NOTES: Single or Multiple for a book in the Bible? Need a recommendation.

Matthew Candler
Matthew Candler Member Posts: 64 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

Greetings!

I need some input on whether it would be best to use a single note or multiple notes in a specific case. I have read most of the relevant forum discussions on notes organization, but would love some personal advice :-) 

Here is my scenario, I was generally going to follow the method of creating an individual file/document for each book of the bible to house multiple notes attached to references. However, I know that I am going to have lots of notes on the book of Psalms, probably at least about 5 pages for each Psalm, if not more. So, should I:

(1) Create a single "Psalms" file and house multiple notes inside, probably exceeding about 700 pages?

(2) create individual note files for each Psalm (yikes, 150!). I was planning on doing this, but just seems like a lot. 

(3) Create 5 files/documents for each of the "Books" in the Psalter?

Any advice is well appreciated!

Comments

  • Gary O'Neal
    Gary O'Neal Member Posts: 584 ✭✭

    I can't help you with your choices you've described, but let me throw out another approach. I have not had much success with very large note files--they are slow and just seem to be more of a headache than what they are worth. What about creating a Personal Book? You can put milestones in it so that as you scroll your Bible, the personal book will scroll to keep up. I'd much rather write in a word processor than in the notes tool. The downside is that you have to keep rebuilding the personal book. It's worth it to me.

     

    πάντα εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ ποιεῖτε

  • Matthew Candler
    Matthew Candler Member Posts: 64 ✭✭

    This is a wonderful idea. The only drawback I see is that PErsonal Books are not yet available on iPhone/iPad. When that happens, this is a serious consideration. Thank you for your input and sharing your experience, very helpful. 

  • tom
    tom Member Posts: 3,213 ✭✭✭


    Greetings!

    I need some input on whether it would be best to use a single note or multiple notes in a specific case. I have read most of the relevant forum discussions on notes organization, but would love some personal advice :-) 

    Here is my scenario, I was generally going to follow the method of creating an individual file/document for each book of the bible to house multiple notes attached to references. However, I know that I am going to have lots of notes on the book of Psalms, probably at least about 5 pages for each Psalm, if not more. So, should I:

    (1) Create a single "Psalms" file and house multiple notes inside, probably exceeding about 700 pages?

    (2) create individual note files for each Psalm (yikes, 150!). I was planning on doing this, but just seems like a lot. 

    (3) Create 5 files/documents for each of the "Books" in the Psalter?

    Any advice is well appreciated!


    Hi Matt,

    There is no real good answer to your question.  Every solution has its drawbacks.  As Gary said, PB needs to be recompiled, and we have no idea when they will be synced to another computer and/or phones.  From reading the tea leaves here, it is going to be some time before they are synced.

    Logos treats notes as their red headed stepchild.  Because of this, the UI for notes has a very poor response time, and they are a pain to work with because of this.  On top of this, you also have to maneuver in the note file (the new split view has made this easier) AND you will have to maneuver in the file menu trying to find the note file that you want.  Because of this, I would recommend your third option because it is a balance approach.  It will not fill your file menu, and it will also keep the size of your note files down.

  • Matthew Candler
    Matthew Candler Member Posts: 64 ✭✭

    Thanks Tom, this is very helpful as well! Appreciate it!

  • David Mitchell
    David Mitchell Member Posts: 89 ✭✭

     you can use the Favorites tool as a place to organize folders.  that is how I organize my notes on a book I am studying. I create a folder with the book name, and within that a folder for each pericope, and then a few notes files based around observations, commentary, and illustration/application in those subfolders.  works for me anyway.  Got the idea on a Logos video somewhere or camp Logos, can't remember.

  • David Taylor, Jr.
    David Taylor, Jr. Member Posts: 4,386 ✭✭✭

    Notes are something I struggle with as well.  They are designed to be "like a Bible Margin" but none of us want to use the tool this way.  I wish Logos would come up with a better solution that would hit the desire and needs of their target audience.

  • Johann
    Johann Member Posts: 93 ✭✭

    Seems like everyone has a unique opinion on how notes in Logos should work :)

    My 2 cents … I think the formatting options of the note text should be minimal and the developers should focus on organization of notes. The  software shouldn't be a Word Processor replacement. 

    you can use the Favorites tool as a place to organize folders.  that is how I organize my notes on a book I am studying. I create a folder with the book name, and within that a folder for each pericope, and then a few notes files based around observations, commentary, and illustration/application in those subfolders

    So, I like the idea of grouping note files. Is the Favorites tool the only place to do this? That doesn't seem like an intuitive place for general organization.

    For those who keep note files small, do you use highlighting? I have one (default?) note file called "Highlighter Pens" that is huge and obviously growing.

  • Ron Corbett
    Ron Corbett Member Posts: 860 ✭✭✭

    Hi David,

    It seems to me that your purpose should dictate your approach. I mean, if you just want a way to easily recall comments on the text you can add your notes to the text in your Bible. I do this alot and I use a Bible Commentary Notes file that I created for this. I have one (sometimes two) notes on a particular verse. I add notes as I see fit. When this Note File gets too large, I may need to break it down into 2 files - OT and NT.

    I have a separate folder for every book of the Bible. I fill each with sub-folders like: Intro, outline, background, etc. I file these in FAVORITES where I also have a large assortment of Topical folders. It is easy to book mark important findings, organize work into different relevant folders, create hyper-text links to specific pages and embed these in your note files along with other options. 

    If your purpose is to have a final document, you can still export Notes to a document, but maybe a Word doc would be better.   A Personal Book could be the (semi-) final form.

  • fgh
    fgh Member Posts: 8,948 ✭✭✭

    you can use the Favorites tool as a place to organize folders.  that is how I organize my notes on a book I am studying. I create a folder with the book name, and within that a folder for each pericope, and then a few notes files based around observations, commentary, and illustration/application in those subfolders.

    That would work considerably better if the folders stayed open. As it is, you have to reopen them again every time, which makes Favorites so slow to use that even the File menu is faster.


    They are designed to be "like a Bible Margin"

    Not really. They claim they're designed to be "like a Bible Margin", but they're not even close. What I could write in a Bible margin in less than 30 seconds tends to take me 15 minutes or so to get into Logos, if it can be done at all. So getting Notes up to par with Bible margins would actually be a great step forwards. A small step compared to what I want and need Notes to be, but a great step forward nevertheless.

    I hope you've all voted for Rework notes function - in one or multiple phases.


    Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2

  • David Taylor, Jr.
    David Taylor, Jr. Member Posts: 4,386 ✭✭✭

    fgh said:


    you can use the Favorites tool as a place to organize folders.  that is how I organize my notes on a book I am studying. I create a folder with the book name, and within that a folder for each pericope, and then a few notes files based around observations, commentary, and illustration/application in those subfolders.

    That would work considerably better if the folders stayed open. As it is, you have to reopen them again every time, which makes Favorites so slow to use that even the File menu is faster.

     

    They are designed to be "like a Bible Margin"

    Not really. They claim they're designed to be "like a Bible Margin", but they're not even close. What I could write in a Bible margin in less than 30 seconds tends to take me 15 minutes or so to get into Logos, if it can be done at all. So getting Notes up to par with Bible margins would actually be a great step forwards. A small step compared to what I want and need Notes to be, but a great step forward nevertheless.

    I hope you've all voted for Rework notes function - in one or multiple phases.

     


     

    I understand they aren't even close, and yes, I voted to re-work the notes [Y]