Need note taking advice
I've really been enjoying reading through various resources and taking notes with in Logos 5/Verbum but I must say I'm finding the lack of editing and formatting features a bit frustrating. While it does give you the standard formatting Icons found in programs like Word, they don't give you any flexibility with how you use them. Are there better ways of doing this or do I need to take my notes outside of Verbum in Word?
Any insights would be appreciated!
Scott
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Scott said:
I'm finding the lack of editing and formatting features a bit frustrating. While it does give you the standard formatting Icons found in programs like Word, they don't give you any flexibility with how you use them. Are there better ways of doing this or do I need to take my notes outside of Verbum in Word?
Scott,
the answer depends on which flexibility you are missing. Maybe you could share some screenshots of what you did and explain what you couldn't accomplish.
Logos recently rewrote their notes editor to give a more consistent experience accross all platforms and not rely on some things that are provided by the OS only for one of the platforms; if I understand correct they are still in the process of making notes better.
That said, there are limits to what notes are designed to achieve in Logos. If your intention is to build your own bible commentary with lots of material (such as pictures, tables, massively footnoted articles etc), then notes aren't the right tool - they started with Bob's idea to have an equivalent to the bible margin where people could record minimal information with minimal formatting. For a large self-written commentary that scrolls with the bible text and behaves like a study bible, MS Word (or alternative word processor) is the editor of choice, then take the resulting docx-file(s) and make a PB. If you use sermon file syntax, Logos will even build indexes for you.
Hope this helps a bit,
Mick
Have joy in the Lord!
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I'm not sure if this is what you have in mind, but one option that gives greater flexibility than Logos is to use MS OneNote with Logos. OneNote 2013 has a "Dock to desktop" option:
The result of docking OneNote and using with Logos looks like this (the sizing can adjusted):
Editing menus for OneNote are accessible by clicking on the three dots at the top of the note. Images, tables, media and drawings can all be added to the note.
Windows 8.1 64-bit, Core i5-3330, 8GB RAM
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Scott said:
Are there better ways of doing this or do I need to take my notes outside of Verbum in Word?
Hi Scott
As you say, note-taking in Logos Bible Software has some quite frustrating limitations. Its main advantage is that when you search for something, it finds it in the notes you have taken (under "My Content").
For this reason, I do prefer to use Logos notes for recording things that I may want to search later, including notes I make as I read.
If your notes will be large (many thousands of words) and finite (pretty much done once you've completed a task), another option is to take your notes in Word and then compile them into a Personal Book (Tools menu in Logos) at the end. PBs are also searched as "My Content", can be hierarchically formatted (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc), and can be marked up (e.g. highlighting) like any other resource.
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Mick,
It's not really something that lends itself to screen shots. It's simply things like when I drag and drop text it sometimes replace the other text on a line rather than add it t the end of it, or the fact that when you indent a margin on a bullet point it indents all of them not just the one you want to indent.
It's good to hear that their working on it.
Thanks!
Scott
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Timothy,
Thank you for that insight. I've been wanting to look into OneNote but haven't done so. This is me an application to try it out!
Thanks,
Scott
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Allen,
Thank you for those insights! That sounds like a pretty good way to discern when you use Logos note editor verses something else. I had not really had that understanding until now...
Scott
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I love Microsoft OneNote for taking notes in Logos. I may be somewhat unique in that I use a Windows Tablet, but OneNote is what I would also use on any computer.
I either set up with Logos to the left and a more narrow window with OneNote on the right, or I just alt tab back and forth. Or there is the handy "Send to OneNote" feature. Any way works fine. I can cut and paste to OneNote, type notes, or on my Surface Pro just write them by hand. Any way you do it works great. OneNote will convert the handwriting into text, if you want. Every note is completely searchable, and easy to find. Organized or unorganized. Organize them any way that you want.
One bonus about the program is this. If you are taking notes on a sermon or lecture, (by hand or typing), OneNote can record the lecture that you are listening to. When you review your notes, just click on any note, and OneNote will play back what the lecturer said when you wrote that not. That feature doesn't directly impact Logos, but it is handy, And it works great.
I find it a wonderful tool to enhance my Logos experience. And I found it by accident. I bought Microsoft Office, which has OneNote included, and I decided to try it. I liked it.
I just now saw Timothy Brown's excellent post about OneNote and Logos. It is very helpful.
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
Michael,
That sound extremely productive for a lot of different reasons! Definitely on my list to tryout this weekend.
Scott
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