Features in Essentials vs. Starter vs. Preaching Suite

I've been using the Free version for a few months now.

I can't afford to jump straight into a high package, but I could do something small to increase features.

Other than Sermon Builder in Preaching Suite and Reader's interlinear in Starter I am having a difficult time seeing what main features are worth considering. Hours of research and watching tutorials hasn't really cleared it up for me either.

I write sermons every week but only use PowerPoint only about 2 times per year for Bible classes.

I do produce very brief sermon outline handouts for each Sunday.

I am rather strong in reading original languages and have enough resources in the free package plus a couple of small legacy libraries that I purchased.

My question is, for those of you with more experience, what am I missing out on that I could use? Do I need more features or should I spend my money on a legacy library to fill out my collection or commentaries and other resources?

What features would you miss if you didn't have them that you think I should look at?

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Comments

Christian Alexander

Here is a good list of feature accessible in Logos Bible Software. And it shows what is new in Logos 10. https://www.logos.com/features Here is a way to compare feature sets. https://www.logos.com/compare/featuresets/Logos%20Feature%20Sets This is a good friend of mine and his view on Logos. https://readingacts.com/2022/10/10/logos-bible-software-10-first-look/

Juan Palm

Here is a good list of feature accessible in Logos Bible Software. And it shows what is new in Logos 10. https://www.logos.com/features Here is a way to compare feature sets. https://www.logos.com/compare/featuresets/Logos%20Feature%20Sets This is a good friend of mine and his view on Logos. https://readingacts.com/2022/10/10/logos-bible-software-10-first-look/

Thanks for the link to your friend's review. That helps some. This quote from the article:

"Logos Bible Software is like that old saying about only using about 10% of our brains (which I know is not true, but it works for this analogy so bear with me). Although I have been using Logos for nearly thirty years now, I feel like I use about 10% of its features regularly. But that 10% is so valuable I can honestly recommend making an investment in the Logos, both in terms of resources and time."

encourages me to jump in, but I don't want to waste money I could spend on commentaries if it isn't going to give me that kind of impact.

Logos' own feature lists and set comparisons are a bit opaque to me. For example, Starter would get me "Factbook tags: People Names" but as best as I can tell I already can see people names with factbook in the free version.

What does this add? More information? Minor persons' biographies (Like John and Alexander from today's Acts reading)?

Furthermore, since I don't do PowerPoint for sermons, does Sermon builder do anything more than Notebooks for me?

That's the trouble that I'm having. Maybe I'm just a bit thick, but that's why I'm asking what features have the biggest impact to get. Most people rave about Machine Translation and Print Library, but I can't afford the Gold upgrade, so that's out of the question. I can get sermon tools out of preaching suite, so Silver seems unnecessary. I don't need much for mobile, so Bronze doesn't add much beyond Starter, as far as I can see.

If the features make life easier, I'd be glad to keep slowly upgrading, but otherwise I would rather just snag some commentaries through legacy libraries.

DMB

I'm all for commentary snagging, especially if on sale. They'll get great use thru your years.

That is, if the more accessable features have little value to you. And your OL is pretty workable.

Personally, I have a mid-5 figures Logos, and can't think of a feature I use ... ok, maybe right-clicking RI's for quick lookup/search. A lot of great Logos features are baked right into the free engine.

Christian Alexander

https://youtu.be/vtxcfHcmmUA This is a good video and very exhaustive in my honest opinion. I started with Logos Diamond back in 2018 I think. I know I do not use all features I have and I did not upgrade to Logos 10 when it came out. I have a lot of books 3,962 and counting but still have blocks of empty space. My questions for you. 1. How much research do you use? 2. What are you trying to do with Logos, research, sermon prep, Sunday school, etc? 3. How much money do you have to spend on a package? If it were me, I would do the Logos 10 Bronze Feature Upgrade and then go to legacy libraries for commentaries at a relatively cheaper price.

Juan Palm

Christian,

Thank you for your response and good questions:

I am quite busy and use Logos to speed up my research and quality. I have found it helpful so far, but I imagine I will hit a point where I don't have time to review all the commentaries, etc. that Logos can pull up

I write about 90-100 sermons per year.

I am drawn to academic research but I aim to make it accessible on a lay level. That's not always easy so illustrations and helps would be appreciated.

2-3 times a year I do an in-depth exegetical presentation to share with a group of my brother pastors.

Weekly and a few monthly Bible Studies that do not require PowerPoint. I use an inductive-style Bible study guide for one of these.

2-3 times per year I do an intensive deep dive, long format Bible Study. Because we aim to cover much material in 8 weeks of 90 minute classes I use PowerPoint and sometimes prepared note guides to really pack it in.

I don't use digital for other classes, like youth catechesis, or day school Bible classes.

Graham Criddle

Logos' own feature lists and set comparisons are a bit opaque to me. For example, Starter would get me "Factbook tags: People Names" but as best as I can tell I already can see people names with factbook in the free version.

What does this add? More information? Minor persons' biographies (Like John and Alexander from today's Acts reading)?

The Factbook Tags family provides direct links to Factbook articles from the biblical text:

Furthermore, since I don't do PowerPoint for sermons, does Sermon builder do anything more than Notebooks for me?

For sometime before the Sermon Builder was available I used to write sermons in Logos Notes. When the Sermon Builder became available I switched to it and found it added a number of benefits even ignoring production of slides. These include:

Better structuring and layout than in Notes
Enough word processing capabilities for me when preparing a sermon
The ability to easily include biblical passages (and include blocks of text from other resources if required)
The ability to tag sermons with topics and passage references which means they appear in various guide sections

That's the trouble that I'm having. Maybe I'm just a bit thick, but that's why I'm asking what features have the biggest impact to get.

I always find it difficult to advise on the value of particular features for an individual as each of our needs and interests vary. Some things that might be of interest - looking at Starter:

Some of the harmonies and parallel passage resources
Reverse Interlinears can be really helpful when searching for tagged words
Addressee and Speaker datasets can be helpful - it enables you, for example, to search for all the times one person was speaking to another. With the Places dataset this can be refined further to where that conversation took place
Fuzzy Bible Searching helps you find particular passages when you can't remember the exact phrase in the verse
Linking a Lexicon to a Bible means that when you click an original language word, the position in the linked lexicon is updated to match
Multiple resources enables you to have different books open in the same panel so you can, for example, have a Bible open with a number of commentaries all visible with the commentaries scrolling as you move through the biblica text
Some of the interactives are helpful in providing either easy-to-access reference information or a way of filtering down to items of interest. So the Speaking to God Interactive, for example, enables you to easily find where David was recorded as asking God a question in 2 Samuel

So these are examples of things that may be of interest - but I'm aware that someone else looking through the set of features might have pulled out a totaly different set!

Does this help at all?