What is your annotation/highlighting strategy?

I was reading something in another thread and something came up that I am curious about. What is your strategy for using annotations/notes/mark-ups/highlighting when reading a book in Logos or other digital platforms? I can't utilize these tools effectively because I don't have a standard system, so I am curious to know what others do.

I guess my basic question would be, "What do you mark? Why? and How?"

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Bruce Dunning

Thanks for starting this thread Joseph. I too don't have a great system although there are some good things I do on a regular basis.

As has been mentioned on a number of occasions in the past, every time I read a new book I assign it a new file and keep all my notes in that file for the book. You have to make sure that your setting are set to the most recent resource which is done on each device you use. The great thing about this is that you can review all your notes easily but it can be a bit frustrating if you are making notes in multiple books at the same time.

Next I tend to use one color for most of my general highlights (yellow) and underline other things that I want to note. I also add my own comments making sure that it is still assigned to the right resource.

I have made extensive use of inductive study tools for Bibles when going deeper in a text but I don't tend to use this on a regular basis. In my paper Bibles in the past I have done this and to me it can get very cluttered at times.

I look forward to hearing what others may say so I can continue to learn.

Levi Durfey

One aspect of my highlighting is that I outline various parts of a book with highlighters. I have three highlighters set to do first, second, and third levels of outlining like this:

A sample from a book I am currently reading:

I find that doing this helps me immensely both in comprehending what I read and quickly picking up the argument in a book when I come back to it later.

Bruce Dunning

One aspect of my highlighting is that I outline various parts of a book with highlighters. I have three highlighters set to do first, second, and third levels of outlining like this:

Do you have specific definitions/rules that you use for each of these categories?

Geo Philips

I used to do resource-specific highlighting but found it too unwieldy to maintain after some time. Now I just stick to palette-specific notes and use the search functions to find resource-specific annotations.

In terms of strategy, I think that is subjective to you. Some like different colors, others use the emphasis palette more. I try to keep it simple and stick to two or three primary colors, and a double-underline.

Everett Headley

For what its worth:

In general books, I tend to just highlight/annotate with orange. If I want to look something up, you can do that easily enough with Logos' search features. If there is a better way, I would love to know it.

For strictly Bible notes: I attach it to the reference and have created my very own Everett's Study Bible. This was a big deal for me switching from hardcopies to digital Bibles. The version doesn't matter, all my notes on each verse show up. What's better is with the hyperlinks and citations, I always know where what came from which is super cool. I used to have a journaling Bible that I did the same thing with, but after a full year of transferring I have all my notes from college and seminary.

John Goodman

I use a file for each assignment or sermon. For highlighting I employ a colour scheme which works like this.

Yellow = Interesting

Blue = Critical to Mention

Green = Critical to their argument ie. a premise, discovery or piece of argument.

Red = I disagree with this

The one thing I find annoying is that if I make highlights on the mac app then the notes do not contain the full text of the highlight. On the ipad they do which I much prefer.

I have notes files which are related to regular topics that I will revisit often. My own areas of interest or common sermon material etc. I often open those notes to add to them when reading for other things.

Joseph Turner

This is all good information. I would love to see what others do as well!

One aspect of my highlighting is that I outline various parts of a book with highlighters. I have three highlighters set to do first, second, and third levels of outlining like this:

Do you have specific definitions/rules that you use for each of these categories?

I would also like to know the definitions of the levels.

Brother Mark

do you mark? Why? and How?"

My strategy is deliberately simple and spartan:

1. I highlight anything that strikes my fancy, impresses me deeply, or addresses some facet of my life that needs work. I'm an equal opportunity highlighter in both Bibles and commentaries as well as non-versified monographs, etc. I don't discriminate against any color in the available palette.... one might interpret that as not assigning any particular color to any particular theme.

2. I do notes somewhat differently in that I use the note icon that looks like a sticky note, but colored purple with an exclamation point in it for sermon outlines from my pastor. All of these are in a separate note file, and each preacher that I collect a sermon from gets their own note file, but all share the purple sticky note with the "!" icon which tells me at a glance that a sermon lives here.

3. All books have their own note file, and all share the same default appearance of Logos note files.

Bruce Dunning

I used to do resource-specific highlighting but found it too unwieldy to maintain after some time. Now I just stick to palette-specific notes and use the search functions to find resource-specific annotations.

I find that it is totally the opposite for me. It is unwieldy to have palette-specific notes as they become totally mixed up for future reference. But to each their own.

Bruce Dunning

Yellow = Interesting

Blue = Critical to Mention

Green = Critical to their argument ie. a premise, discovery or piece of argument.

Red = I disagree with this

I like that. Thanks for sharing.

BillS

I use a file for each assignment or sermon.

Interesting idea! Today I create a Word file with copy/paste of all the research for each sermon, which I then highlight in Word. This may have possibilities to work for me, too. Thanks for sharing!

Levi Durfey

Do you have specific definitions/rules that you use for each of these categories?

It all depends on the book and the size of the section that I am highlighting. When I see a main or important point I highlight that in green. Then I highlight the sub points of that main point in orange. If there are sub-sub points, they get yellow. Here's a couple more examples:

—————————————————

DMB

Just adding another dimension, I try to maintain highlight schemes across my platforms. And so, much is relative to the 'lowest common denominator' ... which is Kindle on my PaperWhite with a single easy color and 4 possibles in the iOS verson. Then I designed the Libronix relative to 256/color in the VirtualBox and traced that into Logos5 for import if I want.

I do similar to the above posters; increment the color relative to the criticality of the statement. I reserve one highlight for terrible logic flow (I think like MJ).

George Somsel

I was reading something in another thread and something came up that I am curious about. What is your strategy for using annotations/notes/mark-ups/highlighting when reading a book in Logos or other digital platforms? I can't utilize these tools effectively because I don't have a standard system, so I am curious to know what others do.

I guess my basic question would be, "What do you mark? Why? and How?"

Regarding highlighting, I only highlight something for a temporary reason such as something I want to check after I've finished what I'm then doing. Otherwise, I have one rule: Just don't do it. I do take notes which I generally organize on the basis of passages—e.g., Re 1 (entire chapter with separate entries for each verse or phrase). Sometimes I will create a note file on a subject which is then linked to a note file (something on the order of an excursus).

Doc B

What is your strategy for using annotations/notes/mark-ups/highlighting when reading a book in Logos or other digital platforms?

I guess my basic question would be, "What do you mark? Why? and How?"

Joseph, that's a good question, and maybe more importantly, a useful question. This is an example of one of the things these forums ought to really be beneficial for, instead of asking for free books, etc. (another soap box I won't get on, now).

First, I would say that there probably isn't a 'best' way for more than a few folks at a time. Each of us will have preferences that won't make sense to most others. But even so, seeing original ideas on how to do these things always sparks the mind and helps give insight on better ways to do what we do with the software.

I don't have a formal system for what I DO highlight or mark. Perhaps more importantly, what I DON'T highlight might be more meaningful to this discussion. If I find material that I will probably want to access later, for a variety of reasons, I don't highlight it. Instead, I use the Clippings tool. It is a much better tool for saving bits of useful information, quotes, etc.

In my Bible(s), I have a simplified highlighting system, but it is designed to point out emphases rather than to be a way to retain information.

In my non-Bible resources, I will occasionally highlight interesting passages and tidbits, but with the searchability inherent in Logos, I find I don't need to highlight as much as I would without that feature. I can find things again by simple searches. One example where I did a bunch of highlighting was in reading Josephus. Any passage that seemed to be speaking directly about something in Revelation got highlighted for later comparison. I wanted these passages of Josephus' writings in the context of the book they are in rather than pulled out as clippings. I then added some notes to these passages about what I found when comparing them to Revelation.

Often, instead of simply highlighting something valuable, I'll pull it (or a link) out and put it in a note in one of my Bibles. Again, because of the interactive nature of Logos software, there are often better alternatives than highlighting (which is a process invented for people who had books on paper).

I know this wasn't a direct answer to your question, but hopefully gives some different thoughts to the whole process of using Logos as a study tool.

David A Egolf

I had a business professor at ASU, Dr. Claude Olney, who developed and marketed study systems for students. He contended that students were wrong with highlighting. Everyone tends to highlight the points that they thought were important. Instead, he said that you should highlight the things that caught you by surprise or that you didn't know.

I think maybe a separate palate for "surprises" might be in order. The "important" stuff is good for a quick review, but the "surprises" are things you will want to locate later, as well.

For our type of reading things we "didn't know" many times fall into the category of things we need to hold in abeyance and check for later. This also seems to be for a different palate which can be searched.

____________

So that my notes files are readable, I (1) copy the entire context of interesting material onto the clipboard, (2) highlight, as a note, the succinct blurb which will also become the title in the notes file, (3) paste the entire context into the note, and (4) add my own comments to the note. This strategy also works well on mobile tablets.

Bruce Dunning

I think maybe a separate palate for "surprises" might be in order.

I like that idea. Thanks for sharing.

Ward Walker

I am a very intensive high-lighter. my system isn't formal, but it is fairly consistent--although it has evolved over time, so I am constantly "updating" style. It reaches it's zenith in Bible texts.

PENS:

Blue is North, or Greek.

Brown is Gentile

Gray is South or Israel

Green is happy/good

Orange is reference or disciples or church

Pink is caution

purple is God, also "the plan"

red is bad/evil/satan

yellow is general interest or key thought

EMPH

blue underline is used to tie together like things, but also is used for empire reference

bold is attention

single line box is words I didn't know and had to look up

doubleline is to tie together like points or indicate a progressive series

green underline is good

large text is verse reference or big point...or BEHOLD

newline is to make commentaries easier to read (lists)

fire is judgement

orange outline is apostles

orange wavy is to tie together key points

outline is to tie together key points

pencil is to show words in a theme

red underline is badness

shadow is to tie together key points

triple underline is to tie together key points or show a progression

yellow glow is numbered lists, key thought, or tie together

3blue is to tie together key thoughts and indicate empire

3jags is to tie together key points

biblical basis is to flag commentaries that seem to go loopy in places

blue outline ties together points

blue wavy ties together points or empires

brown jag is nearly always roman empire, but can also tie together points

brownoutline is Pail

brown wavy is tie together points or empire

clipped meant I had more self-generated notes

gray out is Saul (aka Paul)

green wavy is Lamb of God, or tie together points

Holy Act is something about God (attribute, act, etc)

line brown ties together

line light blue tie together

line light orange ties together

N Blue Dash is northern empire

Organce wavy ties together

pink under is false prophet

purplse is real prophet

purple out is Christ, or tie together

red glow is part of Ant. Ephipanes

red rippled is part of empire

S dash Gray is Southern Empire

single underline is Command or to indiacate beginning of progression

strikeblue traces Israel tribe by mom

strike brown traces Israel tibe by mom

strike light blue traces Israel tribe by mom/consort

strike light orange traces Israel tribe by mom/consort

time is time

typo is type that I have replorted

wavyblack is empire or tie together

wavy brown is family from mom

wavy dark blue is family from mom

wavy light blue is family from mom/consort

wavy light organge is family from mom/consort

wordstudy is an indicator to dig deeper into original lang

yellowish is Angel

kings bad, by North or South, or general King

Sick is a person who had issues and a miracle happened

---------------

I could go on, but you get the point... hope it helps

Ward Walker

here are examples of higlighting not in a bible:

Zachary Jones

I use mine almost identically. For highlights I have a Bible palette and a non-Bible palette.

My Bible palette has highlights for 'Word(s) of Interest', 'Studied' etc.
My Non-Bible highlights have three generic purpose highlights: 'General Interest', 'Excellent', 'Quotes' and will add more as needed.

For notes, for each non-bible/commentary resource I will create a note at the table of contents level for each chapter and write notes for each chapter using those notes and reserve the text for highlights. I do create a new note file for each book using a 'Recourse Study' layout named after that recourse..
For my Bible notes I am unsure if I will use a note at each verse, or create a note at the chapter level and work from there. Regardless, they are all kept in a 'Bible Study' notes document

I use clippings for topics such as the 'Trinity' or 'Moravian Church' (most recent) as a repository of quotes and notes on those topics.

I am working on using Word Lists somehow with my 'Word(s) of Interest' Highlight.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

My favorite Logos feature is visual filter highlighting so can see range of Greek verbal expression in Greek, English, and Spanish:

Wiki has => http://wiki.logos.com/Extended_Tips_for_Highlighting_and_Visual_Filters#Examples_of_visual_filters

For notes, am working on an intertextuality set with more allusions => OT Quotes in NT: follow-up

Keep Smiling [:)]

Ward Walker

I've played around with visual filters, but stopped using them. Perhaps if I was stronger in original languages I'd be more inclined to use them more.

James Taylor

"What do you mark? Why? and How?"

I've read through this thread -gleaning some tips here and there- and came up with this palette.

I am going to try using a new note for each resource, as many have recommended. I'm liking putting labels in capsules for further annotation.

Bruce Dunning

I've read through this thread -gleaning some tips here and there- and came up with this palette.

I am going to try using a new note for each resource, as many have recommended. I'm liking putting labels in capsules for further annotation.

Thanks for sharing. I would be interested in hearing you report back on this after you have been trying to use if for a while.

Karen Koppenaal

Does anyone know how I can copy (bible)texts including the highlighting to Word?

I like to use the highlighting tool, but in the end I want to copy this to another document, I don't manage to include the highlights in copying.

I hope you can help.

Regards,

Karen

HJ. van der Wal

Does anyone know how I can copy (bible)texts including the highlighting to Word?

Shalom Karen!

I'm afraid this is not possible. See the following thread:

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/89363.aspx

Armin

I used to do resource-specific highlighting but found it too unwieldy to maintain after some time. Now I just stick to palette-specific notes and use the search functions to find resource-specific annotations.

I find that it is totally the opposite for me. It is unwieldy to have palette-specific notes as they become totally mixed up for future reference. But to each their own.

I am still debating this. Right now, I am using palette-specific notes files and like that I don't have that many notes files.

Paul Chatfield

I use a traffic light system - red for things I disagree with, yellow for ok with caveats, green for I like.

I use the symbols to categorise them for importance - the more sides the more important. Triangle is not very important, square is moderately important, star is the most important.

This is simple but I find a helpful starting point.

Liam Maguire

This is a great thread. Here is my two-pence to the discussion.

---

The aim behind my system is two-fold.

to save time by having all my notes interconnected across all resources
by having all my notes interconnected, and by leveraging the power of logos, I am creating a powerful, yet very personal journal-come-study bible that I always have access to whenever or wherever I need it.

Firstly, the Bible. I don't use a highlight scheme with scripture since I use the Greek and Hebrew Morphology Visual Filter - slightly modified to include words that only appear once in scripture (hapax legomenons). Instead I use a thematic colour coded note icon system that has its own document called 'Bible Reading Notes'. I also use a yellow note icon to record sermon notes on Sunday's when I'm not preaching or conferences notes based on a bible passage.

I always attach these notes to the references so that they appear in all bible versions and other resources too (eg. commentaries, lexicons, etc.). I'll often copy block quotes from related resources into the notes too. For example:

Secondly, I use this same notation system for non-bible reading also. Colour-coded themes remain the same, but this time I store notes in a document called 'General reading notes'. These notes tend to be things that have 'jumped out' at me, sparked an idea or gotten me thinking, and/or explanations/clarifications. The notes serve the purpose of recording these thoughts and reflections so that they are not lost. Where the writer references a verse I attach this to the note, and any verse that I think are relevant. For example,

Finally, I use a general purpose highlighter to mark-up the key points or summaries of the writers argument. This saves huge amounts of time in the future when referring back to a resource under a time pressure (eg. sermon/study prep). These go into a document called 'highlighting'.

Inspired by the ideas in this thread I might bring in a second colour for things I am not sure of and need to research further and things I disagree with.

This note taking system is still in its infancy, I began in January when I took the plunge and decided to do the majority of my bible reading on Logos. However, my hope is that the system will become more diverse, exhaustive, powerful as I complete successive yearly reading plans, personal bible reading, sermon preparation, and general theological reading.

Liam

Liam Maguire

bump

John Connell

I use Yellow and Orange if I want a new highlight adjacent to an existing one. I use Pink for lists.

When I first began highlighting in my paper Bible years ago, my strategy was mainly to make the Bible look well read in case someone looked over my shoulder at church! Turns out I wasn't the only one.

Ha!

http://babylonbee.com/news/spirituality-directly-linked-amount-highlighting-bible/

Chris Garrett

bump for my files

BriM

The version doesn't matter, all my notes on each verse show up

I've tried this and love it, and am planning to follow your lead in moving my notes into Logos. However, I'm finding that the notes also show up in commentaries (and presumably other books referencing the verses). I've only been doing this for a day or two, but already have a few dozen notes on verses in Isaiah 40-55. These are fine in the Bible, but the commentaries often refer to the whole range Isaiah 40-55 and I then get multiple yellow notes icons, one for each verse I put a note on. I can imagine that I'll have a whole screen full of note icons on that range before I finish this project. Did you find that issue, and any workaround?

What's better is with the hyperlinks and citations, I always know where what came from which is super cool.

I couldn't make the hyperlinks and citations work. How did you do that?

Pat1001

How do you do this, “Then I designed the Libronix relative to 256/color in the VirtualBox and traced that into Logos5 for import if I want.”?

Pat1001

How do you do this, “Then I designed the Libronix relative to 256/color in the VirtualBox and traced that into Logos5 for import if I want.”?

Joshua Tan

"What do you mark? Why? and How?"

I've read through this thread -gleaning some tips here and there- and came up with this palette.

I am going to try using a new note for each resource, as many have recommended. I'm liking putting labels in capsules for further annotation.

Does anyone know how to make the label small? My bubble is too big, and it's quite hideous. Every time I click on "Capsule", all my formatting options are blanked out.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Does anyone know how to make the label small? My bubble is too big, and it's quite hideous. Every time I click on "Capsule", all my formatting options are blanked out.

An alternate idea is creating a label using another tool: e.g. Word Art so an image can be used instead of Capsule.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Scott D.

Bumping a great thread... especially with how powerful notes and highlighting palettes have become.

glenn

@ David A Egolf

I like that approach. Your suggestion may help relieve some of the frustration I have had with making notes useful in my study. Thank you for your post sir!

[:D]