Logos need to focus! ;)
Let me begin by saying that I’m excited about the development of Logos 4 for the Mac. I’ve used Logos since 1996 (when it was Libronix 2.0) and up until the Mac version came out, have always had to use it in a virtual PC environment. I’ve upgraded over the years, purchasing the Pastor’s package in Libronix X, then buying Libronix 1.x for the mac when it came out, and have since upgraded to the Leader’s library on Logos 4 (I have many other Libronix packages purchased from 3rd parties, as well.) So, I’m a long-time Logos user/customer and am thrilled to finally have a full featured version running on my favorite platform. Thanks guys!
I’ve been lurking on this list for months, but today I thought I’d “throw my hat into the ring” and offer a suggestion to the Logos team. Hey guys, you need to focus! Well, not you, really, but your application! 
What I mean to say is that the current panel in use in Logos 4, (when more than one panel is open) needs to have a focus frame, or some other visual cue to indicate that it is the one in use. More importantly, the application itself needs to be aware of which panel is focused.
As it stands now, with several panels open in Logos 4, there is no way to know which panel is “focused” (i.e. which panel is in “use” at any given moment). This isn’t needed so much for the sake of the user (after all, I know which panel I’m using), but rather for the sake of the application itself. This becomes an issue in several areas as follows:
Find
Selecting “Find” in the pop-up menu of course brings up the Find bar in the same panel as the pop-up menu used to select it. However, when using the keyboard “Command-F”, Logos 4 has no idea in which panel to bring up the Find bar (i.e. which frame is focused) and often (in my experience) brings it up in the wrong panel.
Float this panel
I assigned “Control-Option-Command-F” (via the System’s Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts Preference pane) to the “Float this panel” pop-up menu command. However, when invoked, Logos 4 has no idea in which panel I’m working (even though it’s the most recent panel that I’ve opened, clicked, scrolled, searched, etc.) so often the “wrong” panel is floated. And there is no way to “tell” the application otherwise without invoking the command from the desired panels pop-up menu..
Oddly enough the “Reading view” (“Shift-Command-F”) works as expected and always puts the last used panel into view. (As an aside, what does the “F” key have to do with reading? Why not “Shift-Command-R”?)
Opening a new book
Logically, one would expect a new book to open in a new tab in the panel in which one is working (barring a preference to indicate otherwise). However, if several panels are open, and since Logos 4 has no idea in which panel the user is working, the book opens (seemingly arbitrarily) wherever the application chooses, not the user. A “focused” panel would solve this issue.
There are other reasons why a (visually) focused panel would be useful (e.g. I do quite a bit of GUI scripting via Applescript, the “Accessibility Inspector,” and “System Events” and it would be nice to know which panel is focused when using a script.) but the above examples should suffice.
So, how about it? Get Logos 4 focused! 
Seriously, thanks for all the hard work. I look forward to each new release!
Larry Quinlan
Comments
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LarryQuinlan said:
As an aside, what does the “F” key have to do with reading? Why not “Shift-Command-R”?
It's an artifact of when we called it "full screen mode".
As for your suggestion for some sort of visual emphasis on the currently open panel, this is something that we will be looking into in the future.
Regarding your reports of Logos choosing the "wrong" panel for keyboard interaction, it would be most helpful if you could provide us with very detailed lists of steps to reproduce what you're seeing.
David Mitchell
Development Lead
Faithlife0 -
Larry - I couldn't agree more!
David - please use the standard Mac way of identifying the active pane (which is generally a colored border around the active pane). Mac users want a Mac application and not one that looks like a Windows port.
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DanGiese said:
not one that looks like a Windows port.
I'm not sure that's possible since the windows version doesn't look like a windows application either.
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