New here!

Paul Travers

Hey y'all Finally pulled the trigger and purchased Logos. Super excited to dive in!

It's even more amazing than I saw in the few demo videos I watched. I keep hopping back and forth between actually using the tool (in 1 John at the moment), and watching training to learn about the tool.

Not really a question - just a new enthusiastic user here - but, if I may ask - what's the most useful thing you've found in the tool? The ability to save a 'layout' so you can come back to it seems super useful (instead of having to open everything up and start again). What else? Does your bible study (or sermon prep or what have you) revolve around a Logos 'workflow'? Seems like there's some users here that have been using it for a very long time - love to hear your wisdom!

Thanks!

-Paul

Aaron Hamilton

 The ability to save a 'layout' so you can come back to it seems super useful 

Yes, it certainly is!

My absolute favorite part of Logos? The ability to search through all my resources. Sounds basic, but this feature more than any other saves me countless hours of time. Every time I'm forced to thumb through pages of a book, I find myself thinking the same thing: "I wish Logos carried this."

Factbook is also fun if you have a decent library. I end up using the passage guide very frequently. And you can get absolutely lost (in a good way) in the study of original languages. Sorry if I'm not being precise enough, but I guess I don't have a precise answer. 🙂

Jonathan Bradley

Hey @Paul Travers , welcome to the forums!

As for what I find most useful in Logos, is the versatility in how I use it. I can do so much with it and customize how I do things, such as Bible Study prep, sermon prep, or even daily devotionals. There are so many different ways to do things. There's so much more that I love about the software, so it's hard to really pin it down to just one item.

However, the Smart Search has been a lot of fun, asking it random theological questions to get an idea how intuitive it is.

Paul Travers

Thanks @Aaron Hamilton ! Agreed, searching through everything at once is a pretty powerful feature, though I'm still learning 'what's what' when it comes up - is it a commentary? a verse from scripture? something from my grocery list? ;-)
I'm excited to delve into all that came with what I purchased as far as the library is concerned. Bible study is still pretty new to me, so I'm sure I'll be finding books I didn't know I had for years.. Your answer was perfect - it's exactly how I felt first logging in and poking around - 'ooh, that's neat' 'ahh, that's cool.'

Thanks @Jonathan Bradley ! That's what it seems like. I'm studying 1 John, but also found the 'memorization' section, and found some 'media' when I was poking around Ephesians. It's really a one-stop shop type of resource.

I'll have to play with smart search, sounds a bit like AI. We've been using it a bit at work (putting a bot together to try to have it answer some computer 'architectural' questions). It's not nearly ready for prime time yet, but it usually gets you started in the right direction. (Usually being the operative word ;-) )

John Fidel

Hi Paul and welcome!

I suggest going through some of the videos provided by Logos that can be found if you click on "Training" in the top of this page. In addition Learning Logos and Morris Proctor have some great material. Logos is quit vast and each user finds certain features most helpful as they experiment and learn.

For me the Guides are most helpful. They can be customized so they show only what you need them to show. Factbook is improving with each release and is becoming a great starting point for a study. And a feature not discussed much is the information tool. I have one open in each of my layouts. If you click on a work (or you can set it on hover) it populates with lots of great information.

Enjoy your journey!

David Thomas

2 things about saved layouts:

1. I have Logos set to automatically open to my daily journaling and prayer layout so that I prioritize my own spiritual formation BEFORE moving toward preparation for others. It is a small thing, but has been great for my focus!
2. Having default layouts for sermon prep in both OT (Hebrew) and NT (Greek) which have different resources in the same basic format. Starting upper left and moving clockwise: Guides; Primary Sources; personal interaction with primary sources; favorite bookmarks for recall; secondary (quick lookup) Bible; Original language tools; Community secondary sources (commentaries).

Donovan R. Palmer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/243958/new-here

Welcome @Paul Travers

What I love most about Logos is the way that it makes original languages more accessible whatever level of proficiency that you are at. Computerised Bible studies is what drew me into studying Greek and Hebrew, and while I am not as proficient as I would like to be, I learn more and more every week due to Logos. Be careful. You can find yourself turning into a bit of a Bible Software nerd or nut! Jump into the deep end of the pool! The community here is great! 🙌

1Cor10 31

Parallel Resource saves a ton of time. While I am reading the Bible, I usually have many questions. I go to a commentary to see if the question was raised by my default commentary series (NIC). If not, use the Parallel Resources tool to jump to the next commentary in the list and it takes you to the same verse in the next commentary.

If you know how to "Prioritize Resource" then you can prioritize your top 10-20 commentaries for each book of the Bible. Then you simply jump from your #1 commentary, to the #2 , and so on….

you ain't doing this with a physical commentary set without spending an inordinate amount of time.

Maria

Welcome, @Paul Travers !

For me, the most amazing thing about Logos is its versatility. I have a layout for the middle-school boys' Sunday School class I teach, where I primarily use a Bible, commentaries, factbook, and sermon builder (by the way, sermon builder is awesome for prepping ANY Bible lesson - it doesn't need to actually be a sermon). I have another layout for my 3rd grade class, where I use mostly a display of the Bible, the atlas, highlighters, the information panel, and some media. I have yet another layout for my daily devotions, where I have a devotional, a hymnal, a prayer list, various Bibles, and highlighters. I also have layouts for Greek and Hebrew study - these I have simply because they were fun to create and I like to pretend I'm studying those languages, lol. Finally, I have tons of reading layouts, one for each book I'm currently reading, which open to the book itself, highlighters, the information panel, and any other resources I've opened while reading. Oh, also, I have a layout for each years' VBS lessons - where I almost always have used sermon builder to create the lessons.

I love being able to open whichever layout I'm working on, and having it all prepared to go!

It's akin to having your desk productively messy, with an order in the chaos that makes sense to only you, then cleaning it all up, but being able to have it open up to that exact mess it was in yesterday when you come back to it today!

Hope I'm making sense! 😁

Paul Travers

Thanks for the comments y'all! This is such a great community! Seriously, I had no idea of the response I'd get here and have gotten some amazing practical insight, as well as information to feed my enthusiasm (and, ultimately, bible study). If I had known there was such a great community here, I definitely would've purchased sooner!

Thanks @John Fidel ! Yup, you hit the nail right on the head. I need to go in and do all of the training. I've watched a few, but, as usual, then stopped and tried to figure things out just by playing around. That didn't go well ;) I need to go watch the rest of it. And the 'information tool' isn't something I've seen yet. Can't wait to go check that out!

Thanks @David Thomas! Yeah, that'll be a must-do for me - creating a layout for my morning prayer/reading time. Such a great idea. I'll have to get a good plan, as sometimes the tough things for me are finding what to read during a devo that doesn't just feel like a 'checkbox'. Love the idea of having a layout for each OT and NT. And then standardizing them so you know where each is - what a great idea. And thanks for sharing those two layouts! It super helps to be able to see what they look like practically to be able to start with something.

Thanks @Donovan Palmer ! That is definitely one of the the most overwhelming things about bible study - when you start to get to the original languages and are sussing out the deeper meanings. Indeed, that's something that software can do pretty quickly - and as part of a workflow. Thanks! And thanks for sharing that layout! (And of 1 John - thanks for taking the time to put that together knowing I was going through that book now!)

Thanks @1Cor10 31 ! (Great name/verse, btw). I wouldn't have thought of that - to use parallel versions with commentaries, and not just bibles. What a great idea! Still a bit new in bible study to prioritize resources - but I'm sure I'll find some I particularly like and start to gravitate more to them. Thanks!

Thanks @Maria ! I love all of those layout ideas! Thanks for that! Especially one with the books I'm reading. I didn't realize how many books are in Logos - or - more to the point, I thought I'd just use them as reference books, but there's some gems in there that I'm diving in to. And yes, I'm very aware of the 'messy desk but I know where everything is' situation ;)