Feature Request - Freehand Highlighting

I'd love to see in Logos a way to freehand highlight and mark up a text. For instance as I study 1 Peter 2:19-20 I'd like to be able to draw some connections in the text (as if it were a second layer over the text).

¹⁹For this is a gracious thing, when, ^xmindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. ²⁰For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But ^yif when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

I'd love to be able to circle the phrase "gracious thing" in v. 19 and then draw a line to "gracious thing" in v. 20 to help my eyes immediately see the similar language there. There are countless other example I could give, but I'd love to see some sort of freehand highlighting in the future.

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Comments

JT (alabama24)

Jeremy - I am not sure exactly what you are looking for… Are you familiar with the "inductive" pallet? Are you aware that you can create your own markup illustrations and add them to a palette? If you are really asking for the ability to "draw on top of the text," I don't think that would really ever be a possibility… There are apps that do similar things on the iPad, but those apps are for .PDF files. The nature of ebooks is that the text is flowing. If you were to draw "on top" of the text, there would be no relationship to the text below… As soon as the panel changed shapes, or the font changed sizes, or when the text is viewed on an iPad or iPhone, the meaning of the layer above would be completely lost! A PDF, on the other hand, is always static (like a photograph). If you make a PDF bigger so that you can read it, you will have to scroll sideways. Does that make sense?

Jeremy Writebol

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471255#Comment_471255

Bama,

I am sure I am asking for the impossible because I want my highlights to stick WITH the text (not just a graphic layer that might get out of sync if the text was resized, etc.). My logic is that I'm using Logos more and more as my markup text but I'd like to take it to the next level in that work.

I am familiar with the inductive pallet and while that is helpful, it's not exactly all that I am looking for.

I did a little photo/markup example with Penultimate on my iPad that can give you an idea of what I'm wanting to do. And yes, my physical Bible does look like this (in some places).

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471265#Comment_471265

HI Jeremy

Have you looked at the Sentence Diagram tool?

I did a mockup to show the sort of effects you can get (and I'm not an expert with this tool at all) to reflect some of the things you indicate.

I know this isn't in the actual text of your Bible but you could have the two open side-by-side.

It could go some way towards what you are looking for - and it is available now[:)]

Graham

Jeremy Writebol

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471270#Comment_471270

Graham,

I had not considered the sentence diagram tool for that... I must admit I relapse into a catatonic state whenever I pull up the sentence diagram tool because of my overuse of it in seminary. I can see it having some immediate advantages but I can't access these on my iPad yet, and that's where I'd be doing some of this mark up primarily.

I know I'm asking for something pretty big, but that's why I listed it as a Featured Request. One can dream right?

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471275#Comment_471275

One can dream right?

Absolutely[:)]

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471275#Comment_471275

One can dream right?

Along with Graham… Absolutely. [:)]

My suggestion? I really don't believe anything like this will come along anytime soon… if ever. Nor do I believe sentence diagramming will come soon to mobile. (Then again, it could appear in the next released version for all I know [:P]). With those stipulations in mind, I would recommend either purchasing a .pdf Bible or exporting one from Logos. (The later would likely be preferable… you could figure out what appropriate sized typeface would be desirable on your device… experiment with a page or two first before committing to something). Then you can find and use one of the many .pdf annotation apps out there. Perhaps there are even some which have desktop apps as well.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471299#Comment_471299

Remember, Jeremy that it was Alabama in the early version of Logos4 that messed up his monitor erasing some of the highlights.

(I don't want to get into the person that tried to use the erase button on their touch screen stylus with Logos. Pressing hard was a big mistake.)

EDIT: After I re-read Jeremy's idea, I agree the moving text due to fonts/size and panel re-size would create a pretty big mess, if you got beyond simple circle/lines (the lines would move all over the place unexpectedly).

In my own Bible software, I allow output to spreadsheets, RTF text, multi-layer imaging and html stacking. The spreadsheet code already supports lots of drawing, which like you, I like to use. Also I like to embed graphs in the Bible text. But again the columns/rows don't 'flow'. It's feasible to overlay RTF text with transparent image layers, and allow for flowing, but it's a royal pain in the xxx. Logos paints their screens so it's a good deal less 'royal'. Kind of interesting idea I'd think was do-able.

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471270#Comment_471270

I did a mockup to show the sort of effects you can get

I had no idea you could do things like that with Sentence Diagrams -- but then I'm not sure I've even opened it.[:)]

Thanks for showing me.

Jim Boggio

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471265#Comment_471265

Given it has been a few years now, have you found a program or app that makes this possible. I would love such a app. I have to use screenshots of passages and then do the highlighting but it would be wonderful to have it all stick with the passage. Since asking for the moon I would also add categories to the highlights so you can see all the passages in that category. Like you standard highlights in Logos and other apps.

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/471275#Comment_471275

I had not considered the sentence diagram tool for that...

Also, check out the CANVAS tool--I use it for all my text flow diagrams these days. Other users have already started a few different threads asking for better stylus/Apple Pencil/freehand implementation.