My current overall impression on Logos 5

MJ. Smith · 2012-10-01T17:50:39+00:00

My current impression of Logos 5: Positive: * Expansion of Bible Facts to include events - nice * Bible sense lexicon - nice * Additional Guides - nice * Relative completeness and stability - much more ready for release than early L4 * I like the ribbon on the side; I understand why this is not a universal reaction *…

MJ. Smith

My current impression of Logos 5:

Positive:

Expansion of Bible Facts to include events - nice
Bible sense lexicon - nice
Additional Guides - nice
Relative completeness and stability - much more ready for release than early L4
I like the ribbon on the side; I understand why this is not a universal reaction
Bibliography - I haven't given it a real test yet but it appears to be useful
Samples on Search page when you open the Search - excellent (even if I'd still having trouble getting expected results in the clause search
Time line - many nice features but I'm still uncertain of the ability to get a simple timeline when that is more appropriate.
Search page continuation - nice

Disappointments:

Lack of headings to organize prioritization.
No serious update of the LCV for the longer canons; same applies to Bible Facts but there I'm more willing to assume that the staff was busy with the new data.
Addition of Logos controlled themes without the ability to mark themes and cross-references as irrelevant (after careful consideration, of course). Both give so many results as to give data overload but no way to mark them as to status, type or usefulness. Many of the themes are interpretative rather than sticking to the text itself which increases the sense that one is using an Evangelical tool.
Reading plans - predefined need to also be user created - especially for the Christmas rollout the ability to create Advent and Jesse Tree readings plans is important. Having predefined available but not creatable is a cruel tease.
Notes: a disappointment but understandable. I'm waiting
Weaknesses and errors of L4 perpetuated in L5 - prayer list, lectionaries, result map. If the small things don't get redone correctly why should I believe you'll ever really fix the big things? I understand the business decision to release "ready-or-not" but given the perception of L4, I hope you feel real pressure to get L5 right by correcting the problems that you have perpetuated.
Thus far, the touted expansion of ability to copy hasn't applied to what I've wanted to copy.

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Comments

Todd Phillips

Time line - many nice features but I'm still uncertain of the ability to get a simple timeline when that is more appropriate.

I was going to wait on further development before judging, but as it is right now, it seems unorganized and difficult to follow with all events mixed together. I would prefer some grouping of related events, perhaps based on region or people groups, along with more well-defined filtering options. (Currently filtering is just a word matching algorithm, and I can't seem to use boolean operators)

JT (alabama24)

Disappointments:

Lack of headings to organize prioritization.

Reading plans - predefined need to also be user created

I want FINE control of reading plans.

Fred Chapman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401846#Comment_401846

I too am hesitant to form an opinion this early in the cycle. I do like some of the new features and tools. The potential for some of those is exciting.

I will say, while I am reserving judgment until the product is ready to be released, I am hesitant to give up the performance improvements that have been made in L4 in order to get these new tools.

I think Logos may be underestimating the importance of a faster more responsive program to many users with average, off the shelf systems. Based on what Bob and Bradley have said, they are working on some things they believe will speed up the program and make it more responsive. There were some improvements in Alpha 4. I hope that continues as more features are added and developed.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401846#Comment_401846

I was going to wait on further development before judging

That would normally be my reaction as well but with the hints regarding when L5 would be released, I decided it was better to speak now and give Logos some time to adjust to the feedback. But I agree that some parts are really too incomplete to judge - even though I did.[:)]

Jack Caviness

My current impression of Logos 5:

The Mac version is considerably faster with linked commentaries than L4 Mac. Switching to parallel resources has seen considerable improvement.

As bad as Notes are in L4 Mac, they are far worse in L5 Mac. Even typing a short single line is so painful that I want to scrap notes in Logos completely. This decreases the value of an otherwise fine program to barely usable. If you release L5 with Notes in this condition, it will be the best thing that has ever happened to Accordance.

The chorus of "It doesn't look/act like a Mac program" will increase seven-fold. After twenty-eight years of using Macs, I am still not sure what "Mac-like" is supposed to mean, but there are numerous members of the Mac forums who claim to know, and they all know that Logos is not "Mac-like". This UI will only feed that perception. I can get accustomed to it, but many will not see it as an improvement.

Dave Hooton

Positive:

overall look (in Win 7 and Win 8)
Top menu reorganisation

Disappointment:

Clause Search is not "Natural"
Prioritize still stuck with Library (and the unnatural Browse button)

Sugg: Treat Prioritize as a Tool and open in a narrow pane. Users will know that they need Library by now and it will be less cluttered during the process (Alternatively, get rid of Browse and let Prioritize open in a separate narrow pane).

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401875#Comment_401875

The chorus of "It doesn't look/act like a Mac program" will increase seven-fold. After twenty-eight years of using Macs, I am still not sure what "Mac-like" is supposed to mean, but there are numerous members of the Mac forums who claim to know, and they all know that Logos is not "Mac-like". This UI will only feed that perception. I can get accustomed to it, but many will not see it as an improvement.

Using Logos 5 in full screen mode on OS X 10.8.2 works.

Apologies: not know about Mac chorus dramatically increasing.

Personally like full screen; instead of a screen title, have lots of shortcuts with useful Logos menus: albeit Documents is a tad long for a "menu" name. A geeky alternative would be Blobs (Binary Large Objects). Files and Documents have a nominal expectation of individual files and documents as used in other programs. Blobs is technically correct since the Items are stored as blobs. Wonder about changing Documents to Items ?

Annoyance: layouts on OS X 10.8.2 deleting several after deleting one Application Closed with Home Page image (actually deleted all layouts after 22 Sep).

Keep Smiling [:)]

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401901#Comment_401901

Personally like full screen

Personally believe this was not one of Apple's better ideas if the user has multiple displays. Only the main display goes full screen as all others go blank.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401901#Comment_401901

Wonder about changing Documents to Items ?

I understand what you are saying about the length of the word in the menu… but Documents is the better term, imo.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/401945#Comment_401945

Personally like full screen

Personally believe this was not one of Apple's better ideas if the user has multiple displays. Only the main display goes full screen as all others go blank.

Currently am using a 27" iMac with one display of 2,560 x 1,440 that works nicely with Logos 5 in full screen mode.

Keep Smiling [:)]