New Search: {Label}

What is it?

<Label> is a data type we've been developing since Logos 4.6. We've used it to tag semi-structured data in resources; this markup is then used to power the Outlines and Sermon Archives sections in PG, for example.

In Logos 6, we're exposing this data more broadly.

How does it work?

You can see it in the Information Panel:

You can add your own Labels with Notes/Highlights (by creating a new Highlighting style):

You can search for these labels:

A Label has a Class Name and multiple Properties. In my first screenshot, the Class Name is "Sermon"; in the Highlight style screenshot, it's "Activity". You can make the Class Name anything you want; we generally make it an English noun phrase, such as "Sermon", "Bible Outline", or "Journal Article".

A Property has a name and one or more values. Again, the name is any text you choose. The value of a property has a specific type (text, data type reference, number, boolean). If there are multiple values for a property (on a single Label), they must all be of the same type.

Logos-created Labels will be consistent in the type of value they use for a certain property (across all instances of that Label). For example, the "Date" property of a "Sermon" label will always have a <Date> reference. The "Title" property will always contain a string. Obviously we can't enforce any consistency in user-created labels.

Because <Label> is a complex data type, it doesn't lend itself to regular <...> data type syntax. (You could theoretically search for one specific Label reference if you specified all its properties with exact values. However, that doesn't seem very useful.)

So, instead we're introducing a special syntax (similar to SQL) that lets you find multiple labels that match a specific pattern. In super-geeky terms, this syntax is:

{Label (classname) [WHERE [NOT] (prop1) [= (value1)][AND [NOT] (prop2) [= (value2)] ...]]}

That might be a little hard to parse, so here's some examples that demonstrate most of the possibilities:

{Label Sermon} -- all labels with specified class name
{Label Sermon WHERE Series} -- labels that have the named property (with any value)
{Label Sermon WHERE NOT Series} -- labels that don't have that named property
{Label Sermon WHERE Series = The King and the Kingdom} -- exact string match
{Label Sermon WHERE Series ~ Kingdom} -- partial string match
{Label Sermon WHERE Date = <Date Jul 9, 1989>} -- exact reference match
{Label Sermon WHERE Date ~ <Date Jul 1989>} -- intersect reference match
{Label Sermon WHERE References = <Bible Eph 1:15-23>} -- exact reference match
{Label Sermon WHERE References ~ <Bible Eph 1>} -- intersect reference match
{Label Sermon WHERE Creator ~ Piper AND References ~ <Eph>} -- multiple properties

The following are the class names and properties of labels you may currently find in your Logos resources.

Bible Outline

Reference -- reference; a Bible reference (of the passage being outlined)

Journal Article

Title -- text; the title of the article
Author -- text; the author(s) of the article
Topics -- reference; the primary <Topic> reference(s) the article is about
References -- reference; the primary Bible reference(s) the article is about
Date -- reference; the <Date> reference when the journal was published

Lectionary Reading

Title -- string; the title of the reading
References -- reference; Bible references included in the reading

Sermon

Title -- string; title of the sermon
Subtitle -- string; optional
Creator -- string; name of the creator
References -- reference; optional; Bible references for the sermon as a whole (e.g., passage being preached on)
Date -- reference; optional; Date reference when the sermon was first delivered
Liturgical Date -- reference; optional; Liturgical Date reference when the sermon was first delivered (typically just one of Date or Liturgical Date will be present)
Series -- string; optional; sermon series

How can I get it?

The Label tool & its corresponding search capability is included in all Logos 6 base packages and crossgrade products.

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Comments

David Taylor, Jr.

This may be asking way too much, if so, I completely understand. But is there any possibility in the future to have labels show up in the context menu as with Logos pre-existing tags?

For instance: If I label something with Attribute: Person and value "Holy Spirit" have that show as a person in the contextual menu? Let me know if that didn't make any sense.

Eli Evans (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/649748#Comment_649748

Hi, David. Not every label that we've added to a text will show up on right-click, usually because we've attached the label to the article location, and not to any of the text in the article.

But if you add a label, using label-aware Highlighting styles or by using the "Add Label" command in a note file to manually add a label to a note, it shows up on the right-click menu, at the bottom on the right hand side. I added the "Statute" label in the screen shot below:

David Taylor, Jr.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/649879#Comment_649879

Hi, David. Not every label that we've added to a text will show up on right-click, usually because we've attached the label to the article location, and not to any of the text in the article.

But if you add a label, using label-aware Highlighting styles or by using the "Add Label" command in a note file to manually add a label to a note, it shows up on the right-click menu, at the bottom on the right hand side. I added the "Statute" label in the screen shot below:

Yeah I understand that, and like that. I was meaning for instance.

If you right click on the word "God" in Gen. 1:1 (ESV) you will see in the menu "God Person" and from there can do all sorts of things like a factbook search, Dictionary search etc... I was wondering if that could be done in the future for user labels that are attached to a specific tag (like God Person)?

toughski

Imagine I have this wonderful quote to label:

For the life of me I cannot get a Label constructed. Here is what I want to do:

I want to have a Label Class name "Illustrations"
I need just 2 Properties: Type and Topic
Type has the following set in stone values: Quote, Statistic or Joke
Topic is anything I decide it to be at the time of labeling

AND (this is a biggie)

There are often more than 1 topic associated with the selection

Can you show me what the types of Label Properties need to be for Type and for Topic?

how do I search for Labels that are Quotes and have a value of both Spurgeon and prayer for example?

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662463#Comment_662463

For the life of me I cannot get a Label constructed.

Start with the Highlighting style and add the Label to the LABELING section

Define Type and Topic as Text types, assign a default value to Type, but not for Topic.

Click Done.

Then make your selection and apply that style. It will prompt for Label attributes/values to be added.

There are often more than 1 topic associated with the selection

You will have to make multiple selections, one per topic! OR

Define your label with two topic attributes --> Topic1, Topic2. I believe you can add additional Topic attributes after you make the selection.

toughski

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662481#Comment_662481

You will have to make multiple selections, one per topic! OR

Define your label with two topic attributes --> Topic1, Topic2. I believe you can add additional Topic attributes after you make the selection.

Thanks, Dave. I already thought of both. The second suggestion will not work as there will be no way to remember in 10 years if "prayer" was associated with Topic1 or Topic2...

the other solution is doable, but is awkward. Logos can do better than this! We can have unlimited tags for Library resources, why not here?

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662491#Comment_662491

We can have unlimited tags for Library resources, why not here?

You can already.

When you apply the label, just add another attribute in the Label Entry popup; give it the name "Topic" and the desired value. There's no limit on the number of attributes that can have the same name.

A search on {Label WHERE Topic ~ X} will find matches on either of the Topic attributes.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662522#Comment_662522

When you apply the label, just add another attribute in the Label Entry popup; give it the name "Topic" and the desired value. There's no limit on the number of attributes that can have the same name.

Hmm. It's time you had a look at https://wiki.logos.com/Search_HELP#Logos_6 to see what else needs adding!

toughski

according to your OP screenshot, it took you under 2 seconds to run the search. Mine takes around 20 seconds!!! Why is it taking so long?

I have a 2013 MBP with a top of the line i7 processor, SSD and 16Gb of RAM. Are labels not indexed?

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662607#Comment_662607

it took you under 2 seconds to run the search. Mine takes around 20 seconds!!! Why is it taking so long?

Your search is on All Resources, so you should try All Open Resources to be fair to yourself. And you should run an equivalent {Label Sermon...} search.

That said, searching for my own label was about 3s max with SSD, 1st gen i5 processor & 8 GB RAM

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/662607#Comment_662607

according to your OP screenshot, it took you under 2 seconds to run the search. Mine takes around 20 seconds!!! Why is it taking so long?

I have a 2013 MBP with a top of the line i7 processor, SSD and 16Gb of RAM. Are labels not indexed?

Was that label one you added via a Highlighting Style? Those are not currently indexed. Does the search consistently take 20s if you re-run it, or is it only that slow the first time? I'm not sure if search speed would be affected by the number of highlights you have (in total), or the number of highlights with labels, or what. (One thing comes to mind: if the notes were taken on an older version of the resource, they'd have to be upgraded to the latest version that is installed; this can be expensive.)

toughski

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/663830#Comment_663830

Was that label one you added via a Highlighting Style?

Yes.

Does the search consistently take 20s if you re-run it, or is it only that slow the first time?

it is anywhere from 14 to 27 seconds depending on the search word (prayer, love, etc) and it is consistently so.

I'm not sure if search speed would be affected by the number of highlights you have (in total), or the number of highlights with labels, or what.

I have a ton of highlights (I highlight key phrases as I read in blue), but for Illustrations I have a separate highlighting style with a Label and so far have only a dozen of them.

(One thing comes to mind: if the notes were taken on an older version of the resource, they'd have to be upgraded to the latest version that is installed; this can be expensive.)

what did you mean "this can be expensive?"

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/663871#Comment_663871

what did you mean "this can be expensive?"

"expensive" in this context means it can take a lot of time.

Shane Yancey

This is the greatest thing that I have every seen!. I have always been trying to find a way to pull a list of everything that I have highlighted in a book, so I could just glance over the highlights again for studying (without having to scroll through the whole book). I know there were ways to do it by creating a document, but on a tablet it was always just easiest to drag out the default highlight. The fact that I can make that highlight have a label that can be found in a document search makes me smile.

Anyway, is this retroactive? In other words if I change a highlight so that it implies a label will that label be applied to all of the past highlights or just the ones going forward? If it doesn't go back, is there any way to make it retroactive?

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/697787#Comment_697787

This is the greatest thing that I have every seen!. I have always been trying to find a way to pull a list of everything that I have highlighted in a book, so I could just glance over the highlights again for studying (without having to scroll through the whole book).

Its also worth looking at the new "quotes" view in Notes in Logos 6

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/697787#Comment_697787

Anyway, is this retroactive? In other words if I change a highlight so that it implies a label will that label be applied to all of the past highlights or just the ones going forward? If it doesn't go back, is there any way to make it retroactive?

It's not retroactive, and AFAIK there's no way of making it so.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/697787#Comment_697787

In other words if I change a highlight so that it implies a label will that label be applied to all of the past highlights or just the ones going forward? If it doesn't go back, is there any way to make it retroactive?

As above, no. Primarily because you would want to apply different values to the labels. If you didn't want to apply different values then the highlight itself becomes a "label" and you can search for it with {Highlight My_Style}. Note that when you remove a label from a Style (in the Highlighting tool) it will not remove the label from the highlights you have applied.

If you want to apply a label to existing highlights search with the query {Highlight My_Style}, right click in the resource, select "Open Annotations" and add a label in the Note file. If you already applied labels use the query {Highlight My_Style} ANDNOT {Label My_Label}.

Shane Yancey

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/698025#Comment_698025

Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!

You just made studying for school or teaching from a book 100x easier. Now I can just pull the highlights to glance over. That is amazing thanks again!

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/698150#Comment_698150

Thank you!

For a little more information see https://wiki.logos.com/Search_HELP#Highlighting_Styles