Decisions...Decisions...Is Clause Search worth $225 for a Sunday School Teacher?
I currently have the L4 Leader package. There is no question that I will be upgrading to L5...just don't know when or to what L5 package. At the present time my self-debate is between Bronze and Silver. The difference between the two for my "personalized discount" is $225. Resources aside, I see the biggest difference between the two packages is the Clause Search feature. It seems to be a very powerful tool, but $225 is not a small amount. On the other hand, it's not like a resource that I can purchase separately.
And in the spirit of full-disclosure, calling this a "self-debate" is not quite accurate as my wife "participates" in the $$ discussion at times. 
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One more factor about my when and what decision is the cross grade that I see many discussing on the forum. I have no idea what the cross grade cost would be to go from my L4 Leader to L5 Bronze or L5 Silver.
Decisions...Decisions...Decisions.
Comments
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I'm in a very similar boat. I teach adult Sunday School, have the L4 Leader's package, and debating between Bronze and Silver.
I had originally been going back and forth on the basis of one or two of the new features.But now I'm looking at the bigger picture of all the differences between Bronze and Silver in terms of the new books that would be included, not just one or two of the new features.
Don't know if that will help as you decide, and I still haven't decided myself. But I've found it not so agonizing if I looked it them as complete packages and not just based on the new features alone.
Either way, good luck with your decision. I hope we both make the right one.
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Well, first off, if you need the books, that's one thing. Else wait and see what Bob does with the crossgrade (cost, contents, etc). Then re-evaluate.
But seriously (as I understand it!) ... you're never going to understand 'syntax search'. It's just not going to happen. I'd give good odds syntax searchers can be found on 2 hands and maybe 1 foot.
But 'clause search' ... that's do-able. They taught that to you in grade-school. And it really can help your Bible study to quickly see other instances of what you're studying, and how the early OT and NT writers expressed their hopes for eternity. And they were indeed hopeful.
You can do this!
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Ralph Wood said:
I have no idea what the cross grade cost would be to go from my L4 Leader to L5 Bronze or L5 Silver.
See Official: Minimum Crossgrade and free engine download are coming!
Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2
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It's nice that it is coming, but that is a reaction to a missed opportunity. I really feel cheated to be honest. Had I known, I would have waited or just stuck with the current software packages I have.
Okay... official message... where is the official timeline and ETA?
Remaining in Him (1 John 2:28), Robert
Mac Book Pro, Windows 7 Professional, iPhone 4S, iPad 1
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Robert Iversen said:
It's nice that it is coming, but that is a reaction to a missed opportunity. I really feel cheated to be honest. Had I known, I would have waited or just stuck with the current software packages I have.
Are you saying you would have waited on upgrading to L5 and get the crossgrade? If so you could call sales and get a refund and go with the crossgrade when it's released.
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Robert Iversen said:
It's nice that it is coming, but that is a reaction to a missed opportunity. I really feel cheated to be honest. Had I known, I would have waited or just stuck with the current software packages I have.
Okay... official message... where is the official timeline and ETA?
Robert...I've been a Logos user since February so this is my first experience with an upgrade like this...and I've wondered about the questions you've raised since the moment I saw notices about upgrade options that 'are coming".
- What about those who jumped to L5 as soon as it was made available?
- Why not wait until all the options are formulated and lay them all out there when the upgrade is made available?
- Are the "are coming" options going to be made available before the 30-day return period is up? If so, my question #2 is highlighted even more. If not, how does Logos plan to handle it. Either way, it's like they have built in a tremendous amount of rework on their part.
- As an upgrade novice, I have no idea what the cross grade really entails. On the one hand, I hear that I should not attempt to align the new L5 packages with the L4 packages...on the other hand, I hear that cross grading does exactly that.
I'm going to continue to wait...and that is a real challenge for me [:D] ... and I'll continue to give Logos the benefit of the doubt as to why they've done things the way they have until it all plays out...but that too is a challenge. In the meantime, I'll focus on convincing my wife that the cost (whatever it turns out to be) will be worth it!
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Ralph,
I have taught Sunday School for over 40 yrs. Because I spent about half that time managing and selling to Christian bookstores, I have built a large personal print library.
I began with the Logos 3 Bible Study pkg. That was a paradigm shift for me. Being able to quickly find resources was far better than my print library.
After attending Camp Logos, I upgraded to Gold (the highest pkg available at the time).
When L4 came out, 4 yrs ago, I upgraded to the new Platinum pkg for the additional resources that I could use. I have added extensively to my resources with reference materials like the IVP Essential Collection (and the rest of that series of dictionaries), ISBE, NICOT/NT, and several other dictionaries and commentary sets.
I always advise people to look at what resources they would like to own. Add up the cost of those resources and see if the value of the pkg is the best way to spend the dollars. Don't worry about the pastoral and language tools that you do not plan to use.
There are several titles in some of the new L5 pkgs that I would like to have in my library. I definitely want the full set of datasets. That will require an upgrade to at least Gold or the crossgrade. I probably won't make up my mind until the details of the crossgrade are released.
I highly recommend that anyone buying an upgrade review the excellent bargains that are available while upgrading under the CUSTOMIZE button. The IVP Essentials Collection is a great buy at $99.95. I plan to add the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. It has been on my wish list for some time, but I was waiting for a price that I couldn't pass up.
I don't know how many more years that I will be teaching SS, but I want to have as many resources that I can to do the best possible job.
Logos has enabled me to do many things in my class that would not have been possible otherwise.
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Edwin, my logos path mirrors yours almost exactly, step for step, and I also use logos mainly as a tool fr teaching an adult Sunday school class. It is invaluable to me and I use it daily.
i also have had the AYBD on my wsh lst for several years waiting for a good del. I almost jumped at it when they had it on sale in October for $200 and I am so glad I ddn't.
I wrestled with upgrading to Gold or Platinum. When I discovered AYBD was available for $155, but only when upgrading my oak age, that made the decision for me. I went with L5 Gold and the AYBD and the price was almost catchy the same as going with the L5 Platinum upgrade. I have no regrets and I know that I will use the AYBD much much more than I would ever use the additional resources the L5 Platinum offered
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Please pardon the typos, the logos form software does not allow going back and correcting errors from an iPad. It is very glitchy.
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John Kaess said:
Edwin, my logos path mirrors yours almost exactly, step for step, and I also use logos mainly as a tool fr teaching an adult Sunday school class. It is invaluable to me and I use it daily.
i also have had the AYBD on my wsh lst for several years waiting for a good del. I almost jumped at it when they had it on sale in October for $200 and I am so glad I ddn't.
I wrestled with upgrading to Gold or Platinum. When I discovered AYBD was available for $155, but only when upgrading my oak age, that made the decision for me. I went with L5 Gold and the AYBD and the price was almost catchy the same as going with the L5 Platinum upgrade. I have no regrets and I know that I will use the AYBD much much more than I would ever use the additional resources the L5 Platinum offered
[Y]
That is probably the same route that I will go. I printed out the spreadsheet comparisons and am reviewing exactly what resources that I am interested in are in each package. There are several that I would like, if they are at a great price.
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OK, then. I guess a decision was made for me.
I see that the upgrade discounts changed today. Where before they were about 20% or 25%, they're now 15%.
What was going to be a $300 upgrade to Bronze is now $535. And obviously much higher to go up to Silver.
Either I should kick myself for not acting sooner, or I should thank Logos for making the decision to upgrade much easier. The jump to Silver is now just too expensive for me at this time.
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mwk67 said:
upgrade discounts changed today
Weird, they haven't changed for me. The 15% is the discount on the base package/no upgrade page. Chck to make sure you are on the upgrade page and you are logged in.
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Ugh! You're right. My mistake.
I was logged into the forum, but I hadn't been logged in when looking at that page.
Sorry for the false alarm, and thanks for setting me straight.
Back to the dilemma of which to choose.
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mwk67 said:
Back to the dilemma of which to choose.
Keeps your mind occupied so your brain doesn't experience atrophy. [8-|]
(I've been on these forums too long; I need to take a break, and do some real work)
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I think I had the Leaders pkg in v3, then I got a base package when v4 came out. The Greek and Hebrew language support was far better in the base packages. After much learning and adding sermon prep to my Sunday school duties on occasion, I would have to heartily recommend the Silver pkg. The commentaries are really quite good and supplementing with some additional libraries can really make the whole deal amazing (things like the Spurgeon sermon collection, Calvin commentry on the whole Bible, John MacArthur NT commentary, and several Puritan authors via Community Pricing). There are some very nice new features in the v5 Silver package too like sermon prep, Bible facts, and of course clause search which is mind blowing!
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