Sermon Builder Coming Soon to iPad-- try now in Beta

The latest iPadOS beta includes an experimental build of Sermon Builder! It's hidden behind a command, and we wanted to let you all be the first to give it a try.

To enable it, you'll need to (a) have a license to the desktop/web Sermon Builder feature, (b) type Enable experimental Sermon Builder into the box on the homepage and tap on the item that appears in the autocomplete menu, and (c) restart the app.

Once it's enabled, you'll be able to open and edit any of your existing sermons. You'll also be able to create new sermons from the Sermons menu by tapping the + icon.

A few things to note:

It mostly works offline, but the autocomplete for the Topics and Passages fields requirements an internet connection.
There's basic support for creating slides, but you can't select different slide backgrounds from the Media tool as you can on desktop and web.
This is iPad only for now. iPhone support would require a lot of rework to the UI. Android tablet support is blocked by a number of Draft.js bugs.

We don't plan to address any of these issues before shipping, hopefully by the end of the month.

We're taking a more cautious approach and starting with a private beta because this isn't native iPadOS code. It's a shared HTML web component like Factbook. But while we designed the new Factbook from the beginning to work on mobile, Sermon Builder wasn't designed with mobile in mind. We had to retrofit it a bit. But we're quite pleased with how it's turning out. This may bode well for our bringing other shared web components to the iPad app in the future.

While our experience internally has been very positive, all the normal beta risks and disclaimers apply.

We know this has been a much-requested feature, and we'd love to get your feedback before rolling it out widely.

A reminder on how to get the Logos mobile beta on your iPad:

Download the Testflight App from the Apple App Store
Click this link to download the Logos Beta testflight build
Sign in with your Faithlife account (must own a Base Package with Sermon Builder)

Feel free to post any initial feedback or questions here.

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Comments

Rob Bruce

It's great! Thanks!

Kenneth Neighoff

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1156715#Comment_1156715

Thanks for adding this feature. Looking forward to trying it out some this evening and a lot tomorrow.

Kenneth Neighoff

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1156718#Comment_1156718

I loved using this feature today, to edit my sermon on my Ipad.

It worked well for me. seemed to be a little lag as I typed, I can live with that.

The only real negative I had today was I tried to take out something, a heading, it removed it on the Ipad but it is still there on the desktop.

Looking forward to using it again next week and compose the whole sermon on the Ipad. This weeks sermon was about 85% done on the desktop and completed on the Ipad.

Reid A Ferguson

Unbelievable! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Graham Criddle

Hi Daniel

I’ve just been experimenting with this a bit further - and really very impressed how much of the desktop functionality you have been able to bring across to mobile. Great job

Three things I noted that I wanted to mention:

I know you mention we can’t change slide backgrounds. Does that explain why I can tap a slide to get the Edit option but tapping that doesn’t do anything?

When I include a Bible passage, there is quite a lot of blank space included as well

And while the navigation icons show at the bottom of the screenshot above - when they are hidden it isn’t clear how to get back to them. Random tapping on the screen eventually does it, is there an intended way to do this?

Thanks again, Graham

Todd Diehl (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1157230#Comment_1157230

I know you mention we can’t change slide backgrounds. Does that explain why I can tap a slide to get the Edit option but tapping that doesn’t do anything?

Correct. We plan to make an update that will remove the Edit option so this isn't so confusing.

When I include a Bible passage, there is quite a lot of blank space included as well

Thanks, this should be fixed in the most recent beta (shipped last Friday). It won't fix _existing_ scripture blocks, but new scripture blocks shouldn't have the empty space. Let me know if you see otherwise.

And while the navigation icons show at the bottom of the screenshot above - when they are hidden it isn’t clear how to get back to them. Random tapping on the screen eventually does it, is there an intended way to do this?

Yes, this is a bit challenging, detecting whether you are interacting with a field or whether to assume you are trying to toggle the top/bottom toolbars. We are looking to also add a keyboard shortcut to show/hide the toolbars.

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1158062#Comment_1158062

Thanks Todd

And, yes, the latest beta fixed the blank space issue when including Bible passages

Gary Graham

Thank You!

I have been wanting this feature forever. It is the only major feature (I think) that the PC could do that we couldn’t do from iOS.