Best practices for highlights and notes

Are there any seasoned veterans that can give me some "what you wish you had known when you started using Logos" kind of advice?

I asked some questions previously on the forums about highlights and how to organize them in notes. From what I understand when a highlight is stored as a note it cannot later be reassigned to another note, nor can it be copied into more than one note file. I believe it was Graham or maybe Alabama24 that advised me to make a note file for each book I have and then store the highlights from that book in that file. (I may have misunderstood).

So for the past few weeks, I have been making a new note file everytime I open a new book and then storing the highlights there. The advantage to this method is that you can open a note and see every highlight listed for a particular resource. The disadvantage is that you end up with thousands of note files in which the notes have not connection other than they came from the same book.

Before I was making topical note files and dropping my highlights where they seemed to logically fit. So I had highlights from the same resource in multiple files.

Anyone care to advise? I want to get organized the best way from the beginning so I don't have to go back later and redo a mess in order to get everything correctly organized.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Unix

Yes, that's correct. That's what I will do too. As I've understood it, the equivalent thing can be done with highlightings and I don't know how to but would like to know:

I believe it was Graham or maybe Alabama24 that advised me to make a note file for each book I have and then store the highlights from that book in that file. (I may have misunderstood).

It will proove valuable if You at some point decide to give away or sell books. Then You can share the files on Faithlife with that user:

Anyone care to advise? I want to get organized the best way from the beginning so I don't have to go back later and redo a mess in order to get everything correctly organized.

Mark Smith

Kevin, I try to keep my highlighting files separated by book as well. One reason I like this approach is that it lets me turn on or off all highlighting in a book.

You can re-highlight a selection that is already highlighted and add it to a topical note file should you choose. The only issue there is assigning a highlight color, which could be no highlight at all. This would enable you to keep your topical references together, but requires a second step and opening a second note file.

Kevin Maples

You can re-highlight a selection that is already highlighted and add it to a topical note file should you choose. The only issue there is assigning a highlight color, which could be no highlight at all.

That's a really good suggestion. I think it might be worth the second step in some instances.

Kevin Maples

if You at some point decide to give away or sell books.

I'm taking my books with me when I die! [:D]

JT (alabama24)

So for the past few weeks, I have been making a new note file everytime I open a new book and then storing the highlights there. The advantage to this method is that you can open a note and see every highlight listed for a particular resource. The disadvantage is that you end up with thousands of note files in which the notes have not connection other than they came from the same book.

My preferred method of highlighting notes is indeed the "resource specific" note file. The only connection that is ever needed is that the highlights came from the same book! With that said, I can see benefits to thematic note files as well… but compared to my "resource specific" note files, there won't be many of those.

The biggest question to ask: What do you accomplish when you highlight? I ALWAYS highlight my resources, and have done so since before I had ever heard of an e-Book. One reason is for comprehension. As I am reading, I highlight the main points… or at least the things that stick out to me. If I am reading for study or for a class, I can review the book quickly by reading through my highlights.

One more thing to remember: You can search via highlighting styles. So even with my system of "resource specific" note files, I can also search for things highlighted in ORANGE, for example. While I don't follow my rules religiously, I tend to highlight things related to family in Orange. Therefore, I can kill two birds with one stone by using this method.

Kevin Maples

My preferred method of highlighting notes is indeed the "resource specific" note file.

Since that is the only suggestion so far, that must be the way to go.

I ALWAYS highlight my resources, and have done so since before I had ever heard of an e-Book. One reason is for comprehension. As I am reading, I highlight the main points… or at least the things that stick out to me. If I am reading for study or for a class, I can review the book quickly by reading through my highlights.

Me too.

What do you accomplish when you highlight?

First, I want to accomplish all the things that you just listed. Second, I want to keep notes for projects like sermon preparation and research papers. That is where I get frustrated with the highlights. I would like to create a note file for the sermon I am working on today and put highlights from several books into that file so that at the end of the day I have highlights from everything I have read in preparation for that sermon in one place. However, when I am done with that sermon, I would like to "move" (or something do something else, copy maybe) those notes into either a topical file or resource specific file.

Also, I really don't understand how to use clippings. Maybe I need some combination of highlights and clippings. Is it possible to make a highlight and a clipping of something at the same time.

Kevin Maples

So here is the practice I am testing out today:

I have been persuaded by Unix, Mark, and Alabama24 to stay with resource specific note files for my highlights.

When I do sermon prep, I enter my passage on the homepage and it opens the default tabs (I haven't changed anything). So I begin reading the commentaries pulled up in the passage guide. I read them one at a time. So what I am doing is reading them adding highlights that are being stored as notes in a resource specific file. When I finish reading that resource, I make a clipping file named by the sermon passage. I then navigate to the first highlight I made. I select the highlighted text and add the text as a clipping to the sermon clipping file. I then click the arrow down to go to the next highlight and do the same. I tested this out on the sermon I am working on today and I discovered I could add these clippings in just a few minutes. So based upon what I know now, I believe long term this is the best practice for me.

Maybe this discussion has helped someone else think through how to be organized as well.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice.

Triskal

I read this thread earlier and have now found the time to try it out myself. I have one clarifying question. How exactly are you adding these highlights to a resource specific file? I know how to create a note file for each book. I also know how to redirect a highlighting palette to save in a specific note file. However, it seems a bit cumbersome to redirect my user created highlighting palette to a different note file every time I want to highlight, especially if I have multiple books I am working with at one time. I could see how it might get even more challenging when highlighting within the Logos Android app and syncing it all up.

Thanks!

Rosie Perera

if You at some point decide to give away or sell books.
I'm taking my books with me when I die!

You won't need to. The entire catalog of Logos books will be freely available to all in the after-life. [:)]

One more thing to remember: You can search via highlighting styles. So even with my system of "resource specific" note files, I can also search for things highlighted in ORANGE, for example.

I wish there were a way to tag highlights and notes with keywords. Different colors are one way of keeping separate types of highlights straight, but (a) I can never remember color schemes I've set up for myself and (b) it might be nice to be able to search for highlights that match two or more keywords; for example all my Notes that are related to SERMON prep and also related to FAITH-DOUBT issues. I'm thinking of a kind of tagging system like we have for Clippings. If only that could be added to Notes/Highlighting documents that would be cool.