Custom Guides as my main reference tool - how I use them

Bob

Just want to share how I use the custom guides with the guide editor because I would have liked to have seen this approach when I started with Logos.

Set them up once and save it in the cloud. Can even share them. Those auto research type features in other software can't match this. And there are so many options to easily see information relevant to the current text.

If I want to get info about the current text I click on the tab and pick the section. A really easy way to go through a list of commentaries for example… and you can even hover to see a quick snippet of content.

Setup can vary and most people will want the ease of using community tags, but I use my own tags.

Because I use a lot of sections, I keep three custom guides as open tabs on the leftmost pane of my layout…

1. Core References Guide
   * Outlines
   * Important Passages
   * Visualizations
   * Compare Versions
   * Textual Variants (with many subtopics)
   * Apparatuses
   * Ancient Literature
   * Literary Typing
   * Figurative Language
   * Word by Word
   * Grammars
   * Grammatical Constructions
   * Lemma in Passage
   * Collections - Xrefs tag
   * Concordance
   * Messianic Prophecy
   
2. Dictionary and Handbook References Guide
   * Biblical Events
   * Atlas
   * Biblical Places
   * Biblical People
   * Biblical Things
   * Topics
   * Theme
   * Thematic Outlines
   * Cultural Concepts
   * Collection sections for things like topicXref, background lit, charts, dicts, handbooks, encyclopedias, maps, charts, apologetics, history
   * Media collections
   * Media resources
   
3. Commentary-Like or supplemental info (many are by collection or tag)
   * _BibleOverviews
   * _StudyBibles
   * _CommentaryLight
   * _CommentaryLarge
   * _CommentarySummary
   * _GreekHebCommentary
   * _BackgroundLit
   * _People
   * _Revival
   * _Preach
   * Sermon Outlines
   * Illustrations
   * Personal Letters
   * Confessional Docs
   * Biblical Theologies
   * Systematic Theologies
   
   It's also the perfect getting started method if a friend sets something (simpler) up for them with a layout.
   
   Biggest Logos gap for this…
   * Quickly accessing context-related maps and charts (eg tied to the time and place of the current text) from my atlas and other resources based on the current text.
   * Being able on Windows to scroll the tabs on a pane by for example hovering and scrolling the mouse wheel when there are more tabs than can show across the width (the little arrow is hard to click on, and the extra guide tabs add to the issue)