Suggestion: Add "Look up in Commentary" button to Bibles.

Many times I'm looking at Bibles, I want to jump to a commentary on that reference - and more often than you imagine I don't have a commentary already open. (This is particularly true when I'm following cross references, looking up parallel passages in the Synoptics, or checking out OT quotations in the NT).

At the moment, I have to either (a) open the library, type type:commentary Luke or something similar, and find my favourite commentary from the rather long list. Or (b) I have to remember the author of my favourite commentary, and type bock luke or similar in the command bar. Either way, it's a dozen or more keypresses or clicks, and relies on me remembering my favourite commentary (which is fine for Luke, but less easy for Zephaniah).

There's an easy solution.

When reading a Bible, have a function key open your favourite commentary according to your prioritisation. F6 would be good. Even better, add a button to the Bible toolbar (next the the interlinear button). It would be worth the screen real estate - I would click that button several times a day. I'm sure others would too.

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Comments

Aaron Sauer

[Y]

Damian McGrath

This is one of the reasons that I have 2 one-volume commentary's in my top 5 prioritised resources (Oxford Bible Commentary and Harper's Bible Commentary).

I do miss the v3 function of being able to double click on a bible quote and immediately have a couple of commentaries open.

That said, I like the idea.

Dave Hooton

[Y]

Robert Pavich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140210#Comment_140210

[Y] Bigtime!

JimTowler

There's an easy solution.

When reading a Bible, have a function key open your favourite commentary according to your prioritisation.

Mark,

I support the idea of Logos directly supporting more of the very kind of thing you say here.

However, the COM API in the 4.0d Beta 4 already has enough power to enable this kind of thing, or a 98% match.

I would welcome additional ideas on what kinds of things like this you would value, as a way of helping me direct my focus as I attempt to see what the API might be used for. I don't want to hijack this thread away from your original request here.

Robert Pavich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140216#Comment_140216

I would welcome additional ideas on what kinds of things like this you would value, as a way of helping me direct my focus as I attempt to see what the API might be used for. I don't want to hijack this thread away from your original request here.

Jim, being the unimaginative guy that I am....could you suggest a few things that you think might be useful? I can't think of any though I KNOW that there are, like the suggestion in this thread...

NetworkGeek

Many times I'm looking at Bibles, I want to jump to a commentary on that reference - and more often than you imagine I don't have a commentary already open. (This is particularly true when I'm following cross references, looking up parallel passages in the Synoptics, or checking out OT quotations in the NT).

There's an easy way to do this with a favorite commentary. First, in the command box do a "open xxxx", to bring up the command to open your favorite commentary. Click the command and drag it to your toolbar. This is a one time action.

Now, open up any Bible, and go to a verse. Once there, all you have to do is click on the commentary icon you just created, it opens up to the same verse! It's just one click! If you want it to track, then just set up a Link Set, or if you are just checking things out sporadically, just close the commentary and when you open it again it will match the verse int he Bible.

Is this what you are referring to or did I misunderstand? I use this all the time...

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140225#Comment_140225

There's an easy way to do this with a favorite commentary.

That will only work for a single volume commentary, unless you make multiple shortcuts.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140233#Comment_140233

That will only work for a single volume commentary

Yes, precisely. Single-volume commentaries are great for giving a good overview of a passage or book, but rarely help with a specific question about an individual verse. And using parallel resources to get from the one-volume commentary to the commentary you really want is too time consuming to be useful (up to 45 seconds for me).

NetworkGeek

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140236#Comment_140236

Ah, my mistake. Sorry...

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140219#Comment_140219

Jim, being the unimaginative guy that I am....could you suggest a few things that you think might be useful? I can't think of any though I KNOW that there are, like the suggestion in this thread...

I don't want to hijack this thread. In short, I'm still exploring what the API current can and can not do. I've got ideas for now, but little thats really important, or can't be done as well or better with what is already built in. I'll get back to you if/when I have something useful ... [:)]

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140236#Comment_140236

Single-volume commentaries are great for giving a good overview of a passage or book, but rarely help with a specific question about an individual verse. And using parallel resources to get from the one-volume commentary to the commentary you really want is too time consuming to be useful (up to 45 seconds for me).

This is something thats got my attention now. A few questions if I might:

Do you/would you, always want the same commentary set, or would you change it often, or even by different source (i.e. look up an ESV verse in a different set than one from a KJV Bible)?
Would you normally close it after you are done for the moment, or shrink it into a small panel to one side?
Would you want some kind of prompt or pop-up, or just open your default ASAP with no mucking around?
Would you want to have this work only from a Bible, or anywhere you have a verse ref?
What is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice of commentary? (I'll test and try ideas using the one(s) you like if I have it)

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140236#Comment_140236

And using parallel resources to get from the one-volume commentary to the commentary you really want is too time consuming to be useful (up to 45 seconds for me).

Wow! Mine takes a while to bring up the parallel resources, but I don't think it is quite that long. I have my commentaries divided into 5 collections. Perhaps that speeds thing up a little.

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140246#Comment_140246

Well, the following seems to work for me when I explored it just now. Works if you have a single multi-volume commentary set as your fav, as I have mine set for EBC at present.

Right-click somewhere within the verse, select "Reference" on the right, scroll down to see the correct volume of your fav commentary on offer.

Not many clicks, and not many seconds. However, F6 (or whatever) would leave everything else for dead.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140245#Comment_140245

Do you/would you, always want the same commentary set, or would you change it often, or even by different source (i.e. look up an ESV verse in a different set than one from a KJV Bible)?

I'd want to use a different commentary for each Bible book (not Bible version). I'd like the commentary to be chosen from my prioritisation list. If I was to be really demanding, I'd like to be able to choose a particular collection to choose the commentary from (F6=Academic Commentaries, SHIFT+F6=Intermediate Commentaries, CTRL+F6=Expositional Commentaries, ALT+F6 = One-Volume Commentaries).

Would you normally close it after you are done for the moment, or shrink it into a small panel to one side?

Normally I have a main commentary open, and a few more in tabs I can't currently see. I'd be happy for F6 to either produce a pop-up (which I can open fully with a further click), or a normal tab (which I'd probably resize and close after 5-15 minutes). I'd probably prefer the latter.

Would you want some kind of prompt or pop-up, or just open your default ASAP with no mucking around?

See question 1.

Would you want to have this work only from a Bible, or anywhere you have a verse ref?

I can't see it being useful anywhere else. Can you?

What is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice of commentary? (I'll test and try ideas using the one(s) you like if I have it)

Does this help?

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140246#Comment_140246

And using parallel resources to get from the one-volume commentary to the commentary you really want is too time consuming to be useful (up to 45 seconds for me).

Wow! Mine takes a while to bring up the parallel resources, but I don't think it is quite that long. I have my commentaries divided into 5 collections. Perhaps that speeds thing up a little.

I have my commentaries in 4 collections. I think that makes it slower, if anything. In fairness the 45 seconds is only the first time. After that it seems to cache a lot of things in memory (I can't hear the disk going), and takes about 5-7 seconds. But with the extra clicks also required, that's still slower than me using the command bar (and a LOT slower than pressing F6 would be!).

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140247#Comment_140247

Well, the following seems to work for me when I explored it just now. Works if you have a single multi-volume commentary set as your fav, as I have mine set for EBC at present.

Right-click somewhere within the verse, select "Reference" on the right, scroll down to see the correct volume of your fav commentary on offer.

Not many clicks, and not many seconds. However, F6 (or whatever) would leave everything else for dead.

That's not a bad idea. Even if the 'right' commentary was not the one prioritised, you could still get to it in about 5-6 clicks and 10 seconds. I wonder if there are any problems with having non-Bibles at the top of your priority list? I'm going to run with your suggestion and see if I hit any issues.

Robert Pavich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140245#Comment_140245

Do you/would you, always want the same commentary set, or would you change it often, or even by different source (i.e. look up an ESV verse in a different set than one from a KJV Bible)?

Maybe a choice of my top 3? But one is fine.

Would you normally close it after you are done for the moment, or shrink it into a small panel to one side?

I'd like to shrink it rather than close it.

Would you want some kind of prompt or pop-up, or just open your default ASAP with no mucking around?

Would you want to have this work only from a Bible, or anywhere you have a verse ref?

I'd like this to be available anywhere...

What is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice of commentary? (I'll test and try ideas using the one(s) you like if I have it)

Baker NT for the NT and NAC for a general commentary...Pulpit commentary too

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140252#Comment_140252

I wonder if there are any problems with having non-Bibles at the top of your priority list?

Prioritize a commentary or two amongst your top five bibles!

EDIT: this needs explanation for others reading the thread.

L4 lists up to 5 resources on the Context menu for various links and words in the text (bible references, lemma, Strong's #, etc). Bibles and Commentaries are both accessed via bible references, so if you Prioritize one or two commentaries (or Series) among your top five bible resources they will be listed in the Context menu for a bible reference. For example:

ESV (my preferred bible)
NET
NKJV
NIV
Pulpit series
NRSV

(NRSV is my catch-all for the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books).

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140361#Comment_140361

Prioritize a commentary or two amongst your top five bibles!

This is a good idea Dave.

Let me add another that works for me. Create a custom passage guide with only one entry: a commentary collection. Populate the collection with your top commentary for each book of the Bible, or make it whatever you want. Then name it 'Top Commentaries' and you're ready to go. Right click on the passage, select the Reference tab, and click on 'Top Commentaries'. This method takes advantage of Logos' collections and its customizable passage guide.

Load times for me for this are very quick, after the first one (I guess there's some code that has to get loaded into memory first).

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140363#Comment_140363

Let me add another that works for me. Create a custom passage guide with only one entry: a commentary collection. Populate the collection with your top commentary for each book of the Bible, or make it whatever you want. Then name it 'Top Commentaries' and you're ready to go.

Brilliant idea! This thread has been very fruitful.

I created a collection using the series tag for NAC and Pulpit ie. series:(Pulpit, "New American") and the PG loads very quickly from the Context menu.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140363#Comment_140363

Let me add another that works for me.

Another worthy of tips and tricks wiki

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/140363#Comment_140363

Then name it 'Top Commentaries' and you're ready to go.

What I meant (and I'm sure all can figure out) is to name the custom passage guide with this name, not the collection. Name either whatever you like, of course.