News
July 2026
Parallel text panels are always available
Improvements: The parallel (split-pane) editor view is always opened even when no source project has been configured, allowing the secondary tab pane to be used for resources or other content without … read more
June 2026
Improved workflow for generating drafts of new books
Updates Users can now draft any book that exists in the selected source, even if that book is not already present in the target project. This makes it easier to start drafting newly available books wi… read more
Improved training book selection directions
Updates An updated warning notice is now displayed to users who still have Translation Suggestions enabled, providing a specific removal date, clearer language, and a contact email link. Improvements … read more
Improved load times when previewing drafts in the edit and review area
Improvements: Navigating between chapters in the Draft tab is now significantly faster, as the full book’s draft is cached after the first load rather than fetching each chapter individually. Wh… read more
Chapter overwrite notifications and previews
Improvements: When a generated draft is applied to a book, the specific chapters that will be overwritten are listed and can be viewed before proceeding. Users can now preview and change the formattin… read more
May 2026
Improved reliability when connecting to resources
Improvements:Improved reliability of Paratext resource syncing by ensuring project settings are correctly migrated and updated. Bug Fixes:Fixed an issue where duplicate resource names could cause inst… read more
Statistical machine translations will be retired later this year
Updates: Translation suggestions based on the older statistical machine translation tool will be retired later this year. Projects that have this feature turned on will see a banner on the Edit & … read more
Permissions-related navigation improvements
Improvements: Users can now navigate to and view drafted books even if those books are not yet part of their project. Copyright and licensing information for translations is now displayed in the draft… read more
April 2026
Onboarding form improvements
Improvements: The language code field in the onboarding form is now pre-filled to reduce user confusion and submission errors. Localization has also been improved for the form. Project admins can now … read more
Performance improvements for community checking
Improvements: Community checking pages load more quickly for projects with lots of questions. The community checking question import confirmation page now displays the correct label when importing que… read more
Improved error handling and clearer error messages
Improvements: Better error messages are now shown when importing questions from spreadsheets that are missing required columns. Bug Fixes: The formatting options button no longer appears on the draft … read more
March 2026
Sign-up form now hosted on the Scripture Forge site
New Features: The sign‑up form for draft generation is now hosted directly on the Scripture Forge site rather than linking to an external Smartsheet form. Source and reference projects can now be sele… read more
Improvements for formatting options and adding drafts to projects
Improvements: Users will now be reminded to configure formatting options before requesting a new draft when no formatting settings exist for the previous draft. Project admins can add a draft to a boo… read more
Bug fixes for adding drafts to projects and importing questions
Bug Fixes: Users now receive a warning during the Add to Project workflow if they select a project they do not have permission to edit. Notes can now be imported from Paratext as Community Checking qu… read more
Last selected destination project is now prefilled when importing drafts
Improvements: The project selected for importing generated drafts is now remembered and automatically filled in the next time you import another draft. Application load times have been improved throug… read more
Draft generation add to project improvements
Improvements: Adding generated drafts to a project is now more intuitive and uses a cleaner dialog The previously selected books to translate are no longer chosen by default when starting a new draft … read more
February 2026
Guidance for early New Testament draft generation
New Features: New guidance is now available to help early New Testament projects understand when and how to use incremental drafting and quality estimates. Improvements: Book ranges are now listed con… read more
Offline for maintenance on 25 Feb
Scripture Forge will be unavailable for about 1-2 hours on 25 February 2026 starting at 16:30 UTC for scheduled maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your patie… read more
Better default verse reference selection for community checking questions
Improvements: When adding a Community Checking question, the selected verse is now used as the default verse reference. Draft completion status is now reported more reliably on the Generate Draft page… read more
February 12 maintenance
Scripture Forge will be unavailable for about 1-2 hours on 12 February 2026 starting at 16:30 UTC for scheduled maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Update: Maintenance is c… read more
Improved guardrails for selecting training data
Improvements: Improved detection of books that can be used for training data so that empty books are no longer accidentally selected. The Translation Overview page now shows a clearer error message wh… read more
Create questions from a specific category of Paratext notes
New Features: Questions for Community Checking can now be imported directly from Paratext notes. Use a Paratext tag to mark any notes you want to import as questions. Bug Fixes: Fixed an error that oc… read more
January 2026
Paratext 7 resource compatibility fixes
Improvements: Versification and stylesheets for older resources in Paratext 7 format are now correctly migrated to the Paratext 9 format required for draft generation. Canceled drafts now display deta… read more
Improvements when uploading additional training data files
Improvements: A warning message now appears if an uploaded training data file is not formatted correctly. Full file names for additional training data files are now visible when hovering, even if the … read more
Quotation mark style consistency can more frequently be applied
Improvements: The option to preserve quotation mark style from training data will now appear more often, thanks to an optimized detection process that no longer depends on consistency in the source pr… read more
Faster biblical terms tabs
Improvements: Biblical terms now load faster, especially for users with many notes. Bug Fixes: For Back Translation projects, the supported languages dialog can now be closed.… read more
December 2025
Training data bug fix
Bug Fixes: Corrected an issue where training data was incorrectly set for languages included in the NLLB foundation model.… read more
Draft generation bug fixes
Update: The option to enable legacy translation suggestions is no longer available for projects that haven’t already activated them. Bug Fixes: Target project books not used for training data will no … read more
November 2025
Community checking answer visibility improvements
Improvements: Users with permission to add and edit community checking questions can now view answers to questions they haven’t personally answered. Improved layout for error messages on small screens… read more
Improved formatting previews
Improvements: On the Formatting Options page, the preview now automatically displays the first chapter with a generated draft. Added support for links with titles in footnotes and introductions in som… read more
Fixes for fonts and footnotes
Improvements: Verse text in the Insights panel will be rendered with the project font. Bug Fixes: Untranslated footnotes will no longer be erroneously inserted into generated drafts. Corrected an erro… read more
All Paratext members now listed on Users page
Improvements: The Users page now lists Paratext members who haven’t yet joined the project in Scripture Forge. Clarified the information requested in the email template when users report an error. Bug… read more
October 2025
Custom font support improved
Improvements: When a project has a custom font configured, it will now be applied consistently across all project text, including questions and answers, draft previews, key term renderings, and notes.… read more
Formatting options for mid-verse paragraph breaks and quotation mark style
New Features: Users can now choose how USFM paragraph break markers are handled in generated drafts and preserve the quotation mark style from the training data. Improvements: Added support for Deemaw… read more
Faster draft generation
Updates: On September 16, the way that generated drafts display quotation style characters and USFM format markers for paragraph breaks was updated. User settings for changing these options are coming… read more
User-level toggles for enabling or disabling Insights
Improvements: Translators can now enable or disable Insights from the Edit & Review page if Insights have been activated by a project administrator. If the selected draft source lacks content for … read more
September 2025
Inline punctuation editing insights
New Features: Projects can now enable inline editing insights for English-style punctuation and Latin script characters. This feature must be activated by a project administrator via the Settings page… read more
Access previously-generated drafts
New Features: Previously-generated drafts (from June 2025 onward) can now be viewed and downloaded from the Generate Draft page. Improvements: On the My projects page, projects listed under “Not conne… read more
August 2025
Draft ready notification e-mails
New Features: Users can now opt to receive an e-mail notification when draft generation is complete. Improvements: The Configure Sources workflow has been reordered: reference data is selected first, … read more
Draft configuration summary
Improvements: The configuration summary table for language models is now displayed on small screens.… read more
Improved active verse highlighting for RTL languages
Improvements: Verse highlighting in right-to-left (RTL) languages now displays correctly, including placement of active verse indicators and USFM labels. Bug Fixes: Fixed an error that occurred when a… read more
July 2025
Navigate between community checking questions using keyboard
Improvements: Users are now able to navigate between questions in community checking using the tab and enter keys on the keyboard… read more
Expanded community checking permissions and improved UX for additional data for draft generation
Improvements: Users with Paratext roles—consultant, reviewer, archivist, or typesetter—are now automatically authorized to answer community checking questions. Additional training data files are now l… read more
Sync improvements
Improvements: Source projects can now be synced by users with Paratext observer permissions. Additional training data (spreadsheet format) can now be added to any project without requiring a special c… read more
Export option for community checking questions
Improvements: Community checking questions can now be exported as a CSV file. The Review Draft Setup page at the beginning of the the draft generation workflow now displays the short names for each pr… read more
June 2025
Fixes for draft source configuration bugs and broken links
Bug Fixes: Resolved errors in project selection on the draft source configuration page. Fixed broken links on the Page Not Found error page.… read more
Expanded version restoration functionality
Improvements: If USFM is invalid, you can now restore to a version where it was valid. Bug Fixes: Verse ranges are now correctly listed on the Manage Questions page for Community Checking, instead of … read more
May 2025
Warning for unsaved draft configuration settings
Improvements: Added a warning when users navigate away from the draft source configuration page without saving changes. Improved the display of the training book selection page for small screens. Impr… read more
Faster draft source configuration
Improvements: Faster saving on the draft source configuration page. The last viewed location in community checking is now saved and will be the default location when returning to community checking. A… read more
April 2025
Updated visual theme
Improvements: Updated the Scripture Forge website theme with better color contrast and more consistent element display. Community checking questions can now be imported from various spreadsheet format… read more
DBL resource installation bug fix
Projects without prior connections will no longer trigger errors during installation.… read more
Better USFM support for draft generation
Improvements: Draft generation now retains biblical references and additional USFM markers from the source text. Copyright notices will now be displayed for resource tabs. Previously, these notices we… read more
March 2025
Sign in with phone number is no longer available
The option to log in to Scripture Forge with a phone number is no longer available. Community checkers who log in via methods like Google or Facebook can edit their answers and correspondence on multi… read more
Streamlined draft generation settings plus model training with multiple references
Improvements: Project administrators can now configure the drafting sources and reference projects language model training directly from the Generate Draft page itself, instead of the Settings page. M… read more
Updated project level roles and permissions
Improvements: Updated user roles in Paratext no longer require project administrators to run a full sync in Scripture Forge. If a user’s role has changed in Paratext, they can navigate or refres… read more
February 2025
Improved warnings for potential draft generation problems
Improvements: The Generate draft page has more descriptive warnings when the language codes for source and target projects indicate a potential configuration problem. The warning message now appears w… read more
Busra font support and resource permission error fixes
Improvements: The Busra font is now supported. Bug Fixes: Corrected errors that occurred when user permissions were removed and then re-added for a resource.… read more
Upload audio files for community checking questions
New Features: Community checking admins can now upload audio files for their questions in addition to recording audio directly within Scripture Forge. Improvements: The buttons in the drafting workflo… read more
Confirmation page for draft generation selections
Improvements: The generate draft workflow now includes a confirmation page to review your selections before you generate a draft. The process for adding a draft to a project has been standardized for … read more
January 2025
Paratext 9.5 compatibility
Improvements: Scripture Forge is now compatible with Paratext 9.5 projects, including support for new whitespace characters. The training step of the draft generation workflow now shows both the targe… read more
December 2024
Updated sharing setting options
Improvements: Scripture Forge sharing settings have been updated. Admins now have the option to allow Paratext members with a translator role to invite community checkers, commenters, and viewers. Adm… read more
Language code check added to drafting workflow
Improvements: There is a new step at the beginning of the process to generate a draft. There’s a reminder to confirm that the language codes are correct for the projects that will be used to train the… read more
Scripture Forge maintenance on 11 December
Scripture Forge will be unavailable for about 2-3 hours on 11 December 2024 starting at 16:30 UTC for scheduled maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Users who are already lo… read more
Audio comments for community checking questions and answers
Updates: The option to enable translation suggestions will no longer appear on the page when a project is being connected to Scripture Forge. Translation suggestions can still be enabled from the sett… read more
Scripture Forge will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance
Scripture Forge will be unavailable for about 2-6 hours on 4 December 2024 starting at 16:30 UTC for scheduled maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Users who are already log… read more
November 2024
Bug fixes for creating drafts
Bug Fixes: Previously the list of books could take a long time to load when generating a draft. The loading time has been dramatically improved, and a loading indicator has been added. Fixed an error … read more
Improved sync progress indicator
Improvements: During syncing with Paratext, the progress indicator now provides more specific information about the progress of the sync and what step is currently in progress. Bug Fixes: Corrected a … read more
Faster Scripture Forge drafting
Improvements: Scripture Forge drafting has been updated so that it’s now much faster. Most drafts will now take about 2.5 hours to complete instead of 8. Draft quality should be about the same as befo… read more
October 2024
Improvements for mobile devices and permission change issues
Improvements: The messaging about books that cannot be selected for training and generating drafts is more compact and takes up less screen space. The error message is more clear and accurate when a s… read more
Translation model training bugs fixed
Improvements: Updated the way fonts are displayed for different locale selections. Bug Fixes: Fixed a bug that prevented additional training data files from being used for training a translation model… read more
UI improvements for generating drafts
Improvements: The layout for selecting books and chapters has been adjusted to fit better on smartphones and other small screens. The checkboxes to select books for generating drafts now indicate visu… read more
New Biblical Terms tab view, plus filtering options
Improvements: Biblical Terms are now displayed in their own tab rather than a panel at the bottom of the editor. Filtering options have been added so the Biblical Terms can be filtered by book, chapte… read more
September 2024
User interface localized for Nepali and German
New Features: Scripture Forge UI localization is now available for Nepali and German. Bug Fixes: Admins will no longer see an error message after deleting a project. Existing users can use shared link… read more
Key term renderings support expanded for generating drafts
Key term renderings will now be used for training machine translation models by default if the target project has renderings added. For training the model, the terms will be matched with the rendering… read more
Add generated drafts to a separate project
New Features: Generated drafts can now be added to a separate project from the project used for training the model. To use this feature, make sure that both projects are connected to Scripture Forge a… read more
September 3 bug fixes
Bug Fixes: Syncing will no longer crash for resources when the list of users with access to those resources has changed. Offline messaging and offline project navigation from the my projects page is i… read more
August 2024
August 27 updates
Improvements: On the Generate draft page, the book selection buttons show an indication of the percentage of the book that has already been translated. SIL TTF fonts are now supported. When a new user… read more
August 21 updates
Improvements: Error messages differentiate between invalid USFM formatting errors and unsupported USFM tags. Bug Fixes: Duplicate note IDs will no longer prevent projects from syncing with Paratext. V… read more
August 13 updates
Improvements: After a generated draft has been applied to a project, the “Add to project” button changes to “Re-add to project.” The Auto Draft tab will only open automatically for chapters that have … read more
August 7 updates
Improvements: Generated drafts will now always follow the same USFM structure as the source project, regardless of the USFM structure for the target book. The unsupported font message now links direct… read more
July 2024
July 30 updates
Improvements: On the Generate draft page, the latest draft that is being generated is now listed above previously-generated drafts. The Help menu now has icons. Bug Fixes: CTRL+A selects the content f… read more
My Projects page and other updates
New Features: The new My Projects page provides a list of all the projects your account is connected to. Access the page by clicking the Scripture Forge icon at the top of the page or from the user me… read more
July 9 updates
Improvements: When sharing a link for Community Checking, the default option will now be a multi-use link that expires after 14 days. Admins can choose to customize their sharing options and choose a … read more
July 2 updates
Improvements: Previously-generated drafts can be previewed and downloaded while a new draft is being generated. Paratext registry connection issues will less frequently require users to log out and lo… read more
June 2024
Updates in June 2024
New features: AI generated drafts can be downloaded as a zip file containing USFM files for each book. Paratext and DBL resources can be added as tabs. Improvements: For AI-generated drafts, the list … read more
May 2024
Older release notes
Release notes from before June 2024 are posted at https://community.scripture.software.sil.org/t/scripture-forge-announcements/1776.… read more
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