Markups & Highlighting

Any possibility that the app would ever allow for viewing/creating or at least creating markups? I would be okay with just a basic highlight/no highlight option which would be nice to be able to make a highlight as I am doing my daily devotional reading. Something simple like the Kindle app (select text and just press highlight) would would be sufficient for me.

Find more posts tagged with

Mobile App

Comments

Jacob Hantla

We have been told that Logos is minimally working on notes. No word on highlighting yet, but I really hope they do.

Actually when Logos4 was first going to be launched Logos had the terrible oversight of thinking that we wouldn't miss highlighting. They weren't going to include it and scrambled last minute. Hopefully understanding that the users really do use highlighting as a primary tool will move them to include it in the iPhone app

John Eggen

I prefer to read things electronically, but you loose much of the value in reading if you have no way of capturing what you think is important.. For me highlighting is a core feature of a reading application, which is primarily how I use Logos on my iPod.

Jacob Hantla

I prefer to read things electronically, but you loose much of the value in reading if you have no way of capturing what you think is important.. For me highlighting is a core feature of a reading application, which is primarily how I use Logos on my iPod.

I agree totally. The way that I use highlighting is to slow down and mark what I thought was of most importance (either to application or understanding). Highlighting is therefore a tool that I use alongside notetaking (much more often than notetaking). Then once I have a book marked up, I love how I can jump to "next highlight" (using the down arrow icon on the resource window of L4) and move quickly through the salient poitns of a book; analagous to picking up a well-marked paperback and going through for highlights and notes.

I don't feel that highlighting is optional in either L4 or iPhone app, especially given the reading focus of the iPhone app. I really hope that it is developed with offline reading, then syncing in mind as well.

Think about the basic features that a pure reader needs, Kindle did it:

Text on screen: done
highlighting (present on kindle missing on Logos iPhone)
note taking (present on kindle, missing on Logos iPhone)
Searching (present on kindle, present on Logos iPhone in online mode only, so missing during much of the time I'm using the app on my iPod)

April Pyle

Think about the basic features that a pure reader needs, Kindle did it:

Text on screen: done

highlighting (present on kindle missing on Logos iPhone)

note taking (present on kindle, missing on Logos iPhone)

Searching (present on kindle, present on Logos iPhone in online mode only, so missing during much of the time I'm using the app on my iPod)

I see that Kindle has an ap for the Iphone/Ipod/touch now but I could not find if you could use it if you do not own a kindle. Anybody know?

Bob Pritchett

Highlighting and notes are both planned, but I don't have a delivery date.

Any suggestions on how to handle choosing from large highlight palettes on a small iPhone screen? Let you pick a highlight and then just use that one through a quick UI? Or make it easy to pick from, say, your last three used?

Kevin A. Purcell

Bob, what if you select the text and then do a hold so a menu pops up. First would be a menu item that would just highlight and would default to last used. Then you could list two other most recently used below that and fourth item be a palette that picks from all the highlight/markup items available.

Kenneth Neighoff

For Markups and highlighting, why not take a look at how Docs to Go accomplishes this feature. They have a very simple and user friendly user interface.

Jacob Hantla

Any suggestions on how to handle choosing from large highlight palettes on a small iPhone screen? Let you pick a highlight and then just use that one through a quick UI? Or make it easy to pick from, say, your last three used?

I would think that a text-select option should be able to be turned on (probably by both the swipe-up and tap-and-hold motions). Then once in text select mode, after selecting the text you want, you could tap and hold for the pop-up letting us either highlight, add a note, or something else (share, report typo, copy, search for text, etc).

As for highlighting styles. I think that a default set (two colors and an underline or something like that) should be created, but then let us manipulate it within Logos4. We should have a palette called "mobile" or something like that within our underlining palettes list. That way if we don't like the default ones provided we can change them.

Thanks for wanting to make this possible, Bob.

William Baptiste SFO

May the Grace and Peace of Jesus be with all of you on Logos Forums!

Highlighting and notes are both planned, but I don't have a delivery date.

I am very glad to hear that both highlighting (text markup) and annotations are definitely "in the works", at least in as much as they are planned. Regarding delivery date, may I suggest that just a simple highlighter to start off with is the top priority? It would be great if very soon we could at least just markup our books with even just a simple yellow highlighter (online or offline) that syncs with our desktop Logos installation, so that we can easily find again anything we thought was important while reading books on the iPhone.

A greater selection of markup options later on would be welcome, of course, as would annotations eventually (though lengthy annotations are better saved for the main computer, since the iPhone size requires one use the slower "find and poke" method of typing [:)]. But I think just one simple highlighter sooner should be the top priority, since until the iPhone App has this ability, the Logos books on the App are actually less functional than print books, at least in as much that print books can be highlighted.

May the Lord bless and keep all of you in His Love

Dan Sheppard

I am very glad to hear that both highlighting (text markup) and annotations are definitely "in the works", at least in as much as they are planned. Regarding delivery date, may I suggest that just a simple highlighter to start off with is the top priority? It would be great if very soon we could at least just markup our books with even just a simple yellow highlighter (online or offline) that syncs with our desktop Logos installation, so that we can easily find again anything we thought was important while reading books on the iPhone.

I agree that expediting the availability of it is most important, in contrast to getting all the colors, lines, etc. Those are secondary.

To begin with, whichever is easier: one solid underline or one simple color - yellow or blue, say.

The simple example would be to emulate that large Seattle bookstore online, which came up with an e-reader which rhymes with "spindle". You click on the iphone screen, and two dots appear. You pull on one dot and it extends the selection. Once chosen, since you have two points on screen, it knows to bring up the menu of TWO selections: notes or highlight. You pick highlight and yellow coloring appears.

Aaron Knotts

I agree that expediting the availability of it is most important, in contrast to getting all the colors, lines, etc. Those are secondary.

agreed [Y] +1

...emulate that large Seattle bookstore online, which came up with an e-reader which rhymes with "spindle"....

LOL [:D]

...Once chosen, since you have two points on screen, it knows to bring up the menu of TWO selections: notes or highlight...."

This would seem to be the sticking point. Currently a click and hold 'selects' a word and offers [search the Bible for] and [Bible Word Study on]. A quick tap is the "info / toolbar" screen, although it seems a downward swipe will also achieve this. Is it possible that a quick tap would then perform the typical iPhone select (with the handles around a word), then the contextual menu that ususally pops us is "select all / copy / paste", whereby it could be "add note / add highlight"?

I hope this makes sense.....thinking out loud.

Gabe Powell

I agree with Peter... one simple highlighter should be sufficient first time around. Even in the L4 I only use one highlighter, so I don't need multiple options, though I understand why some would.

But the important thing in addition to highlighting is making sure it syncs to the computer.

April Pyle

Ditto!!! Pretty please, Logos. This one is really valuable.

Kellogg Family

I agree, it would be nice ot have a very basic highlighting and notes thing,( like a basic yellow highlighter is you select text and press highlight, or add note to add note to text).

Jon

I agree highlights are important.

As to how to implement. I would say when you press and hold
on a word a handle above the first letter of the word and below the last letter
of the word should appear with the menu below allowing you to ‘Search the Bible
for “(the word)”’ and ‘Bible word Study on “(the word)”’. When you move the
handles it could add to this menu “Highlight”,
“Add notes” and the other options could disappear when the handles are moved,
though I don’t know why searching for multiple words wouldn’t be disallowed. It
would also seem like adding an options for “Copy to clipboard” would be simple
to this menu.

When you click “Highlight” a list of highlight options could
appear, maybe last 2 used highlights with the option to select other not recently
used options, or like DocsToGo app with 9 options (either most recent or
standard) and a button below for more. Than a return to the previous menu with
a “Done” options because you might also want to add notes to that same
highlighted area.

When you click “Add notes” the notes interface would stack
above like the “Bible Word Study” interface shows up. Then you can add your
notes and click “Done” to save.

I would say that a simple yellow highlighter would great to
start but from the technical side it would seem like all the back end has to be
in place for just this simple options when the other could be just a little
more work.

Ed Faalam

Yes, I often find it frustrating, to resort to jotting down the important portion I am reading so i could go back to it later. If I could highlight it, and maybe copy and paste, my iPhone would really a prized pastoral tool for me.

Chad Williams

Honestly, I would much prefer Logos just provide the ability to do a simple yellow highlighter option for us ASAP while in the meantime working out the kinks toward allowing a full palette of markups. Just a plain highlighter would at least allow us to later skip through our markups in L4 and quickly review what stuck out in our reading. Eventually, more options for highlights and markups would be wonderful, but I think most of us our just begging for something sometime soon.

I definitely stand with all of those who agree that highlighting is an essential tool to our Bible study. (Notes being a distant second.) Without these tools, ebooks would never be a viable route. Thankfully Logos grew to understand this months after launching L4. Hopefully the app will development will catch on as well...