Logos 4.5 and Highlighted Notes

Hey everyone,

I do not mean to sound synical, I would really like to know the answer. Can someone explain to me what is the benefit of 4.5 making a note file for every highlighted text? I am sure the answer is probably obvious, but I would like those of you who use that feature more than I do to explain the benefit. How would you use that? Thank you very much.

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Pastor Michael Huffman

Now what I would like is the ability to write notes in the margin of the resource, but I am sure that is impossible and not even on Logos' list of changes.

DominicM

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/338980#Comment_338980

As tempted as I am to say none.. I will resist the urge, there will be a logical reason most likely to do with mobile devices.. but I dont believe it has been explained by the developers

I have a dummy note file, and tell the notes to create there regardless of pallette, then I move the the ones I want or add notes to into the correct place for me.. takes a few seconds longer but my "real" notefiles arent cluttered with all the (irrelvant - to me) highlighting ones

if our notefiles followed the bible text as we scrolled so current note was open at the right place then the note file would fix this issue of writing in the margin, but I have been asking in vain for the past 5+ years for this feature and have given up on it ever being adopted.

JT (alabama24)

Can someone explain to me what is the benefit of 4.5 making a note file for every highlighted text?

A couple of reasons: The way that they have set it up was needed to allow syncing of highlights to the mobile app. Also, Bob has said that in the future, we will be able to share notes with other users.

I think for most users the concept is confusing, at least to begin with. Furthermore, the highlights really create "blank notes," with some or all of the selected text filled into the subject line.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/338995#Comment_338995

If you are interested in how note management works with the new iOS mobile app, you can see my tutorial HERE. Although it is geared towards those learning about the mobile app, some of the principles apply to the desktop version as well.

Dave Hooton

I am sure the answer is probably obvious,

It is not an obvious advantage to the user but it was necessary for Logos to be able to sync Highlighting with mobile devices.

Potential advantages:

you know how much highlighting you have done and where
you can organise highlighting thematically rather than rely solely on palette/style
you can change highlighting without accessing the resource
a highlight can become a Note
you can delete highlighting without accessing the resource

Disadvantages:

you have to organise the note files (by palette, by resource, by theme, etc)
you have to worry about efficiency (large vs small files)
the highlight may end up in the wrong/unknown note file
you can delete a lot of highlighting very easily[:(]

Ward Walker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/339053#Comment_339053

It was the price for the best path the developers had to enable Sync v2 -- bringing much needed features to the mobile platform.

For me, it had the advantage of greatly speeding up the delay from applying a highlight and seeing it appear--however, it also had the undesirable side-effect of changing the focus after applying the highlight--which has prevented me from rapidly applying highlights. Prior to 4.5, I probably highlighted faster than some people type. Now I've slowed down a lot due to the need to wait before selecting the next text to highlight--but at least Logos is responsive to my last command.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

Can someone explain to me what is the benefit of 4.5 making a note file for every highlighted text?

I posted some reasons (during the beta) here: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/43176/322030.aspx#322030

Martin Folley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/339053#Comment_339053

you can organise highlighting thematically rather than rely solely on palette/style

Hi Dave.

Is there a Wiki article that shows how organising is done (organising highlights esp. from legacy highlighting)? ... I have not found much ... and do not know where to start!

I have been using highlighting for some years under a set of styles called 'My Palette'. I want to organise/prune/develop/review these a little but cannot work out how. I think that I want to move some of the highlights into different thematic note files (the 'My palettes' file is a real mess). I can create a new note file but cannot drag the highlights between notes files.

I am also thinking about the palettes ... I presume that I would need to have a different palette for each theme? ... if only so that L4Mac knows where to store the attending note file ... that is a lot of palettes ... a lot of real estate ... am I missing something? I would like to start with deleting four palettes that always take up 50% of the palette window ... namely Solid, Emphasis, Highlighter and Inductive ... I cannot see a way to do this though ...

Regards

Martin.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340343#Comment_340343

I can create a new note file but cannot drag the highlights between notes files.

There is a difficulty with L4Mac -- see http://community.logos.com/forums/p/44608/332331.aspx#332331

Irrespective, you can drag only one annotation/highlight at a time...

I would like to start with deleting four palettes that always take up 50% of the palette window ... namely Solid, Emphasis, Highlighter and Inductive ...

These are Logos supplied palettes so you can only collapse them.

I am also thinking about the palettes ... I presume that I would need to have a different palette for each theme?

Once you have organised and then moved your highlights that decision should become easier to make e.g. you can move styles between palettes without affecting the content of the Note files and/or change the palette/style of a highlight from the Note file.

Martin Folley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340348#Comment_340348

There is a difficulty with L4Mac

Thanks ... Of course ...Windows v Mac ... Highlighting uses notes -> notes are poorly implemented -> poor highlights [:(]

you can drag only one annotation/highlight at a time...

Thanks ... Went to L4 on VMWare and realised how slow L4Mac is for highlighting ...

Dragging the notes now works but it seems that the note, whilst now moved to a different note file, is still linked to the original palette style. If I create a new palette with similar styles going to my new note file, then new highlights will use that (and will change if I edit the style) whilst older highlights will still use the old palette style. Editing a style at a later date will raise inconsistencies. Moving the notes does not change the palette.

Similarly, moving the style (within the palettes) does not move the notes it simply means that you do not know which note file is using that style!

There seems to be only one solution ... for each highlight go to the original resource, erase the highlight, reapply the highlight from the new panel, copy and paste any notes across, delete the old note (which are not automatically deleted if there are any notes) ... a long job ... but interesting and it does highlight the need for notes (forgive the pun) ... many of the highlights that I am discovering lead me to the question of what was I thinking when I highlighted it!!! [:$] Time for a clarification of my own use of highlighting.

There are a couple of questions, though one is probably more a reflection on the limits of notes ... when looking at the notes file, there seems to be no way of telling what style was applied ... I can see that there was a highlight applied but not why ... has anybody a work around to this? I know I can manually add the notes markers but this is tedious and I do not want note markers all over my text, just style markers in the notes file.

The second question is 'is there a way of listing all the instances of the use of a style?' Some styles would be best in their own palette and their own note file, but I cannot find them. My notes file does not distinguish which style was used, (short of clicking on each highlight and waiting for the resource to load to see the style!). I have tried a search searching for that 'style' within my whole library but it will not search unless I have a search term ... so I try a ... and wait (a being a fairly common letter!) and none of the words in any of the highlights seem to use the letter 'a'.The search did suggest a topic search for 'A' (Aleph, Alpha) ... which I was not expecting though. I tried 'e' as the most common letter, also with no results (with match all words option on and off). So I turned to wildcards, simply * ... and am still waiting! [:S]

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340350#Comment_340350

when looking at the notes file, there seems to be no way of telling what style was applied

Can click on icon for drop down menu, then scroll to see highlighting.

Logos User Voice suggestion => Highlighting and Notes Integration Improvements

Keep Smiling Smile

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340350#Comment_340350

Moving the notes does not change the palette.

Yes, that was why I said things would become clearer after you moved the highlights. There is no dependency between note file names and palettes as you can assign a highlight to any Note file in the Highlighting tool. The choice is whether you now want to change palettes/styles to match your theme or leave as is.

when looking at the notes file, there seems to be no way of telling what style was applied ...

Just click on the Note indicator (see below) to get a menu from which you can make changes to its palette/style.

I know I can manually add the notes markers but this is tedious and I do not want note markers all over my text, just style markers in the notes file.

The default "no indicator" (box with diagonal red line) is seen only in the notes file for your highlights.

The second question is 'is there a way of listing all the instances of the use of a style?'

Logos did not provide any usable functionality with the rush to get highlights into Note files. You can attempt a search like below BUT you have to input some text rather than allowing a pure search for styles. You could try a common word like "a" but the wildcard * is better, except for the long time it takes. The results tell you only which resource location has the highlight style. There is no facility to search note files for styles.

Martin Folley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/340457#Comment_340457

I cannot seem to get the wildcard search working in any meaningful way. I wondered if it was because I was using a legacy style (pre 4.5) that had not converted properly, so I created a new palette etc. within 4.5a

Create a new palette called 'test'
Create a new style called 'loud'
Apply the style to Col 1:24 in the ESV

... a new note file is created called 'test' with 1 Col 1:24 entry

Apply the style to Col 1:27 (also in the ESV)

... a second entry appears in the 'test' note file ... all is as expected so far

Wait ... 10 minutes to allow for any indexing of the style etc. (not sure if this is needed)
Open a search panel
Select 'Test Palette - Loud' (appears as 'loud')
Search English Standard Version for rejoice ... Instantly finds the Col 1:24 passage
Search in All Open Resources for rejoice ... Instantly finds the Col 1:24 passage (only two open resources)
Search in English Standard version for rej* ... Instantly finds the Col 1:24 passage

... so far so good ...

Search * in All open ... 2549 sec, (40 mins, only two open resources) ...
Search * in ESV only ... 1930 sec, (32 mins) both wildcard searches report the two instances of the style as 19 hits (it is not 19 words ... I cannot see how the 19 is calculated)

... pure wildcards produce slow results ...

I have added a third instance of the highlight at Col 2:5. This gives the search a second article to hit upon (a 2nd chapter in the ESV) and a word that stems from rejoice...

Search rej* in ESV only... 1.39 seconds, both instances found as expected.
Search re* in ESV only... 26 seconds, producing 2 results in 2 articles (as expected)
Search r* in ESV only... 41 seconds, producing 3 results in 2 articles
Search * in ESV only ... 1868 seconds (31 mins) producing 35 results in 2 articles.

Out of interest, I took off 'match all word forms' makes the searches slightly quicker (with the same results)...

Search rej* in ESV only... 0.9 seconds, both instances found as expected.
Search re* in ESV only... 18 seconds, producing 2 results in 2 articles (as expected)
Search r* in ESV only... 36 seconds, producing 3 results in 2 articles
Search * in ESV only ... 1715 seconds (29 mins) producing 35 results in 2 articles.

Conclusion: If I search with a pure wildcard, it will take 30-40 minutes to search just one resource, and then produces 35 results instead of the expected 3 ... to over simplify ... my 6000 resources at 30 minutes each would take 125 days (24 hours per day!) ... this seems a trifle slower than I would have expected! [;)]

Therefore Searching by a pure wildcard does not seem to work within a reasonable time frame ... I presume that it did at some point since the wiki also describes this technique (Thanks Dave for the pointer above).

As an aside, if I go to the style in the highlighting palette, and 'restyle annotations', it instantly tells me to 'restyle 3 annotations to ...' ... surely there must be a list of where these styles are being used ... but the search does not use it.

The same seems to be true whether I am using L4win 4.5a (4.51.0.2048) or L4Mac 4.5a (4.51.0.2048).

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/342258#Comment_342258

Search * in ESV only ... 1930 sec, (32 mins) both wildcard searches report the two instances of the style as 19 hits (it is not 19 words ... I cannot see how the 19 is calculated)

Ditto! I got 67 results with 32 words highlighted by the style. There is some influence of footnotes that are included...

As an aside, if I go to the style in the highlighting palette, and 'restyle annotations', it instantly tells me to 'restyle 3 annotations to ...' ... surely there must be a list of where these styles are being used ... but the search does not use it.

Logos knows the annotation and Note file where they are used but the non-optimised nature of a wildcard search dominates.