Cite the book you used — Bibliography footnotes in the sermon notes
Bibliography in BibleSlides stores the commentary in SBL form and writes a footnote where the cursor sits in the sermon notes. Search by ISBN, title, or author, or add the book by hand. Insert pins the source to this sermon. The first note is the full citation. A later note on the same book shortens. The house screen stays on the passage. Notes and Bibliography (SBL) sit under the manuscript and at the end of the tablet notes.
Luke 3:23 gives Jesus’ age at the start of his ministry. You know which chronology you used on Tuesday. By the next time you preach the passage, the notes say “as Hoehner observes,” and the page is gone. The room never needed that citation on the wall. You needed it beside the sentence, in a form you can open again.
Bibliography in BibleSlides is that shelf. It keeps sources in the form of the SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd ed., writes a footnote at the cursor in the sermon notes, and lists the books you actually cited at the end of the manuscript. The verse stays on the screen. The tool gets out of the way.
A commentary helps the church when you can find the page again. The congregation hears the text. The note keeps the book.
Which tool holds the source
| Moment | Use |
|---|---|
| Read Luke 3:23, with the reference and the translation | Bible Verse |
| Put one catechism line or a sentence from Augustine on the wall | Quote |
| Park on what a single word means | Definition |
| Record the book and the page you used | Bibliography |
A book study keeps that footnote in the same document as the notes and the verse slides. Scripture still leads. The citation supports the text you came to preach.
Open the shelf
In the sidebar, under LIBRARIES, choose Bibliography. The tooltip reads: “Bibliography: SBL sources for footnotes and Works Cited.”
The window title is SBL Bibliography. The line under it reads: “Manage citations in SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd ed.”
The tabs are Library, Manual, Import, and Bibliography.
Two shelves sit above the list:
| Shelf | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Personal library | Sources saved on your account, ready for the next sermon |
| This project | “Sources pinned to this project” — the books this sermon is using |
An empty personal shelf says No sources in your library yet. Enter manually opens the form. An empty project shelf says No sources pinned to this project yet.
Until you are signed in, the window says: “Sign in to save and manage your bibliography library.”
Find the book, then read the preview
On Library, the search field placeholder is ISBN, title, or author… The sort menu is titled Sort library results and starts on Recently added.
Search online looks up that same query. While it runs, the button reads Searching… and the list says Searching online catalogs… The catalogs named on the results are OpenAlex, CrossRef, Open Library, Google Books, and Semantic Scholar. The section heading is Online catalogs.
Add puts that result on your personal library. While it saves, the button reads Adding… The hover note is “Add this source to your personal library.” Adding the book does not yet put a footnote in the notes. Select the row, then insert.
Until a row is selected, the right side says Select an item to view details.
Page(s) is where the page you used goes. The placeholder is 127. With a book selected, the library shows Full footnote and Short footnote so you can read the line before it enters the manuscript.
Insert writes the footnote at the cursor in the notes and pins that source to this sermon.
A few searches stop with a plain sentence:
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| No matches in your library. | Search online, or switch to Manual |
| No online matches. Try a fuller title, author last name, or ISBN. | Widen the title, or add the book by hand |
| Enter an ISBN, title, or author to search. | The field is empty |
| Invalid ISBN — enter 10 or 13 digits, or search by title/author. | Check the digits, or search by the author’s last name |
| Sign in to search online catalogs and add sources. | Sign in, then search again |
Put the footnote where you will say it
You can also start from the notes. The toolbar button is the asterisk. Its name is Insert footnote. The shortcut starts as Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N on a Mac).
That opens the note. A new one is a free-text note. The hint shows the footnote style in capitals, then “free-text note.” The box starts with Your note or citation… and the pattern for the style you have chosen. On Chicago, that pattern is: “First Last, Title of Work (City: Publisher, Year), page(s).”
Cite from library… is the button that ties the note to a source. Its hover note is “Link this footnote to a bibliography source.” The window that opens is titled Insert footnote, and the line under the title reads: “Search your library or online catalogs, then insert.” On that path the preview heading is Citation preview. Insert fills the note you already opened, and pins the source to this sermon.
After a source is attached, the hint is the author’s last name, the title, and the year. Change source… picks a different book. Pages takes the page, with the placeholder e.g. 42–45. Form is Auto (full then short), Full, or Short. Note is “Optional commentary after the citation…” — a sentence of your own after the citation. Edit text… turns the note into words you type yourself. Done saves. Remove deletes the footnote.
A click on the number in the notes jumps to that note in the list under the manuscript. A double-click opens the editor again. An empty note, on hover, reads: “(Empty footnote — double-click to edit).”
In a note you are typing, Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac) saves, the same as Done.
What the line looks like
The first time a source is cited, with Form left on Auto (full then short), the note is the full SBL footnote. The next time that same source is cited, the note shortens.
When the entry is stored as Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, publisher Zondervan Academic, year 2010, and Page(s) is 42, the full note is:
Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Zondervan Academic, 2010), 42.
With no city on the entry, the parentheses hold the publisher and the year. When a city is stored, it sits in front of the publisher with a colon.
The short note keeps the author’s last name, the first four words of the title, and the page:
Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the, 42.
Read Short footnote or Citation preview before Sunday if that shortened title is not the wording you want to keep. Set Form to Full and press Done when every citation of that book should stay the long line.
A Note you typed is placed after the citation. Four or more authors shorten to the first author’s last name and “et al.” on the short form.
Copy full and Copy short put that line on the clipboard. After a copy, the button reads Copied!
Pin, on a personal-library book you have not pinned, puts the source on this sermon without a footnote yet. Unpin takes it off this sermon’s shelf. A footnote you already inserted keeps the words that were written into it. The Bibliography (SBL) list at the end of the notes includes a source only while that source is still pinned to this project.
Where the citation lives on Sunday
The list under the manuscript is headed Notes. Each note is numbered in the order it appears in the document. When a pinned source was cited, Bibliography (SBL) follows that list.
On the tablet, that same block is added once, at the end of the notes. Export and print use the same notes block.
The house screen shows the slide. Luke 3:23 stays the thing the room is reading. The citation stays in the notes, where you are looking, and at the end of the tablet notes when you need the page.
Footnote style
The gear in the header opens Options on the Layout tab. Choose Preferences. The Footnote style label tooltip reads: “Style for speaker-note footnotes in the editor and on the tablet. Numbering resets in each notes section between slides.” The list BibleSlides builds is one sequence for the whole manuscript, in the order the notes appear, under a single Notes heading. On the tablet that block is added once, at the end of the notes. Save Options keeps the style you picked.
A new account starts on Chicago (Notes-Bibliography). The menu also lists Turabian, SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed.), and MLA (9th ed.). The sentence under the menu is the description of the style you have selected. Under that, Bible example: shows the pattern. Chicago’s example is “Gen. 1:1 (ESV).” SBL’s example is “Gen 1:1 (ESV).”
A citation you Insert from the library is written in SBL form either way. Footnote style sets the look of the Notes list, and the pattern offered when you type a note yourself. Choosing SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed.) also drops the period after common Bible book abbreviations inside a note (Gen. becomes Gen).
When the catalog does not have the book
Manual is the form. The heading is Manual entry, and the line under it reads: “Add a source by hand when online lookup is not enough.”
Type lists book, article, chapter, thesis, website, and dictionary. Authors (Last, First; separate multiple with semicolons) starts with the placeholder Talbert, Charles H. Title is required. For an article, the container field is Journal. For a chapter, it is Book title.
Once a title is in, Preview — full footnote and Preview — bibliography show the lines BibleSlides will store. Save entry keeps it. While it saves, the button reads Saving… Editing an existing row changes the tab name to Edit Entry, and the button to Update entry. Cancel returns to Library.
Import is for a list you already have. The line under Import bibliography reads: “Paste BibTeX or plain SBL-style lines, or upload a JSON array of entries.” The box placeholder is BibTeX or plain bibliography lines… Parse import reads them (Parsing… while it works). The save button then reads Save plus the number of entries, as in Save 3 entries. Upload JSON takes a JSON file of entries.
The Bibliography tab is the shelf itself, not only the books cited in this manuscript. The heading is Final bibliography. The line under it reads: “Alphabetized SBL bibliography. Entries are single-spaced with a blank line between each.” Personal library or This project chooses which shelf. Copy all and Download .txt export it. The file name is bibliography.txt. Refresh reloads the list. An empty shelf says No entries to export yet.
Saturday, on Luke 3:23
- Put Luke 3:23 on a Bible Verse slide, in the translation you will read.
- In the notes, under the sentence where you will count the years, set the cursor.
- Open Bibliography, or use Insert footnote and then Cite from library…
- Search Hoehner, or Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Search online when it is not on your shelf yet. Add the catalog result, then select it.
- Type the page you used in Page(s). Read Full footnote or Citation preview. Insert.
- Later in the same manuscript, a second citation of that book follows Auto (full then short) unless you set Form to Full.
- Present. The room sees the verse. You keep Notes and Bibliography (SBL) in the editor, and at the end of the tablet notes.
The 42 in the full-note example is whatever you type in Page(s). Read the preview. A catalog result may fill the city, the publisher, or the year differently from a book you entered by hand.
FAQ
Will the congregation see the footnote on the screen?
The house screen shows the slide. The footnote stays in the sermon notes: in the Notes list under the manuscript, and once at the end of the tablet notes.
Search online came back empty.
Use Manual. Set Type, enter the author as Last, First, fill Title, and read Preview — full footnote. Save entry, return to Library, type the page, and Insert.
The second note cut the title off.
The short form keeps the first four words of the title. Open the footnote, set Form to Full, and press Done.
I want every book on my shelf, not only the ones this sermon cites.
Open the Bibliography tab. Choose Personal library or This project. Copy all or Download .txt. The Bibliography (SBL) block under the notes lists cited sources that are still pinned to this project.
The line should be on the wall, with the author’s name under it.
That is a Quote slide. Bibliography is the source in the notes.
The window will not save.
Sign in. The banner reads: “Sign in to save and manage your bibliography library.” Online search asks: “Sign in to search online catalogs and add sources.”
Plans
Bibliography is on every plan, including Free. It sits with Suggestions, Favorites, and Recent Slides in LIBRARIES. It does not show a crown. Saving the library and searching the online catalogs require a signed-in account.
BibleSlides can hold the book and the page in the notes — and then leave the screen to the verse the church came to hear.
Related guides
See BibleSlides features
Notes and slides in one document, Bible Verse slides, stepped markup, Verse Analysis, 3D maps, BiblePlaces photos, and tablet presenter apps — built for pastors who teach Scripture.