Introducing the New Logos Notes

Love the new notes tool. Can't wait for some of the other features (like labels) to be brought over.

Hey Phil!

I love using Logos, and really appreciate the work put into keeping this tool so productive! Thank you!

I have two requests.

The new format for notes only seems to sort based upon date created or date modified. Is there a plan to allow us to sort alphabetically? This is a big deal for the way I use the notes.

Also, the desktop version used to have an export feature where I could choose the "expand" option, and then export all my notes at once into an editable text file. I used that feature quite a bit, and would love to have it in the online and/or iOS applications. Any plans to add that feature?

Blessings!

RyanB

Phil, in another post (can't find it now) you had asked about wanting to know what's important to us. For what it's worth. I can't see myself upgrading to Logos 8 until these issues are resolved:

Integration of notebooks in Your Documents search section in Everything search
Integration of notebooks in My Content section of guides Copy
Paste from resources with citation links

These three things are essential to my daily work and usage of Logos and it would be a significant drawback to not have these. I know there is planned integration of them on the FAQ page, but there is no timeline given as to when that would be (e.g. 6 weeks or 6 months) and these features are too important to me to go for very long without them.

Hi Ryan

For what it's worth. I can't see myself upgrading to Logos 8 until these issues are resolved:

I totally understand that.

But are you aware you can upgrade to Logos 8 and continue using the Logos 7 style notes until the new Notes Tool has the functionality you require?

Could be useful if there are other features in Logos 8 you want to take advantage of, or if you want to make use of the current discounts.

Graham

RyanB

Hi Graham,

Thank you for reminding me about that. I remember having read that somewhere earlier (so many forums and websites [:D]) but if I recall correctly there was a warning. Something about using one system and then using another could have adverse effects on the notes or something like that. I have thousands of notes and am a bit paranoid about doing something that would cause me to mess them up. There are some other features I like but I'd feel more confident once these main sticking points are resolved. (I'm also hopeful that they'll have the bulk de-notebook-izer tool done by that time as well). Thanks again for chiming in. I always appreciate your help and advice.

but if I recall correctly there was a warning. Something about using one system and then using another could have adverse effects on the notes or something like that

Yes, continually switching between the two systems is not recommended.

https://support.logos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018336332 provides some useful information here.

If you use mobile devices - then upgrading to Logos 8 will, by default, cause the L8 mobile apps to be installed and these only use the new system. So that could be another reason to hold back on the switch

Tom

It’s also available to use free of charge on the Logos 7 web app and will be included in the free versions of our Logos 8 desktop and mobile apps in early 2019.

Phil, love the web app!

Our you saying that this feature be available (in early 2019) to any one who has already upgraded to Logos 8?

Or just to people who buy the feature sets?

I went the "library only" (more books) route when I updated, did I make a mistake?

Tom, a little more confused then normal this morning

Our you saying that this feature be available (in early 2019) to any one who has already upgraded to Logos 8?

Or just to people who buy the feature sets?

Phil said:

will be included in the free versions of our Logos 8 desktop and mobile apps in early 2019.

Free for everyone who runs L8 by early 2019.

Tom

Free for everyone who runs L8 by early 2019.

Thanks Mark, I just though it was too good to be true.

I think I will be very happy with the books and wait for the upgraded notes

Free for everyone who runs L8 by early 2019.

Thanks Mark, I just though it was too good to be true.

I think I will be very happy with the books and wait for the upgraded notes

Considering how much work Faithlife has put in the new notes system (and will continue to do so), it is very generous of them to give us this tool. Free software upgrades for life isn't just marketing talk.

Little Ike

In my old notes system, I had notes for each book of the Bible. When I added a new note to the notes for a particular book, the new entry would insert itself in the proper chapter/verse order. When labels are added to the new system, will new notes in a note book transparently insert themselves in chapter/verse order? if not, will a new sort option be added that allows me to sort notes within a notebook in chapter/verse order?

will new notes in a note book transparently insert themselves in chapter/verse order? if not, will a new sort option be added that allows me to sort notes within a notebook in chapter/verse order?

Not at this time. Sorting by Bible reference will be coming in a later release. You can find what is present and what is planned here.

Little Ike

thanks

I have used the notes feature on Logos for nearly twenty years. I add notes on specific bible study topics, and title each note so that I can go back whenever I need to review my study. I sorted the notes based upon the topic title. I usually have dozens of bible verses in each note. I suppose that I have thousands of hours invested in these notes.

About three years ago I replaced my laptop with an iPad. the iOS version is awesome, and can nearly do everything I needed to do. The one significant feature it was missing was the ability to export notes to an editable text file. I have been concerned about not backing up my notes, but it looked like future development would add that feature. I’m still hoping it will come

The brand new note feature sorts by date only. After using the new system for a while now I can say that my notes are almost useless to me. I like the quick response of the search feature, but it searches the whole note which produces so many responses I can’t find the note I’m looking for. Unfortunately the online version does the same thing.

I realize more development is coming. However, I have waited for years for export features. The thought of waiting years before I can use my notes again in a meaningful way is depressing.

If anyone knows of a workaround I’m not seeing I would love to hear about it. I’m getting desperate enough that I’m considering using my last notes export from three years ago to import to another bible software, and just lose the last three years of work. since notes now sort by date, I guess I could hand type those new notes, but the editing I’ve done on old notes would be nigh impossible to capture.

Steve, you are probably someone who needs to revert to the old notes system until the new notes system has these critical functions. How to do this is found here.

Reuben Helmuth

After using the new system for a while now I can say that my notes are almost useless to me

I'd be interested in hearing what causes it to be unusable, or perhaps better, what would make it a dream come true?

Joe Mayden

Two questions about notes in Logos 8 - Desktop

Is the range of data types limited or unlimited - for example under the facet browser there are Highlights and Notes.

Is the range of Anchors limited or unlimited -

I have attempted to outline how the note taking system is organized - am I thinking correctly?

1348.Notebooks.docx

Mark Barnes

Is the range of data types limited or unlimited - for example under the facet browser there are Highlights and Notes.

There's a "Types" facet which is limited to Notes and Highlights.

There's a datatype facet which will support any datatype that Logos supports (e.g. Bible, Josephus, TDNT, etc.)

Is the range of Anchors limited or unlimited

This supports several options: Text Range (you've selected text then highlighted or added a note), Reference (you've right-clicked and added a highlight/note to a reference), or Unanchored (you've added a note but not attached it to any resource). There are other options for notes anchored to workflows and headwords. There may be others I haven't discovered yet.

Referring to the attached document

Your document is mostly correct — apart from:

"Each highlighting style creates a notebook". Each highlight palette (not style) is linked to a notebook. But there's no reason that all the palettes can't link to the same notebook if that's what you prefer. You can also create arbitrary notebooks if you wish.
"If a selected text in a book has been highlighted it becomes a notebook" — this isn't correct. Hopefully the answer above makes this clearer for you.

Is the range of data types limited or unlimited - for example under the facet browser there are Highlights and Notes.

Thanks Mark,

It looks like that would be a great solution if I still used the desktop. I didn’t see how to revert back for iOS or online use.

Blessings

Mark Barnes

It looks like that would be a great solution if I still used the desktop. I didn’t see how to revert back for iOS or online use.

You can revert back on iOS by re-installing the older version.

You can revert back on the web by going to https://7.app.logos.com/ but the web never supported 'old' notes so that won't help.

Hi Reuben,

After reading some more (especially the link Mark provided), I think my main issue is not having the labels. I labeled all my notes so that I could easily go back to review and edit them. For example. I have a note labeled “Anger”. In that note I have a lot of scripture references with some thoughts by each verse. I also have quotes about anger from various authors. If I am in a study group and the topic of anger comes up, I can go to my note and have instant access to years of accumulated study on the subject. I have hundreds of such topics. With the new notes I have all my notes, but they won’t sort by the labels. So if I want to find my note on anger, I search anger and dozens of notes pop up. Then I have to scroll through until I find the right one. It is usually in the top twenty results, but not always.

The biggest thing that would help me is to add a sort feature that alphabetized the notes based upon the first letter of the first word in the note. Which so happens to be the old label. iOS sorts my iPhone Notes App in this way. It doesn’t need labels, it just sorts on that first letter. It seems like that could be a simple solution for my needs.

blessings

I labeled all my notes so that I could easily go back to review and edit them.

How did you label notes? This is an option on the desktop - using labels with highlights - but as far as I know that particular feature never came to the mobile apps.

So just wondering what mechanism you used - to try and work through possible options.

Phil - would it be possible to make this note "sticky" so we have easy access to the FAQ etc?

pk47

One of my favorite features was the abilitiy to highlight books and then search the highlights for key words or ideas. With the new note system, that has been temporarily disabled. I just came across the upcoming features that Logos plans on working to implement in the future. Could someone assist me with what that feature is called-- is it number 5 or 18? I hope its 5.

Notebooks in the Docs panel
Sorting notes by reference
Integration of notebooks in the Your Documents search section in Everything search
Integration of notebooks in the My Content section of Guides
Highlight search extension searches
Labels
Quotes view (currently supported for single resources in Notes & Highlights resource sidebar)
Compact (i.e., one line) view (which will enable a comparable Split view)
Full view
Corresponding Notes & Highlights visual filter
Send to sermon document
Export to/save as word list/passage list?
Previous/Next Annotation in the Locator Bar
Remember your icon, color, and style preferences
Guide notes
Bible reference anchored notes on mobile
CTRL+F on the desktop to find in Notes
Search hit highlighting

pk47

Thank you. Looks like it will be available sooner rather than later

David Paul

I watched a video that introduces the new Notes design...and there wasn't a single example shown of what a note pop-up window looks like when the cursor hover over the note icon. A staggering oversight. I am left having to ask:

Can Logos 8 do this?

Notice how the pop-up window of the note shows the whole contents of the note. This is accomplished without a single mouse click, just by hovering over the Note icon. Notice also how BIG the pop-up is...it isn't one of those tiny and extraordinarily annoying 2x3 in. keyholes that Logos started sporting in L4. These new, post-L3 Notes pop-up windows are so limited they are almost functionally worthless. In contrast, how big can one of these L3 (that's what you are looking at) Note pop-ups be? As big as the screen itself...

For the record, what L3 notes are capable of can't be replicated in L4, L6, L7, (and I guessing) L8, either. Why not??? Am I the only one who sees how valuable this function is? This allows pretty much any pertinent content (from your Library or elsewhere) to be pigeon-holed in the precise spot in your Bible where that information is relevant. For instance, in the screen shot below, I am about to hover over a note in verse 16...

...and when I do, this is what I see.

Isn't this 10000000000 times better than what L8 (or any L-not-3) does? But it's not just the ability to create alternate marginal references. You can include pretty much any useful info for instant reference WITHOUT A SINGLE CLICK NEEDED, such as...

...or this...

THIS IS WHAT NOTES IN LOGOS 8 SHOULD DO.

Isn't this 10000000000 times better than what L8 (or any Lnot3) does?

David Paul

Why not?

Because I don't want my notes covering the text that they are annotating.

Jim Erwin

I used the old note system and it was effective for me. I would organize a sermon plan, make the note icon silver circle for sermon prep notes. Then I would write out the entire manuscript in Logos. I would take previous notes i wrote and add them all onto a word processor document, footnote what was necessary, post to my blog on Patheos, and then copy and paste that post back into Logos. I would make that new note a gold circle (for the completed sermon). I put it in a certain folder where I knew sermons were going.

All my notes would show up in the Passage Guide, I could work with them, and my workflow became simple. I would just add notes and thoughts to a certain note and then write my sermons out.

I used the search function to find all I needed and used my Scripture verse as my connecting search.

However, now with this notes system, my searching has changed (and it doesn't do what I want it to do). I can't find my notes so easily and it seems that tagging is the way to sort most of my notes. My problem with this is that I have over 3000 notes and I will probably have to spend a week to tag them all.

I wish there was a way for Logos to help tag and make it easier for me.

The fact that my notes don't show up in the Passage Guide is a serious misstep. This should have been ready when Logos 8 was made public. I also don't like that I have to go to another menu to find my notes.

I will adapt to this new system. But it reminds me of going from writing my sermons by hand to typing them out. It also reminds from going from odl school searching to searching digitally on Google. It just changes the way I have to work. I hope it cuts my time down. But I wish Logos would not make me have to do additional work just to make something that was already workable function properly in its own new system.

John Sheeley

I see a lot of people love the new notes in 8. Put me down in the camp that hates the new format. I've tried watching the tutorial video and it just confuses me even more. I've had Logos for 9 years now and most upgrades I've liked, this one is the first I loathe. It makes no sense to my brain and I can't figure out how to just make notes for a particular sermon anymore.

Mark Barnes

I see a lot of people love the new notes in 8. Put me down in the camp that hates the new format. I've tried watching the tutorial video and it just confuses me even more. I've had Logos for 9 years now and most upgrades I've liked, this one is the first I loathe. It makes no sense to my brain and I can't figure out how to just make notes for a particular sermon anymore.

The new Notes system actually makes lots more sense than the old one — but I guess if you're used to the old one then the new one can be confusing. If you have a specific question, or are able to explain what you're trying to do, then I'm sure forum users would help.

Houseonarock

You are correct. tried that suggestion and had duplicate note icons in the resources and duplicate visual filter entries.

Bill & Gail

Phil,

My wife and I have been owned logos through many product cycles, we are still very beginning users and have not been through the many available tutorials or read the plethora of forums on your site. Frankly, for us, it's like drinking from the proverbial fire hose. Therefore my question here may be too basic, (or because I am lazy... if I worked just a little harder I could find the answer on your site myself.)

But here are two questions.

#1. As my wife begins to use Logos more frequently, she will highlight something important for her... but when she does it shows up on my note/bible/commentary as a highlighted note. Question: What do we have to do to separate her notes/highlights from my notes/highlights?

#2 Is there a way to set my "preferences for highlighting" to one or more "default preferences". I find it cumbersome to "hunt" for the correct tool each time I want to use the highlighter tool. I would like to "set" the tool to my individual preferred default preference. (I hope that makes sense to you?)

Thanks for any input you may have

Bill & Gail

Reuben Helmuth

Bill, I'm not Phil but here's my take on your questions.

What do we have to do to separate her notes/highlights from my notes/highlights?

I'd say the best way to achieve this currently would be to use Notebooks. If this is the only reason you (or she) would use notebooks, a single (e.g. "Gail's Note") notebook for each of you would be sufficient. My recommendation would be to go through each of your highlighting palettes and set them to "Most recent notebook", then while you're using Logos open the notebooks tab in the notes tool and select the desired notebook. With this in place, you can highlight to your heart's content and highlights will automatically get assigned to that notebook. Of course, the same is true for when your wife is using Logos.

One of the reasons for this approach is that Notebooks are currently the only way to hide/display notes on a granular level.

Is there a way to set my "preferences for highlighting" to one or more "default preferences".

If I'm understanding you correctly, are shortcut keys not what you're looking for (these are persistent across sessions)? To use these (once you've set them) simply select the text you're interested in and hit the relevant key on the keyboard. You have a total of 36 keys to choose from. Once these are set you won't need to open the highlight tool until you need to make a change!

Mike Binks

#1. As my wife begins to use Logos more frequently, she will highlight something important for her... but when she does it shows up on my note/bible/commentary as a highlighted note. Question: What do we have to do to separate her notes/highlights from my notes/highlights?

I can answer the first of your questions Bill (and Gail). Logos is sold as a single user product. There are no facilities for multiuser operations.

Faithlife, however, recognise Christian marriage and that when two are joined they become one flesh. Hence they allow use of a single system by a married couple (providing that they are not both in professional ministry employment).

Of course being 'one flesh' the highlights of one will be just as important to the other so it would be 'unChristian' to separate them. ;-)

Anthony Dowden

Game, Set and Match Mike! A biblical response to a software question - who says the Bible is old fashioned and outdated?

DavidS

It seems like you could use separate folders to solve some of the issue, with more than one user.

Bill & Gail

Reuben,

First I want to say thank you... your true compassion for my question (problem) is evident, thanks again !

With your help, I have figured out how to assign a key (U in this case) to blue-underline text with a short cut key. However, my preference would be to do two separate things with one (or if needed two) keys.

When I "add" a note to a notebook... I highlight the text to be added and a pop-up box appears with what looks like a "default" YellowBox, indicating a note on the original text..AND a corresponding yellow over text highlight. My preference would be a REDbox indicating the note... but a subtle blue underline of the actual text.

Do you know of a way to make my preference My DEFAULT? Or a 2nd alternative to define a shortcut key to do the same)?

So far, I have not been able to find where this can be done.

Thanks for your help with this... I do appreciate your caring heart.

Bill

Bill & Gail

not funny,

not helpful

Do you know of a way to make my preference My DEFAULT?

Unfortunately this is not possible at the moment.

It is item #16 on the list of Upcoming Features at https://www.logos.com/faq/notes but I'm afraid I have no information regarding timescales

Wayne Levi Price

Does anyone at the Corporate and Sales Levels know about all the complaints about the New Note System?

Many people have emailed them with NO RESPONSE.

We hate to complain, but this is HURTING our ministries and research.

I have been with you for OVER 10 Years and I have upgraded 2 times.

I have loved the program and have referred many people to it, until now.

The new NOTE System is Boken and I cannot refer anyone else nor upgrade to any new versions until the NOTES copy the links to citation Resources as it used to... This HUGE lost feature almost ruins the note system for many of us.

That was the most efficient and powerful aspect of the NOTES in my opinion.
NOW IT IS GONE and the work has become 10 times harder to do than before.

I have ALREADY contacted the programmers, but I see no improvement.

Does anyone in corporate office or the sales team care that customers you have had for over 10 years are extremely disappointed and will no longer Upgrade nor refer new customers?

I hope this gets resolved soon.

I know many others who are HURT by this so-called improvement.

Does anyone at the Corporate and Sales Levels know about all the complaints about the New Note System?

Many people have emailed them with NO RESPONSE.

We hate to complain, but this is HURTING our ministries and research.

I have been with you for OVER 10 Years and I have upgraded 2 times.

I have loved the program and have referred many people to it, until now.

The new NOTE System is Boken and I cannot refer anyone else nor upgrade to any new versions until the NOTES copy the links to citation Resources as it used to... This HUGE lost feature almost ruins the note system for many of us.

That was the most efficient and powerful aspect of the NOTES in my opinion.
NOW IT IS GONE and the work has become 10 times harder to do than before.

I have ALREADY contacted the programmers, but I see no improvement.

Does anyone in corporate office or the sales team care that customers you have had for over 10 years are extremely disappointed and will no longer Upgrade nor refer new customers?

I hope this gets resolved soon.

I know many others who are HURT by this so-called improvement.

Yes they are aware. Yes, they HAVE addressed it here on the forums. Yes they ARE working on a whole list of things and have even made a way for people to use the old system until the new is up to their idea of a standard.

That being said, it makes no sense not to refer people because they wouldn't know what the old note system was like to not like the new system and for MANY people, myself included, we are fine with the new note system as it is while they work on reimplementing some things.

Wayne Levi Price

well, maybe I can still refer people to the program. I will just have to warn them that at the next UPGRADE they may have the rug pulled out from underneath them, so don't get used to any of the functions in the NOTES too much because NEXT time it may all be totally different and you may have to wait a year for them to fix it. Peace to you always. [:D]

Keith Cowart

Hi Phil,

Please forgive the length of this message...

I'd like to describe how I have used Notes for the past 20 years and how the new Notes Tool has wrecked my 20-year old system (almost 3,000 notes). Perhaps I was using notes in a way it was never designed to be used, but it really worked well for me. It was also the feature used the most apart from the Passage Guide.

I had several different notebooks (My Commentary, My Messages, General Quotes/Illustrations, My Topical Bible, etc). Some of the notes were anchored, some were not. If I clicked on an anchored note in any Bible, it opened that notebook and gave me a large window in which I could easily read the note - even if it was an entire sermon (I love having my messages anchored to a specific text so I can access it immediately from the text without having to do a search of any kind). Imagine trying to read an entire sermon in the tiny window now reserved for notes!

If I was reading a scripture and wanted to add a note to My Commentary, I simply right clicked and was given the option of creating a new note in that particular collection, automatically anchored to the text in which I was creating the note. Under the new system, my only option for creating a new note is simply to "Add a Note" with no ability to specify that it be included in the My Commentary collection.

If I want to find a quote in my "General Quotes/Illustrations" collection (which has a separate note for each topic in my system with each note containing several entries), I have to open notes, create a filter, and then try to read it in a tiny column that only displays about 1 sentence at a time. I understand I can open it in a floating window, but now I've lost the ease and simplicity of having it open in a full-size window with a single click that allows me to see both the note and my other windows at the same time.

Also, with my General Quotes/Illustrations and Topical Bible collections, I had my notes alphabetized by topic with many entries under each topic.If I want to find a quote on "Forgiveness" in the new system, I have to create a filter to narrow it down to General Quotes/Illustrations only to find that my old notes are no longer alphabetized by topic but ordered with only two options: date created or date modified. I could search for "Forgiveness" but now I've added another step to the process that was so simple and easy under the old system.

I could go on and on with examples of how my very simple system of creating personal content in notes just got immeasurably more difficult to use. Again, I LOVE LOGOS and use it every day, but this change has had huge consequences for me personally. I'm sure I would love many of the improvements if I could actually find a way to reclaim my old system of creating, collecting and accessing notes. For now, I am grateful for the option of changing back to the old system, but I pray you will find a way to keep the improvements without destroying the basic functionality of the old system.

Imagine trying to read an entire sermon in the tiny window now reserved for notes!

Welcome to the forums. This should not be a problem if you resize the pane. I tend to keep notes in a floating window so they are not constrained by the size of my open resources.

You can select the notebook from a drop down menu on the note itself:

To select a notebook, rather than selecting in the Documents panel, one selects in the filters panel. It may take longer to find it in that there are many more options now but in principle, it is still just a click.

General Quotes/Illustrations only to find that my old notes are no longer alphabetized by topic but ordered with only two options: date created or date modified.

To the best of my knowledge, this function was lost ... and is an ongoing topic of discussion as to how best to adjust.

How close to what you need do these features get you?

Keith Cowart

I understand I can open it in a floating window, but that requires an extra step that didn't exist before. But quite frankly, that's the least of my worries. It's no longer possible to create notes in a specific notebook. It's not easy to get to what used to constitute one of my old notebooks and if it contains unanchored notes (My Topical Bible) the only way to organize them is either by date created or date modified. My entries are in alphabetical order by topic. My hope is that Logos will find a way to maintain the functionality of the old system while incorporating the best of the improvements.

I understand I can open it in a floating window, but that requires an extra step that didn't exist before. But quite frankly, that's the least of my worries. It's no longer possible to create notes in a specific notebook. It's not easy to get to what used to constitute one of my old notebooks and if it contains unanchored notes (My Topical Bible) the only way to organize them is either by date created or date modified. My entries are in alphabetical order by topic. My hope is that Logos will find a way to maintain the functionality of the old system while incorporating the best of the improvements.

Organizing by reference will be here in just a couple of weeks. It works great in the beta version right now.

You can add notes to a notebook if the notebook you are wanting to put it in is already open.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvKtswSPgm669Odrg8myn6A

Keith, if the extra step is of concern, you can resize it in your layout. From the drop-down menu in the add note function, you can place it in a specific notebook. That changes when/where you choose the notebook so I'm being a bit dense on where the problem lies. My notebooks all came across the conversion intact so the only difference I see is in where I make the selection. The loss of the title is the only problem I see where what you did in the past isn't readily possible in the new system.

I see your workflow for creating a note something like:

Optionally select anchor text
Add note to open an "empty" note - from Context Menu is anchored; from note panel if not anchored.
Select notebook from filter column
Add note content

Does this match what you are doing or am I totally misunderstanding?

Wayne Levi Price

Please JOIN US as we raise awareness to LOGOS and the developers that there are many UNHAPPY people since the NEW NOTE SYSTEM.

It is an outrage in my personal opinion that many of the Features are no longer available.

Join our You-Tube Channel and help us call for ACTION as we post our opinions about the Logos Bible Software.

Here is a link to the channel.

Hang in there.

Maybe they will FIX - RESTORE the Logos 7 Note Features.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvKtswSPgm669Odrg8myn6A