supported), it is highly recommended, and you might find it useful for general note taking as well. N.B. On some devices, Evernote will not sync the notebook locally, but you can create a new local notebook using that device, and copy all the notes from a joined notebook to the local notebook.
If you use theWord or MySword Bible software, you might enjoy having the hymnbook texts available in the same program.
If you want to minimize installation of new software, one of the PDF versions might be appropriate, as most computers and devices have software for displaying PDF files preinstalled. Together with iBooks, the .pdf version is extremely fast and friendly on iOS devices.
For Windows computers, the original hymnbook ebook, Hymn Finder, is still available with several languages supported.
.epub and .mobi formats for general ebook readers are also available, as well as some custom software for mobile platforms (phones and tablets). Software for those formats for various platforms fills most of this document after the table. Finding a good ebook reader for your computer or device, if you have a choice, can make a huge difference. Some ebook readers do not have search, some do: of these, some have one-item-at-a-time search, some produce a list of results in context (like a concordance). Since I don't have most of these ebook readers or devices, feedback from you is important to help others find a good one.
Available ebooks
Note that table is scrollable, not all items are visible concurrently.
"See" links take you to another download page.
"Yes" links are direct download links to a book (which may need a device-specific program to view it; such program may come with the device, or there may be a link in the next section to help find a suitable program).
"Start" links take you to the Evernote site, ready to view the ebook, and subscribe to their service (free or paid, depending on your needs).
MOBI format is restricted to languages supported by Amazon, not including those marked with a (*).
(4)
Need a 600x800 or greater scan or photo of this book cover before the .mobi version can be produced.
(5)
This is a customized version, that eliminates blank pages that appear in the iOS version. If you discover blank pages when viewing the "autogenerated" file, try this one instead. Thanks to Lyle for doing the customization.
(6)
This is a hand-crafted version of Hymns Old and New 1987 for use with MySword. The automatic converters available for MySword don't produce a very pleasing result. Although the data is all there and all readable, the layout could be improved. Thanks to Greg for producing this version of this book with better layout.
(7)
Evernote is note taking and synchronization software that runs on several computer, tablet, and smartphone platforms, and in browsers, as listed in the link. The "start" links in the chart above take you to the browser form (choose View Notebook), which can also be a starting point for including a local copy on your computer and/or device, if you have a free Evernote account and software (choose Join Notebook). There are also "unofficial" clients for Evernote, discussed here.
(8)
In addition to the words-only notebook above, there are two music edition notebooks available. The DJVU notebook is smallest, but requires support for DJVU in Evernote and a graphics viewer program on the target platform (Windows + IrfanView, for example). The PDF notebook is over twice as large, but support for PDF files is more universal.
Books in progress
You can contribute other books to this page. Contact me to learn how, and sign up for a particular collection, to keep the work from being done twice.
Chinese Pinyin - GL
Poems of Bessie Sheaf - HSD
Poems collected by Willie Hughes - HSD
Hymns by John Martin - GL
Hymns by Willis Propp - GL
Poems by Gladys Porteous - GL
Hymns by Gladys Porteous - GL
Bibles
There is a lot of bible software available on the web with many translations of the Bible. For Windows, I like and use theWord, having formerly used e-Sword, which is OK too, but it is hard to make add-on hymnbooks for eSword, due to poor documentation. For Android, MySword comes highly recommended. There are also many versions in ebook formats, just search the web. For convenience, here are a few formats of the King James Bible: Evernote, .epub, .mobi, .pdf, .txt.
Tips for using ebook readers
Please contribute to these tips if you discover something interesting.
Search features vary among ebook readers, so finding one with a good search feature is a worthwhile endeavor. Some search features search only the current page or chapter, some the whole book. Of the latter, some jump from match to match each time you say "find again"; a better technique is to display a list of matches in context (like a concordance or KWIK index).
Note that the EPUB format is based on HTML, and the .epub file itself is actually a renamed ZIP file. If you lack an ebook reader, but have a web browser, might check to see if your browser has an addon or extension or app for displaying EPUB files; otherwise, you may be able to download the EPUB file, unzip it, and point the web browser at the various HTML or XHTML files that are found within, and read the book that way. Another alternative is to read the TXT file in a browser, if your text editor cannot display it properly. You may need to tell the browser the text file is in UTF-8 encoding.
Finding a particular hymn by number:
Using theWord:
Select the "Items by number" index, and hover over the number (the hymn will be displayed in a popup window) or click the number to navigate to that hymn in the main display.
Using a reader with hyperlinks
Select the "Items by number" index, and click on the nearest number, which maybe bigger or smaller. The particular hymn may be before or after the page you get to, just scroll a page or two.
Using a reader without hyperlinks
More scrolling will be required than in the prior cases, and the indexes will be useful only as summary information, not for navigation.
If your reader has a Table of Contents feature, the first entries in the Table of Contents attempt to get you somewhat near the particular hymn. Choose the range including that hymn, then scroll as needed to find it.
If your reader has a search feature, searching for the number may be a fast way to reach it.
If you are using theWord, be sure to add a "Book search view" subwindow as well as the "Bible search view" subwindow.
Your tips go here, if you report some.
Devices and ebook readers
The following chart lists various computers and devices, and ebook software that is able to read some or all of the various formats of available ebooks in the chart above. If you know of or can recommend particular software on a particular platform, contact me to let me know, so I can add it to this list.
Feedback from iOS users is that PDF for the words only edition is quite well handled on iOS with iBooks. In iBooks, dragging across the bottom of the PDF shows you the page number, which is also the hymn number. When a hymn is displayed on a full sheet of paper, a simple double-tap will discard the white space, and expand the words to fill the screen. The Kindle format requires multiple pages per hymn and page turning isn't as easy with .mobi/Kindle as scrolling one one page using .pdf/iBooks.
For the music edition, FileApp can unzip and allow selection of individual files from the music collection.
theWord Bible software
To install .twm modules after installing theWord, copy them to "C:\ProgramData\The Word\Books". Since ProgramData is generally a hidden or system folder, you might have to turn on the Windows Explorer options to view hidden and system folders, to be able to find the destination location.
Hymn Finder
Hymn Finder download and installation instructions.
Brought to you by the author of the original Hymn Finder, this multi-language cross-reference comes as a Windows program, or a Google Sheet, accessible from many platforms, and downloadable in many spreadsheet formats.
The program is in two parts, place both parts in the same directory. Download part 1 and part 2. Create a shortcut to the first part on your desktop or pin it to your taskbar (Vista+) or a tile (Win8+).