New Feature: Sermon Editor

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Comments

  • Bradley Grainger (Logos)
    Bradley Grainger (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 12,109

    I had not checked the actual text, I assumed that since it was now marked ESV in Proclaim and it was saying ESV on the slide it was ESV!! My bad if it wasn't I guess (go figure, lol). If that is the case then I can just turn off the "show version on slide" toggle and not add confusion for the people. Seems it's been reported so let's hope it's a quick fix and taken care of. 

    This should be fixed now (you will need to re-export to Proclaim); please let us know if you continue to have any problems.

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    For some reason when I am exporting to proclaim the underline feature does not work.  It just shows a regular slide if I want to have the fill in the blank show I have to then go into proclaim and re edit it.  I was hoping to save some time by using Sermon Editor 

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,245

    For some reason when I am exporting to proclaim the underline feature does not work.  It just shows a regular slide if I want to have the fill in the blank show I have to then go into proclaim and re edit it.  I was hoping to save some time by using Sermon Editor 

    If I understand what you are describing correctly it works for me.

    Please start a new thread and provide as many details as possible so we can look at this with you.

  • danwdoo
    danwdoo Member Posts: 588 ✭✭✭

    You can do this.

    That's great. Would be nice if it eventually became a feature that could be always enabled, but this works for now. Thanks!

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,245

    danwdoo said:

    Would be nice if it eventually became a feature that could be always enabled

    Please expand on this - I'm not sure what is missing here.

  • danwdoo
    danwdoo Member Posts: 588 ✭✭✭

    danwdoo said:

    Would be nice if it eventually became a feature that could be always enabled

    Please expand on this - I'm not sure what is missing here.

    Since I never want anything but the verse reference in the slides, selecting the text and hitting "apply to slides" for every single verse reference can get a little tedious after a while. It would be nice to have a "toggle" option switch to choose between "whole verse" or "reference only" so that Logos remembers my choice and only adds the references to the slides without me having to take the extra steps to only add the reference for every verse. It's not a ton of extra work, granted, but it does add up in a longer document with a lot of references and so saves both time and just having to remember to do this every time.,

  • Michael Woody
    Michael Woody Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    Has anyone found a way to know when you have a slide versus other comments you might make? For example, in a Sunday School I may quote an author and want that in a slide but my comments later would not be quoted. Is it using the H1, H2, etc. for all of this? I am currently adding a line Advance Slide before a new slide and making that a prompt. I would love to know other's thoughts.

    Mike Woody

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,245

    danwdoo said:

    Since I never want anything but the verse reference in the slides, selecting the text and hitting "apply to slides" for every single verse reference can get a little tedious after a while. It would be nice to have a "toggle" option switch to choose between "whole verse" or "reference only" so that Logos remembers my choice and only adds the references to the slides without me having to take the extra steps to only add the reference for every verse. It's not a ton of extra work, granted, but it does add up in a longer document with a lot of references and so saves both time and just having to remember to do this every time.,

    Understood - thanks

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    Has anyone found a way to know when you have a slide versus other comments you might make? For example, in a Sunday School I may quote an author and want that in a slide but my comments later would not be quoted. Is it using the H1, H2, etc. for all of this? I am currently adding a line Advance Slide before a new slide and making that a prompt. I would love to know other's thoughts.

    If you add your comments as text on a separate line, then it will not show in a slide unless you manually create a slide from that text. 

  • Michael Woody
    Michael Woody Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    That is what I am doing by my prompt, Advance Slide. It is adding that, and remembering to do so, that is a pain. It would be neat if, when you generated a slide, that it adding a prompt for you to advance the slide so you were in sync.

    Mike Woody

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    Maybe I am not clear about what you are trying to accomplish. If you can provide an example and or screen shot then maybe there is a solution

  • Michael Woody
    Michael Woody Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    So when I need to advance from a previous slide displayed this is what I would have in my notes (the text tab).

    8712.What Text export looks like.tiff

    What I am doing is exporting the all tab of the Sermon Editor with a prompt to tell me to advance the slide; I am not sure of another way to tell me to advance my slide.

    7558.How to know you should advance slides.tiff

    I appreciate the input.

    Mike Woody

  • Joe Dillabaugh
    Joe Dillabaugh Member Posts: 18 ✭✭

    I used it this past weekend and sent it to my iPad. I exported it to PDF and then used GoodNote (GoodReader works well too) to import the pdf. The pdf looks kind of funky coming out of Logos but GoodNote is great for editing pdf (it allows highlighting, handwriting etc.). 

    I will likely use Logos to edit my notes (I use an outline/manuscript combo) and then export it to GoodNotes to preach from,

    All in all the sermon editor was awesome for what I expected (an editor, not a presentation tool).

    I am beginning to write a new sermon series and am wondering how to best use the sermon editor into the series. Any suggestions?

    Awesome addition!

  • Ebbe Andréasson
    Ebbe Andréasson Member Posts: 18 ✭✭

    Eli Evans said:

    5. This is now the default style for slides in your sermon.

    This is not my experience. I have to repeat step 1-4 for every single slide to change aspect ratio.

    Eli Evans said:

    1. Click the slide next to the sermon title.
    2. Choose "Edit".
    3. The Media tool will open. Choose 16:9 aspect ratio.
    4. Click the "Update sermon" button in the Media toolbar.

  • Ebbe Andréasson
    Ebbe Andréasson Member Posts: 18 ✭✭

    Who can I contact to get my post count back after changing e-mail adress?

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,943

    Who can I contact to get my post count back after changing e-mail adress?

    call or email customer service

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife)
    Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 336

    This is not my experience. I have to repeat step 1-4 for every single slide to change aspect ratio.

    I'm sorry to hear this, Ebbe. It sounds like a bug. We'll see if we can repro here.

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    So can I assume from the images you provided that you are listing a verse or passage, talking about it, and then moving to the next verse or passage? If that is the case, how could the system know on it's own that it was time to advance the slide?

    If I understand what you are trying to do, a prompt is a good solution. Or you could just say what you have to say about each verse, passage, or slide content, and then move to the next slide when you are finished.

  • Michael Woody
    Michael Woody Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    I guess I would hope that when I generate a new slide that it inserts a row before with a prompt to tell you to advance the slide. If colors where there I would make statements with a slide a color.

    Mike Woody

  • Keith Brich
    Keith Brich Member Posts: 35 ✭✭

    Is there a way to get some outline for,acting like in Word?    I like to use Roman numerals for my main points, then add su points under each as in outline form.   The current editor just seems clunky.   M I'm just missing how to do it.    I would also say that we RALLY need a read only way to peach off of it in the iPad.

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    You could just use the Roman numerals when making your outline that is what I have done like this 

    I.  Main Point

       A.  Subpoint

       B.  Subpoint 

    As far as iPad you can export the sermon to a rich set format and then open it in whatever you use and make sure the editing is good.  Or you could always export in clipboard then open whatever text editor you use and simply paste it in there.  Hope that helps 

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Eli Evans said:

    Hi Eli, my point is that it doesn't apply the new style at all to anything other than the selected slide.

    Ah. Then you may be experiencing a bug that I think we have fixed internally that hasn't shipped out yet. (If I try to explain it in detail, I'm afraid I'll get it wrong Smile).

    Hi Eli, 

    I hoped the fix might have been included in update 7.0 SR-1 (7.0.0.0074), but it hasn't.  I expect, then, that the fix hasn't shipped in SR-1.  

    I notice, however, that while the heading slides and slides added from selected text do not follow the newly selected default slide image, those which are created automatically by typing a Bible reference and then typing return do. I'm not sure if that was a problem or not previously, since I was focused more on slides from headings and selected text.

  • Patrick Saint
    Patrick Saint Member Posts: 103 ✭✭

    Rev Ian said:

    The export to PowerPoint feature is less than ideal. The slides are exported as images so I can't edit them or add animations etc. How about making it so that they are not images but editable?

    [Y][Y][Y]

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Rev Ian said:

    The export to PowerPoint feature is less than ideal. The slides are exported as images so I can't edit them or add animations etc. How about making it so that they are not images but editable?

    YesYesYes

    That would be really great for several reasons - not only to edit the text, but also for example where we might want to add another image/shape onto the slide in PowerPoint, but arrange it behind the text which overlaps it, yet before the background image.

    In cases where the text would be exported by Logos 7 using a font that the user does not have available in PowerPoint I wouldn't mind if there was font replacement or if the text was displayed in the default font for PowerPoint, instead of a nicer font if exported as an image. Or, maybe there could be an option for exporting as either image or text?

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    keith said:

    Is there a way to get some outline for,acting like in Word?    I like to use Roman numerals for my main points, then add su points under each as in outline form.

    When the first beta was released the editor only included a number list: 1, 2, 3, etc. It would start over at 1 when indented. They incorporated the alpha-numeric list you currently see. However that is the only style that s available. I do not know if they plan to include other list styles in future releases.

    keith said:

     I would also say that we RALLY need a read only way to peach off of it in the iPad.

    This is something that was also discussed during the beta, and in several threads since release. I agree that this is something that is really needed to make this tool useful to those who may not have internet in their churches, or where they preach.

    A work around has been suggested by FL. They suggest that you export the sermon to SoundFaith and use that to preach from. However that requires an reliable internet connection.

    FL has said they are working on making sermon documents available on mobile, but that could mean a month, 6 months, a year, or longer. Only Bob knows the day and time[;)]

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Fredc said:

    keith said:

     I would also say that we RALLY need a read only way to peach off of it in the iPad.

    This is something that was also discussed during the beta, and in several threads since release. I agree that this is something that is really needed to make this tool useful to those who may not have internet in their churches, or where they preach.

    Ideally also the ability to edit on a mobile device instead of read-only, as there are often last minute edits/notes which need to be made, which are easy to make by writing on paper, but not so easy on a read-only digital version such as pdf. I know, it's a wish-list item, but I just thought that I'd mention it since the topic came up again.

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    I feel there are two things missing that should be there.  First not all of proclaims pro media is available.  For instance I found a slide background for my sermon before downloaded logos 7 and then after the download that slide is not available in logos 7 sermon editor.  

    Secondly unless I am missing something there needs to be a spell check.  It is rather embarrassing to make a slide or a handout with spelling errors.  

  • Patrick Saint
    Patrick Saint Member Posts: 103 ✭✭

    The sermon editor is really a fantastic tool. Thanks to Faithlife and all the team for that.
    Is there an option to display the verse numbers when you type a reference. I think it is possible to add them in Proclaim (after export in Proclaim), but I use only PowerPoint and the biblical text with the verse numbers, it is often very useful.

  • Kevin M. Adams
    Kevin M. Adams Member Posts: 35 ✭✭

    Thank you! I've already manually adjusted last weeks but I'll look for it for this weekend!! Love this tool!

  • Blake Johnson
    Blake Johnson Member Posts: 4 ✭✭

    It would be nice to be able to turn off the slides function and perhaps default that setting—many of us don't use slides for every (or any) sermon.

    Great feature!

  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    Currently there is no setting to prevent the generation of slides, however (you may or may not be aware) you can delete any or all of the slide generated with the exception of the Title slide. Simply click on the desired slide(s) and select delete

  • Keith Larson
    Keith Larson Member Posts: 1,133 ✭✭

    As a Proclaim Pro Media subscriber and a Logos Now subscriber I am somewhat disappointed that the Media browser does not include ALL the artwork I am paying for. I would like to suggest that this be addressed in a future update.

  • Stephen Thorp
    Stephen Thorp Member Posts: 385 ✭✭

    Since preaching the Word is a priority for any Christian minister, I was sad to see that the Sermon Editor wasn't included in the Starter Feature Set. Particularly as it's priced $0.00 if purchased separately (which at the moment it can't be). Come on Logos - give us a break!

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    As a Proclaim Pro Media subscriber and a Logos Now subscriber I am somewhat disappointed that the Media browser does not include ALL the artwork I am paying for. I would like to suggest that this be addressed in a future update.

    I agree Keith.  I am not a Logos Now subscriber but I am a pro media subscriber and I had already had a background picked out for this weeks message however that background did not appear in logos so I ended up changing my background.  There are several things that I hope they improve I the sermon editor an this is one of them.

    Second I hope they come out with spell check.  Unless I am missing something there is no spell check feature.  Also perhaps a better way to export it would be wonderful to export and keep the formatting or make it so that you could preach using logos from your iPad then an export would not be necessary.  I know there is the confidence monitor in proclaim but that is to much distraction.  These are a few things I hope to see in the future 

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    Since preaching the Word is a priority for any Christian minister, I was sad to see that the Sermon Editor wasn't included in the Starter Feature Set. Particularly as it's priced $0.00 if purchased separately (which at the moment it can't be). Come on Logos - give us a break!

    Stephen,

    I too did the same thing I started with the cheapest package to see if Sermon Editor was included and it was not I needed up having to purchase the full feature set for 186.  However, I am fortunate to be able to take it out of my professional expense.  Thought I would have rather used those funds for some other books.  

  • elliott siu
    elliott siu Member Posts: 37 ✭✭

    Is there any way we could get auto-capitalization of words in a new sentence? 

  • Scott Alexander
    Scott Alexander Member, Logos Employee Posts: 3,816

    As a Proclaim Pro Media subscriber and a Logos Now subscriber I am somewhat disappointed that the Media browser does not include ALL the artwork I am paying for. I would like to suggest that this be addressed in a future update.

    Hello Keith, I plan on adding support for a majority of Pro Media series in Sermon Editor in the near future.

  • Stephen Thorp
    Stephen Thorp Member Posts: 385 ✭✭

    Hi Josh.

    I suppose the question is - is the Sermon Editor worth paying the extra money for? I've been a loyal Logos user since 2006 but was still surprised that this preaching tool wasn't considered sufficiently important to get out to as many people as possible! Thanks Josh for your quick response.

  • elliott siu
    elliott siu Member Posts: 37 ✭✭
  • Fred Chapman
    Fred Chapman Member Posts: 5,899 ✭✭✭

    Having spell check also would be great.

    FL has already said that would be in a future release

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Eli Evans said:

    Hi Eli, my point is that it doesn't apply the new style at all to anything other than the selected slide.

    Ah. Then you may be experiencing a bug that I think we have fixed internally that hasn't shipped out yet. (If I try to explain it in detail, I'm afraid I'll get it wrong Smile).

    Hi Eli, 

    I hoped the fix might have been included in update 7.0 SR-1 (7.0.0.0074), but it hasn't.  I expect, then, that the fix hasn't shipped in SR-1.  

    I notice, however, that while the heading slides and slides added from selected text do not follow the newly selected default slide image, those which are created automatically by typing a Bible reference and then typing return do. I'm not sure if that was a problem or not previously, since I was focused more on slides from headings and selected text.

    Eli,

    I have discovered by chance that if I edit the main slide at the sermon title (before doing anything else) that depending on what choice of image I select, the result is either that all sermon images follow the default, or only only selected slides do. 

    If I edit the title image, and choose from the 22 or so title images which are offered, it appears that what I am choosing is a set of images with 3 different slide variants for heading, body text and verses.  However, if I don't like the look of the 22 or so title images, and browse all media, and can choose from an individual slide type, it will be updated while the other slide types are not. For example, if I edit the title image/slide and select an author image type (with author clearly seen in the slide), then neither heading or verse slides are updated with that image in the sermon. The same applies to heading and verse slides too. It seems that only if I select an image/slide which has Title/Subtitle/Bible verse then it is more likely to result in all slides following the default (there are a few exceptions though, it seems). But if I select an image which does not have a sample Bible verse or "Author name", or Title or Header shown, then it is unlikely that it will work for those slide types. It seems that we should select image collections for the whole sermon, or individually select heading, author, verse 'type' images, and avoid general images unless they apply to individual slides. Is that assumption correct?

    Is there some basic advice that we could be given on this topic? I've checked in the short training video and there is nothing that addresses this.

  • Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife)
    Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 336

    Yes, John, your observations sound correct.

    There are [currently] 22 sets of media that have coverage across all of the Purposes that Sermon Editor uses. If you stick to one of those families, then Sermon Editor will automatically pick similarly themed media for Headings, Passages, Quotes and other Content.

    IF however, you explicitly choose a piece of media that doesn't belong to a family, the Sermon Editor has to fallback to an alternative piece of media with the right purpose.

    We plan to improve this by 1) expanding the sets of media that are available and work well with the Sermon Editor 2) improving the fallback behavior to consider more than just the last explicit media choice.

    Does that help?

  • Josh  Monda
    Josh Monda Member Posts: 53 ✭✭

    Hi Josh.

    I suppose the question is - is the Sermon Editor worth paying the extra money for? I've been a loyal Logos user since 2006 but was still surprised that this preaching tool wasn't considered sufficiently important to get out to as many people as possible! Thanks Josh for your quick response.

    At this stage I would say no the sermon editor alone is not worth the extra money.  It is a nice feature but it needs some work.  For instance I did not even prepare my sermon in the editor I prepared it in my normal document because of spell check.  I then copied things over into editor because I like the idea of having it in logos.  Remember there are a few other things that come with the full feature set as well.  Mainly the concordance and some of the theology stuff but even at that I still am not sure it is worth the payment but I don't like to be left behind in technology.  Plus I feel that sermon editor will get there and when it does it will be a huge time saver 

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Hi Jacob, thanks for your comments confirming this observed behaviour.  

    If I understand correctly, we must use only the collections, and nothing else, if we want our sermon text displayed on background images. 

    I think it would have been good to have this made clear at L7 launch to avoid confusion...

    IF however, you explicitly choose a piece of media that doesn't belong to a family, the Sermon Editor has to fallback to an alternative piece of media with the right purpose.

    When looking into this, even though I don't use Proclaim I looked at some of the training videos for it, and saw a Purpose filter there.  It seems that it would be helpful also to have a 'Purpose' filter on the left of the media selection pane, with options such as 'Collection', and then individual options such as 'Title', 'Header', 'Author', 'Bible verse'.  

    The individual options would be especially helpful if we were able to choose different individual images for different 'purposes', with those images becoming the default for subsequent slides of the same purpose in the sermon. That would allow us to put together custom collections, such as an image from one collection as default for Title and Header slides but select a Bible verse purpose image from another collection as the default for Bible references. 

    We plan to improve this by 1) expanding the sets of media that are available and work well with the Sermon Editor 2) improving the fallback behavior to consider more than just the last explicit media choice.

    It would also be great to have an option to convert any generic image (those which are not part of a collection with a purpose for title/header/author/Bible text) into a set of custom-generated purpose slides, with selection of text colour (light/dark or better still a wider colour choice), as an overlay (with maybe some basic text positioning options too). While the additional Faithlife-curated collections will be of very high quality, a wider range of background images would make it much more appealing as a program feature, since I gather that as the design currently stands users are not able to upload custom images with the intention of having title/header/author/Bible text overlaid on them. 

  • Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife)
    Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 336

    If I understand correctly, we must use only the collections, and nothing else, if we want our sermon text displayed on background images. 

    Sorry I gave that impression, that's not quite right. You're welcome to pick any media you like to render your slide text on.

    It seems that it would be helpful also to have a 'Purpose' filter on the left of the media selection pane

    Hm. The media tool is supposed to already work this way:

    By default, when you Edit a slide from Sermon Editor, the Media tool defaults to filtering to that Purpose:

    The individual options would be especially helpful if we were able to choose different individual images for different 'purposes', with those images becoming the default for subsequent slides of the same purpose in the sermon.

    Yes, this would be a great improvement for our fallback logic.

    It would also be great to have an option to convert any generic image (those which are not part of a collection with a purpose for title/header/author/Bible text) into a set of custom-generated purpose slides...

    Yes; support for user-created templates would be very beneficial.

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    If I understand correctly, we must use only the collections, and nothing else, if we want our sermon text displayed on background images. 

    Sorry I gave that impression, that's not quite right. You're welcome to pick any media you like to render your slide text on.

    Hmm, I've chosen some generic images for Bible verse and body text slides, but there is no text on the slides, just a background image. It just doesn't work unless I pick from those which are listed under one of the purposes. I personally can't get text to render on 'any' media as you indicate.

    It seems that it would be helpful also to have a 'Purpose' filter on the left of the media selection pane

    Hm. The media tool is supposed to already work this way:

    Ah, I now see that it is there sometimes but not others. When I first edit a title slide, it is not there on the left pane. 

    As you helpfully point out in the image, the purpose is shown in the media subheader. However, I didn't know/realise it was a purpose filter until you pointed that out. Designers might be very familiar with it, but what appears 'obvious' once you are informed is not always as clear before having been shown. 

  • Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife)
    Jacob Carpenter (Faithlife) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 336

    ... but there is no text on the slides, just a background image. It just doesn't work unless I pick from those which are listed under one of the purposes. I personally can't get text to render on 'any' media as you indicate.

    Specific examples of this problem would be very helpful. Do you mind starting a new thread to chat about this issue?

  • John Duffy
    John Duffy Member Posts: 591 ✭✭✭

    Specific examples of this problem would be very helpful. Do you mind starting a new thread to chat about this issue?

    Jacob, here is a new thread on the topic, as requested.

  • Jason Van Vliet
    Jason Van Vliet Member Posts: 56 ✭✭

    Tab and Shift+Tab can also be used to control indent level.

    Can you also please include this keyboard shortcut (Tab & Shift-Tab) to control indent level in the Notes Editor.  I often wish for it in the Notes Editor because I'm so used to having it in MS Word, that I hit tab, without thinking, hoping to get an indent, but instead it goes to the next area of the Notes Editor window.  I would think that once they are in the content section of a Notes document, that people want to be able to use tab for indent level and not for moving around the window.

    Thanks for considering this,

    Jason

  • George Barcus
    George Barcus Member Posts: 4 ✭✭

    Not sure if I am doing this right, but I am running into a challenge with exporting to powerpoint. I followed the instructions in the "help" screen. When I try to export it I choose a file location and follow the prompt to save, then I get a message saying it couldn't save it and it asks if I want to retry. When I retry I get the same results. Any thoughts?