Prioritization- Am I doing this right?

Pardon the long post (because of the pics), but the question is short- Do I have a clue about how prioritization should work? I've attached pics of my prioritization list since a picture is worth hundreds, if not thousands, of words.

I've tried to keep things in cannonical order; tried to keep specific resources first; and tried to not prioritize non-versified resources (though some may still be in the list from when I started doing this a year ago). I've ordered the items together in sections (there's no Hebrew section as I don't know Hebrew yet), and ordered the sections similar to what MP taught at Camp Logos I.

This is a lot of work. If I could be doing this more efficiently, I'd love to know how.

(Note: I haven't posted the whole thing...got to the NT and stopped there...the rest looks similar.)

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Comments

DMB

Well, I'm certainly impressed.

I'm not sure I'd limit some of your commentary books to a specific Bible book (since the commentary might also speak to other Bible references as well, that are related).

I'm a whole lot lazier. I just drag my favorite resources over, group them by general type so I don't miss the key ones, and then let Logos go down the list as needed.

I imagine Logos like a Beagle going down the list ... sniff, sniff, sniff, ... ok here's a hebrew dictionary.... and another ... hmm, how many toes do I have? 5. Ok, got enough.

Dave Hooton

I've tried to keep things in cannonical order; tried to keep specific resources first; and tried to not prioritize non-versified resources (though some may still be in the list from when I started doing this a year ago). I've ordered the items together in sections (there's no Hebrew section as I don't know Hebrew yet), and ordered the sections similar to what MP taught at Camp Logos I.

It's difficult to see that these methods will achieve best results for your study:

do you see the 6 most important Commentaries listed first in Passage Guide (PG)?
when you right click a Greek word do you see the five most important Lexicons listed?
when you perform a Search on Top Bibles are they the five most important bibles?
when you perform a lookup on a English word (or right click a word) do you see the five most important dictionaries?

As a simple illustration, PG will list resources in your Bible Notes section ahead of your Commentaries UNLESS you have created two Collections according to these sections and created PG Commentaries sections with these collections.

You have listed Enhanced BDB Lexicon with Bible Dictionaries.

Why is the Genesis Record restricted to Genesis when it seems the book IS restricted to Genesis? Ditto with Treasury of David being restricted to Psalms and MNTC books on John's gospel being restricted to John! These are unnecessary. For the most part it would appear that you need only to prioritise the Series (as with Treasury of David) and then see if it still gives the results you want.

Perhaps this will give you a better idea of where I'm coming from - http://wiki.logos.com/A_Sample_Prioritize_List

Dave Hooton

For the most part it would appear that you need only to prioritise the Series (as with Treasury of David) and then see if it still gives the results you want.

To clarify somewhat:

The 2x Advanced Prioritisation you apply to Enhanced Strong's Lexicon makes sense. What you have done with the Series entry for MNTC does not require the Advanced Prioritisation, but it may not achieve what you want to accomplish with other entries prioritising specific Books (e.g. John) to specific commentaries. The two MNTC entries for John don't achieve anything as the series MNTC entry (which includes John) is prioritised ahead of them AND ahead of PNTC John. In other words, your preferred commentary for John will be MNTC, not PNTC. But your 4x Bible Notes are preferred ahead of MNTC (Bible Notes are treated the same as a Bible Commentary). So what was your aim?

Doc B

That is the kind of stuff I need to know. Thanks, Dave.

This will be a work in progress, I think.

Doc B

Why is the Genesis Record restricted to Genesis when it seems the book IS restricted to Genesis? Ditto with Treasury of David being restricted to Psalms and MNTC books on John's gospel being restricted to John! These are unnecessary. For the most part it would appear that you need only to prioritise the Series (as with Treasury of David) and then see if it still gives the results you want.

Dave, if I may ask a few questions-

The reason I restricted the commentaries to their specific book was, I want the commentaries to appear in a certain order when I look at a passage in that book. I though I understood that if I had prioritized a commentary it would appear ahead of any non-prioritized commentaries for that reference. For example, when I look at a passage in John, I want Pillar first, Baker second, MacArthur third, and then whatever else turns up below those.

So I ask, is my work necessary to accomplish this, or is there an easier way?

I fixed the BDB thing.

I do have an extensive list of collections. I would post these here, but I don't know how to list my collections in a hard window. The drop-down is the only way I know to see them. Is there another?

Thanks again for the help!

Doc B

In other words, your preferred commentary for John will be MNTC, not PNTC. But your 4x Bible Notes are preferred ahead of MNTC (Bible Notes are treated the same as a Bible Commentary). So what was your aim?

I'm still sorting this out.

Doc B

The Bible Notes thing has me stumped. Do I need to delete these all together? I like the quick summary these notes give when I'm just trying to remember something I'd forgotten, but don't want them to take the place of my commentaries when I'm trying to learn something new.

Sounds like I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul (bad pun).

Dave Hooton

The reason I restricted the commentaries to their specific book was, I want the commentaries to appear in a certain order when I look at a passage in that book. I though I understood that if I had prioritized a commentary it would appear ahead of any non-prioritized commentaries for that reference. For example, when I look at a passage in John, I want Pillar first, Baker second, MacArthur third, and then whatever else turns up below those.

So I ask, is my work necessary to accomplish this, or is there an easier way?

Prioritise FIRST any commentaries for specific books in the order you want followed by the series or single-volume commentary without any restrictions so that all other books are covered e.g.

Pillar - John

Baker - John

MacArthur - John

Gospel of God - Romans

Encountering the book of Romans - no restriction if it only covers Romans

Pillar - Romans

xxxxx - Genesis

yyyyy - Genesis

etc.

MacArthur series

Pillar series

Baker series

Gospel of God series

Pillar series

xxxxx

yyyyy

------ Bible Notes ---------

etc.

NB.

Restrict the series throughout as there is no need to specify the individual volumes covering John, or Romans or Genesis etc.
You don't have to put restricted commentaries in canonical order (John then Romans then Genesis is OK)
Put your Bible Notes section after the Commentaries section to achieve what you stated for book of John (presumably that applies to Romans, Genesis, etc as well).

Dave Hooton

I do have an extensive list of collections. I would post these here, but I don't know how to list my collections in a hard window. The drop-down is the only way I know to see them. Is there another?

Collections should match your intended use e.g. a Collection for Bible Notes and at least one collection for Commentaries. In PG you can have multiple Commentaries sections, one for each collection if necessary. Your prioritization will affect the order of results for each collection.

Doc B

Good info again, Dave. I shalt worketh upon it.

Mark Barnes

Hi Doc,

Well done for looking to get to grips with prioritising - it's a great way of improving Logos.

However, I worry that you're over-complicating it. If you've not done so already, I recommend you watch my video on prioritising - that should help, I think: http://www.logos4training.com/videos/prioritizing/

In the video I suggest three rules when your prioritizing. The answer must be yes to ALL these questions otherwise a resource isn't worth prioritising.

Is it indexed by more than a page number?
Do I have more than one edition?
Do I like it?

You're breaking the first rule in your Other/Misc section. For example Piper's sermons aren't indexed - so there's absolutely no point in prioritising them. If this doesn't make sense, the video demos why this is pointless.

I also suggest three tips to help. This is in addition to putting your favourite resources higher than your lower ones, of course!:

Keep your Bibles at the top of the list
Keep similar resources near to each other
Put more specific prioritizations at the top of the section

You're doing the first two, but not the third. For example, the Dictionary of Theological Terms is more specific than the COED. But if you're looking for a term that's in DTT you probably want that to open instead of the COED - so DTT would go first.

(You're also slightly breaking the first rule in keeping the sections 'English Dictionaries' separate from 'Bible Dictionaries'. The resources in both these sections will be treated exactly the same by Logos has they both have English Headwords as their index.

Also, as others have said, there's no point in using advanced prioritisation for your commentaries. For example, your Romans PNTC will only ever open to Bible References in Romans anyway, even without your advanced settings. That's because (a) the only index it has apart from page number is Bible, and (b) the only references in that index are to Romans. The same is true for all the other commentaries. The only case when advanced prioritisation might be needed for commentaries would be if:

You prioritised a series rather than an individual resource and only wanted some Bible books from that series to be prioritised highly. I demo this in the video at around 28 minutes.
Your prioritised a one-volume commentary (e.g. Keil & Delitzsch) and only wanted some Bible books from that volume to be prioritised highly. I don't demo this, but it's exactly the same principle.

If you're interested in my own prioritisation, a former incarnation is here: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/34324/257389.aspx#257389 (I've updated it a few times since then as there are some 'bugs' - unintended consequences - with that implementation that I've since fixed.)

Doc B

However, I worry that you're over-complicating it. If you've not done so already, I recommend you watch my video on prioritising - that should help, I think

Hi Mark,

Yes, I watched your video (all of them, actually) more than once. (Obviously, some of it didn't soak in!)

This is the kind of critique I'm looking for. I'm already thinning things down according to some tips Dave gave me, and I'll add your suggestions to the to-do list. This won't happen overnight...I don't have as much time to mess with it as I wished. But I'm on it!

Thanks again for all the pro help!