Bible Widget

A transparent desktop widget that displays Bible verses on your screen. It sits on top of everything, stays out of the way, and gives you a new verse every hour (or daily if you prefer).

Features

• Transparent overlay — blends into your desktop, just shows the verse
• Drag anywhere — click and drag to move it wherever you want
• Constant size with smart text fit — the window sits in the top-right corner at a fixed size; when a verse is long, the font shrinks to fit instead of the window growing or moving
• 25 Bible translations — 14 languages: Arabic, Chinese (×2), German, Greek, English (×8), Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish (×2), French, Korean, Portuguese (×3), Romanian, Russian, Vietnamese
• Menu Language picker — right-click the tray icon to change the tray menu text to any of 14 languages, independent from your Bible translation
• Prayers — right-click the tray icon → Prayers → choose from 6 prayers (The Lord's Prayer, Jonah's Prayer, Mary's Magnificat, Job's Prayer, Acts 4:24-26, Solomon's Prayer) with prev/next navigation, scrollable text, and Amen button
• Hourly mode — shows a random passage every hour
• Daily mode — shows the same verse all day (changes at midnight)
• Copy Verse — right-click the tray icon → Copy Verse to copy the current reference and text to your clipboard
• Stats — right-click the tray icon → Stats to see uptime, verse count, mode, and next refresh in a popup (no terminal needed)
• Change Quote — instantly get a new verse from the tray menu
• Run on Startup — toggle in the tray menu to auto-launch when you log in. Survives folder renames — no broken paths.
• Translation and Menu Language save automatically — your Bible selection and menu language are remembered between launches
• Stats for Nerds — click Stats in the tray menu to see uptime, verse count, mode, next refresh, and more in a popup window (no terminal required)
• Works offline — all Bible data bundled locally, no internet needed after setup

Requirements

• Windows (10 or 11)
• Python 3.8+ installed with "Add Python to PATH" checked
• PySide6 (run dependencies.bat to install it automatically)

Quick Start

1. Run dependencies.bat — this installs PySide6 if you don't have it
2. Double-click start_widget.vbs to launch the widget (no terminal window)
3. Right-click the cross icon in your system tray to change modes, pick a translation, change the menu language, open prayers, copy the verse, view stats, or exit

Alternative launch

• stop_widget.bat — kills the widget if needed

Files

File	What it does
dependencies.bat	Check/install PySide6
start_widget.vbs	Launch widget silently (no terminal)
stop_widget.bat	Stop the widget
widget_window.py	The main widget code
prayer_window.py	Prayer overlay window — scrollable, cycle through 6 prayers
menu_strings.py	Tray menu text translations (14 languages)
bible_loader.py	Loads Bible data and picks verses
bibles/	All 25 Bible JSON files + index.json (~100 MB)
prayers/	6 prayers in all 25 translations (prayers.json)
translation.txt	Saved Bible translation preference
language.txt	Saved menu language preference

How It Works

The widget loads all 25 translations at startup (~100 MB in memory). Each time a new verse is requested, it picks a random book, chapter, and starting verse, then grabs 1-5 consecutive verses. The window automatically resizes to fit the text — long verses get smaller fonts and wrap to multiple lines.

In daily mode, the verse is seeded by the current date so everyone gets the same verse on the same day.

The tray menu can be displayed in any of 14 languages, independent from which Bible translation you're reading.

Adding a New Translation

Place a Bible JSON file in the bibles/ folder. The widget auto-discovers it on next launch. The file should follow one of these formats:

Standard format (most Bibles):

{
  "Genesis": {
    "1": {
      "1": "In the beginning...",
      "2": "And the earth..."
    }
  }
}

Array format (like the Arabic Bible):

[
  {
    "name": "Genesis",
    "chapters": [
      ["In the beginning...", "And the earth..."],
      [...]
    ]
  }
]

If you add a new file, also add its info to bibles/index.json for proper display names:

{
  "language": "English",
  "versions": [
    { "name": "My Translation", "abbreviation": "my_trans" }
  ]
}

Adding a New Menu Language

Add a new entry to LANGUAGES in menu_strings.py with the 2-letter language code and all translated menu strings.

License

Bible Widget by Pure Tech is marked CC0 1.0 Universal

All Bible texts are public domain. JSON data sourced from thiagobodruk/bible (CC0).