Strategies for using highlighting and notes effectively

I'm new to Logos and have been through the basic training videos. So far... loving it (and dealing with a little bit of being totally overwhelmed at times!)

I have a couple questions about highlighting and notes files.

I see the highlights are stored in a document according to type. Are there any strategies for creating your own set of highlight "palettes" I should be aware of before I do much highlighting?

Also, I have a question about strategies for notes. What are some effective ways to organize notes? For example, I want to type up notes from my weekly sermons at church. They preach passage by passage, so I can easily make a note for the passage covered for that week. I'm thinking I should have one note file for "church sermon notes" and put all of those in one notes document.

What are some of the strategies people are using to keep their notes organized?

I know from learning new software in the past that it will be a lot better if I can have a clear understanding of "what goes where" up front.

Thank you!

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Dave Hooton

I see the highlights are stored in a document according to type. Are there any strategies for creating your own set of highlight "palettes" I should be aware of before I do much highlighting?

By default, highlights will be saved according to their palette name, but you can click on the down arrow that appears when you hover over the Palette name and see another down arrow opposite Save In:

You can choose from a resource-specific Note file name, the "most recent" Note file, or (below the separator) choose from a list of note files.

Your strategy for creating your own palettes could be guided by the method for saving all the highlight styles within that palette e.g. resource-specific, meaning that highlighting will be saved to a note file that bears the name of the resource.

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803265#Comment_803265

Think of note files as physical folders. Then think about the kind of notes you might be taking: would you want them all in the same folder? If you want different folders, what folders would you want (create a note file for each one).

I can share what I do, but others may have different systems that work for them.

I have three main types of note files:

Notes attached to Bible references
Notes attached to selections in books
Topical notes I have created that are not attached to anything (although they could be attached to the corresponding headwords).

In the first group, I have Bible Notes which is my personal commentary. I have Evangelism Notes, Discipleship Notes, and Ministry Notes. For each set of notes I use a different colour (for the note icons). This way I know right away what kind of note is attached to a verse.

I have some notes on entire passages: I use a different icon (but same colour as the corresponding note file) to signal that. For instance, I would have a note on the whole of the Gospel of Matthew (a star icon), on the Sermon on the Mount (a round icon) and on verse within it (a rectangle icon).

For the second group, I use only one file, that I called, Articles/Books Notes. All the notes use the same icon. My default colour is green, but for a more important note I use blue, and for a critical note, I use red.

In the third group, I have a file with Bible topics (e.g., Abraham, Baptism, etc). I just add notes or update them as needed. I have a file in which I am compiling notes on a set of related books that I am reading as part of a larger project. In the latter, I have entries for books, but once in a while I find need to create a different kind of note to comment on features I have seen across several of the books I look at, I then use a different colour/icon to make this more visually apparent.

As far as highlighting goes, I only use it in relation to the Article/Books notes. I prefer to just see an icon at the head of a verse to signal a note than to have too many highlights. I have, however, created visual filters when studying specific books that can be turned off when not in use. For instance, you can choose to have instances of the word "kingdom" underlined in a specific way in the Gospels.

This is just what I do and no more than that. I hope it can give you some ideas. Hopefully, this is what you are looking for. If not, feel free to ask further questions. Others will probably provide you with further ideas or ways of doing this.

JT (alabama24)

I see the highlights are stored in a document according to type. Are there any strategies for creating your own set of highlight "palettes" I should be aware of before I do much highlighting?

In my opinion, "resource specific" note documents is the best choice for most users. If you make highlights just to highlight for comprehension and review purposes, and don't look at highlights as "notes," then "resource specific" is the way to go.

Users who use highlights thematically may find another approach better.

Matthew

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803287#Comment_803287

In my opinion, "resource specific" note documents is the best choice for most users. If you make highlights just to highlight for comprehension and review purposes, and don't look at highlights as "notes," then "resource specific" is the way to go.

I agree with this. When I am highlighting, I am usually just marking key information, quotes I may want for later, or other things that stand out to me in some way. All highlights for each book are in their own note file, along with any "actual" (non-highlight) notes that I add. Having separate note files for separate resources also keeps the file size down on individual note files, which has several advantages when it comes to syncing and performance issues.

Jodi Denning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803278#Comment_803278

Thank you so much. This is super helpful. I really appreciate it.

Blessings,

Jodi

Jodi Denning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803265#Comment_803265

Thank you! This is very helpful. I appreciate it.

James Taylor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803382#Comment_803382

Here is my method illustrated and exemplified...

Jodi Denning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803388#Comment_803388

Very helpful. The ability to inline search for highlights is going to be very useful. Thank you!

Blessings,

Jodi

Armin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803287#Comment_803287

In my opinion, "resource specific" note documents is the best choice for most users. If you make highlights just to highlight for comprehension and review purposes, and don't look at highlights as "notes," then "resource specific" is the way to go.

Users who use highlights thematically may find another approach better.

So far, all my highlights are in one notes file. It is getting really large but the advantage is that my number of notes files is manageable. For those of you who use "resource specific" highlighting: How annoying does it get to have hundreds of notes files? I wanted to be sure I know the consequence before I make this switch.

Armin

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803533#Comment_803533

This is a good question, Armin, and I am interested in the answer as well. I think performance used to be a greater concern with larger note files in the past (esp. with Logos 4). Now, I am not sure I see the point of splitting resources across different files (unless the study of a specific resource is a highly focused project).

When I put notes into my Articles/Books file, Logos automatically titles it with the abbreviated title of the work. So, if I really wanted to see all the files on a given book, all I need to do is either (1) sort the notes by title or (2) within the resource, use the navigation arrows to go from highlight to highlight. But this is not how I use the notes in this file. These are observations/comments I make about the book as I read it. Usually, it is as I review the book that I see that I had put comments here or there, at which point I can hover on the icon to see what it says. I don't need to go to the note file at all, and so, for me, it is superfluous to have these notes separate from other book notes aside from their identifying titles.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803585#Comment_803585

So far, all my highlights are in one notes file. It is getting really large but the advantage is that my number of notes files is manageable. For those of you who use "resource specific" highlighting: How annoying does it get to have hundreds of notes files? I wanted to be sure I know the consequence before I make this switch.

Armin

I made the switch to "resource specific" highlighting a long time ago. Personally I love being able to locate a resource quickly and search the highlights for what I am looking for. It is easy to search for what I want since I usually know the resource where it originated or at least the author. I'm sure there may be times when I wish I could search it as one file but I have not encountered that situation as of yet.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803533#Comment_803533

How annoying does it get to have hundreds of notes files?

Well, I use "note documents" as "note documents" rarely, so it doesn't annoy me at all. [;)]

However: I have argued for at least three years (to a brick wall) that the DEFAULT behavior for highlights should be 1) resource specific and 2) the note documents hidden by default. You are right that it could become difficult to "wade through."

A suggestion, however: You could use some sort of system to help get to the note documents you want. For example: You could prefix thematic note documents with "THEME" or "TM" or even "X -"

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/803533#Comment_803533

How annoying does it get to have hundreds of notes files?

That depends - if you have a well-planned naming structure for the files it is not annoying at all. If there isn't a structure to the file names finding a particular file can be hellacious.