Suggestion: Something needs to be urgently done about notes and Visual filters

I don't know how you're anticipating people using notes, but if notes is to be at all useful, I can imagine people having many note files (just like the new tutorial videos suggest!)

The problem is that these get added to the visual filters menu which will become completely unmanageable.

There are a number of ways this could be combatted:

Just have a visual filter for notes, and all notes are turned on/off by this filter.
As above, but add the option within a note to exclude it from visual filters.
Have a visual filter for each colour note, so users could turn on all yellow, or all blue notes.

It seems to me that the last option is the best, as it gives users more control, but doesn't require any extra settings/complexity.

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Comments

Mark Smith

How about if Logos only shows open Notes files in the Visual Filters menu?

Kevin Becker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/62034#Comment_62034

How about if Logos only shows open Notes files in the Visual Filters menu?

I don't know how this idea would work. What if i have a note file that I take notes for my Bible in all the time. Would I have to have it open to have the option to view my highlighting and have the ability to read my notes by hovering over the colored box? I wouldn't want to have the file open for the visual filter to be turned on!

I would suggest a properties dialogue for each note file that could customize where the option to use the note file as a visual filter would appear. The default could be all with None, All Bibles, Greek Bibles, Hebrew Bibles, English Bibles, the user defined collections, or a specific book as the options.

However, Mark (Barnes) I see from your screen shot that you created a lot of untitled notes to show the potentially cumbersome nature of a lot of note files. I've notice that in my setup that my ESV Bible Notes and my NET Bible notes files don't appear as options for regular books. Could Logos already handle this issue with its own secrect sauce and the wrench in the works is a bunch of empty note files? What if you use those note files to put notes in monographs, will they show up in your ESV then? I would test it, but I'm away from my Logos installation today.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/62046#Comment_62046

Could Logos already handle this issue with its own secrect sauce and the wrench in the works is a bunch of empty note files? What if you use those note files to put notes in monographs, will they show up in your ESV then? I would test it, but I'm away from my Logos installation today.

All those notes files had links to Bible references in them, which is why they appeared. Notes that only refer to monographs will not appear in the Visual filter.

But can you not imagine a situation whereby you have multiple note files that all refer to biblical text. I certainly can. The current system is fine for perhaps 5 note files, unwieldy for perhaps 5-15, and unworkable beyond that.

George Somsel

I don't know how you're anticipating people using notes, but if notes is to be at all useful, I can imagine people having many note files (just like the new tutorial videos suggest!)

The problem is that these get added to the visual filters menu which will become completely unmanageable.

It might help somewhat if you were to give your notes meaningful titles.

John Fidel

I agree Mark with your assessment. It might help to be able to have some nesting, for example your three notes files on Matt could be nested together in one note, rather than 3. I do believe the notes for L3 provided for this. It would function more like favorites so you can create fewer note files, but still have all the access to the separate note topics. One note file for expository studies, one for topical studies and one for devotions. The key is to allow us to nest and have a hierarchy within the note file.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/62062#Comment_62062

It might help somewhat if you were to give your notes meaningful titles.

They are merely for the purposes of illustration. In three months time I will probably have several dozen note files with meaningful titles. I'm anticipating a problem that many of us will face soon.

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/62073#Comment_62073

It might help somewhat if you were to give your notes meaningful titles.

They are merely for the purposes of illustration. In three months time I will probably have several dozen note files with meaningful titles. I'm anticipating a problem that many of us will face soon.

For many perhaps, but not for me since my notes are in L3 and will continue to be in L3 until such time as they make the needed improvements to notes in L4 permitting the inclusion within the notes of links to other resources. Furthermore, I don't use visual filters except for one purpose -- to temporarily mark something which needs to be checked until I have completed whatever I happen to be currently working on. I never got into the habit of marking my (print) books since I tried it and found it completely unprofitable serving only to make a mess of the book so I'm not inclined to attempt it now.

MJ. Smith

I don't know how you're anticipating people using notes, but if notes is to be at all useful, I can imagine people having many note files

One problem I have in setting Logos 4 up for my work patterns is that we are missing information on how the various user-created elements - including notes - are envisioned to work together. Which makes it difficult to lay out how one wishes to divide notes into files which leads to this particular problem of filters. I would describe the problem slightly differently, however. Perhaps, this is because the way I use colors would make visual filters by color (option 3) unworkable. It seems to me that the problem is the same as we used to have in resources - a large number of resources without an organization structure. In this sort of thing, I try to build structure into titles ... a dangerous practice that requires I have the big picture (which I don't).

All that being said, if Logos4 were to limit the Note files to those having links to the particular resource, is there a problem in practice (as opposed to theory)? To rethink this particular example are the Matthew 1:18-25 entries that belong in a Note file or are they more appropriately notes in the passage guide? As it works now, the multiple verses reference implies that the Note applies to a particular translation ESV ... so wouldn't the appropriate note file be "ESV Matthew notes"? If so, I suspect the number of Note files linked to the particular resource drops to a workable (but not ideal) number.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/62166#Comment_62166

Thanks for all the thoughtful input here. If anyone is interested in my note-taking strategy, then my second video on this page gives more detail, and shows one method of (I think) really helpful note-taking, but one that does require a lot of notes. I'd be interested in anyone's thoughts on making this process better given Logos' current limitations.

I don't make many notes in the passage guide because:

Having notes per-section suggests they are notes about that section (e.g. notes about which commentaries are helpful and why), not notes about the passage.
The notes are stored for the exact pericope you enter. So if I'm studying Matthew 1:18-25 this time, and next time study Matthew 1:17-26, none of those notes will show.

Even if you had Matthew notes, you'll still end up with 66 notes by the time you've preached through the Bible. And, whilst that may be a long way off, it's not entirely unexpected to have preached through 15-20 books during the lifetime of Logos 4. (By the way, notes attached to Bibles apply to any translation, not just the current one).

No, I really do think that anyone who uses Logos as a serious note-taking system, is going to become unstuck with this visual filter.