5 Problems with Logos 8 Notes
The new interface and combined note file is very nice and appreciated. I moved away from Logos notes a year ago after many years of frustration so I looked this new version over to see if I could come back. I found these issues:
1. Kudos for fixing a LONG time problem with Notes: exporting to Word without using tables. This is a BIG improvement. Also BIG improvement: I can now select a group of notes and ONLY export those I've selected. These are important productivity improvements. However it's not quite enough. I want control over how things look and print as well as being able to download my notes and sermon files to my Kindle so I eventually move notes to Word. I'd rather keep my notes in Logos, but the past versions made exporting impractical. You've improved, but it would work much smoother if you could use just a few Word Heading styles, you know, Heading 1 for the note title and reference/anchors and maybe use a bibliography style for citation references. If you allowed a Heading 2 or 3 in notes that would translate to Word when exported, that would be icing on the cake. But until you use at least the ones I mentioned I'll stick to my Word files, though with the improvements, I may go back to notes a bit.
2. Filters expand back uninvited. This is a time waster. I'd rather disable some of those filter groups, but at the very least they should stay collapsed if I collapsed them no matter what else I do. Right now they re-expand anytime I change a filter selection at the top.
3. Lost sorting options. Can't select to sort by reference, title or note color. I had experimented in Logos 7 with using note color to organize notes. Poof - gone? Also found that the Logos 8 help file for Notes is still talking about Logos 7.
What is the "Notebook" option in the sorting option list (by Dated Modified, Created, Notebook?)
4. Not critical, but I'd still like to see the condensed view of notes.
5. There may be a way, but it isn't obvious to me how to share/give a note file to another specific logos user. I've tried using instructions from another user about using Faithlife but it just didn't work and is too complicated to explain to others. Sharing with specific users has been a long time issue with me. I'd really like to share note files with other staff members and users but while Logos has promised this it hasn't made it easy (or for my case even possible).
Have a great day,
jmac
Comments
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Sorting by reference and a compact view are planned - See “upcoming features” at https://www.logos.com/faq/notes
You should be able to share a notebook. Please outline the steps you are trying and what happens .
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Apparently there are no more titles for notes? I tried adding a new note and couldn't find a way to enter a title.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
I just noticed another thing that changed in the Logos 8 version of notes. I copied and pasted a section of text from a book and found that the resource citation added at the end is NOT a link as has been the case in all past versions of Logos. If I want it to be a link I now have to manually create it. This isn't acceptable.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
Concerning note titles, it doesn't look like they are coming back anything soon.
Resource citations, however, are on the list to be added back it.
See the page that Graham referenced above...https://www.logos.com/faq/notes
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Levi, thanks. I suppose titles aren't necessary. I notice that the equivalent in the new notes is just to bold the first line so it stands out.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
I also am missing note titles. I have used Note documents for my sermon outlines and used the title section frequently. It seems odd that you would take the titles off if you are trying to make the notes tools more organized.
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I notice yet another issue with notes. First let me say that having a list of tags to select from is very nice and finally makes use of tags - and in an efficient manner. Except for one thing. The tags are listed by number frequency rather than alphabetically which shocks me. I don't access information by how much information I have, but by topic. I certainly hope this gets changed.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
If I understand number 2, then YES, that is a frustration for me.
I would like a way of "pinning" an open note so that it stays on that note in that window. Also, a way of "pinning" the notebook. The window title bar could then, maybe, display what is pinned.
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I notice yet another issue with notes. First, let me say that having a list of tags to select from is very nice and finally makes use of tags - and in an efficient manner. Except for one thing. The tags are listed by number frequency rather than alphabetically which shocks me. I don't access information by how much information I have, but by topic. I certainly hope this gets changed.
I brought this up during the beta testing of the new Notes Tool. I hope they reconsider this decision.
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I have noticed this also.
I just noticed another thing that changed in the Logos 8 version of notes. I copied and pasted a section of text from a book and found that the resource citation added at the end is NOT a link as has been the case in all past versions of Logos. If I want it to be a link I now have to manually create it. This isn't acceptable.
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I have now noticed what appears to be a few bugs in Logos 8 Notes.
1. Missing Resources. I added a note to a notebook on Communion. The note was a simply a copy and paste from "The Imitation of Christ." When I remove all filters I never see this resource in the resource section of the filters.
2. Missing Notebooks. When I select the filter view (as opposed to the Notebook view) and expand the Notebooks section, about half of my notebooks are missing. If I switch to the Notebook view, they are all shown.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
I have now noticed what appears to be a few bugs in Logos 8 Notes.
1. Missing Resources. I added a note to a notebook on Communion. The note was a simply a copy and paste from "The Imitation of Christ." When I remove all filters I never see this resource in the resource section of the filters.
2. Missing Notebooks. When I select the filter view (as opposed to the Notebook view) and expand the Notebooks section, about half of my notebooks are missing. If I switch to the Notebook view, they are all shown.
1. I don't think this is a bug. Did you anchor the note to that text or just paste the text in the body of the note?
2. There is a current but about only 30 notebooks being displayed in the filters. I believe this applies to tags, etc, as well. Are you able to search for the notebook in the filter?
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Jim, I find the removal of sorting by anchored references to be a real big problem as you did. I talked to tech support and they confirmed it has gone.
Since I am teaching using my Notes, I have started dragging them to a place based on the Bible reference. That seems to be working. I study and build my teaching notes on the PC Logos 8 and teach using my MacBook Logos 8 and the notes that I have dragged into place is (at this time) coming over from PC to Mac. I just pray this is not messed up in the future by Logos. Also, the promise that sorting by references may come back is encouraging.
I was promised by the Logos salesman that when I upgraded from Logos 7 Basic to Logos 8 Silver the "Sermon Starter Tool" would allow the ability to build notes and even teach from then just like MS Word, but that was not correct. The "Sermon Starter" has less formatting features than the Notes tool. The formatting feature that I miss the most is colored fonts. So I will be using Notes unless I go back to Personal Books which is one of my main loved features in Logos as for teaching.
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Jim, I find the removal of sorting by anchored references to be a real big problem as you did. I talked to tech support and they confirmed it has gone.
Since I am teaching using my Notes, I have started dragging them to a place based on the Bible reference. That seems to be working. I study and build my teaching notes on the PC Logos 8 and teach using my MacBook Logos 8 and the notes that I have dragged into place is (at this time) coming over from PC to Mac. I just pray this is not messed up in the future by Logos. Also, the promise that sorting by references may come back is encouraging.
I was promised by the Logos salesman that when I upgraded from Logos 7 Basic to Logos 8 Silver the "Sermon Starter Tool" would allow the ability to build notes and even teach from then just like MS Word, but that was not correct. The "Sermon Starter" has less formatting features than the Notes tool. The formatting feature that I miss the most is colored fonts. So I will be using Notes unless I go back to Personal Books which is one of my main loved features in Logos as for teaching.
Sorting by reference is going to be added back in.
https://www.logos.com/faq/notes
Missing Functionality
The following features from the old system are not yet present in the new system. We’re working to bring many of them to the new note system, and we’d love your feedback on which you’d like to see first.
Upcoming Features
We intend to work on the functionality below in roughly the following order. Your feedback can help us prioritize the most important features next.
- Sorting notes by reference
- CTRL+F on desktop to find in Notes
- Integration of notebooks in Your Documents search section in Everything search
- Integration of notebooks in My Content section of guides
- Copy and paste from resources with citation links
- Highlight search extension searches
- Labels
- Create and find notebooks in the Docs panel
- Quotes view (currently supported for single resources in Notes & Highlights resource sidebar)
- Full view
- Compact (i.e., one line) view (which will enable a comparable Split view)
- Corresponding Notes & Highlights visual filter
- Send to sermon document
- Export to / save as word list / passage list
- Previous/Next Annotation in the Locator Bar
- Remember your icon, color, and style preferences
- Guide notes
- Search hit highlighting
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Did you anchor the note to that text or just paste the text in the body of the note?
Taking a clue from your comment I found several things.
It does appear that the only resources shown are ones that have been used as an anchor. That basically ruins years of note taking I've done where I copy and paste into notes.
When I "anchored" my Imitation of Christ note to that resource, then it showed up, sort of. I had accessed the note by selecting the Notebook icon then clicking on the note. When I added the anchor, the resource showed up in the left column. So this was showing me a resource used in that notebook.
However if I selected the Filter Icon in the left column, the resource didn't show up. As you say the list is limited, and I assume the others are as well.
Finally I can't fathom that pasting something copied from a resource into a note does not also past a link to the source. To me that's part of the power of Logos notes.
I'm done. As usual, Logos has some great ideas but executes them in ways that just don't work for me.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
Finally I can't fathom that pasting something copied from a resource into a note does not also past a link to the source.
You'll see that at number 5 in the list of upcoming features that David linked to and posted above.
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Did you anchor the note to that text or just paste the text in the body of the note?
Taking a clue from your comment I found several things.
It does appear that the only resources shown are ones that have been used as an anchor. That basically ruins years of note taking I've done where I copy and paste into notes.
When I "anchored" my Imitation of Christ note to that resource, then it showed up, sort of. I had accessed the note by selecting the Notebook icon then clicking on the note. When I added the anchor, the resource showed up in the left column. So this was showing me a resource used in that notebook.
However if I selected the Filter Icon in the left column, the resource didn't show up. As you say the list is limited, and I assume the others are as well.
Finally I can't fathom that pasting something copied from a resource into a note does not also past a link to the source. To me that's part of the power of Logos notes.
I'm done. As usual, Logos has some great ideas but executes them in ways that just don't work for me.
I understand the frustration and it is a valid point. You can do one of two things, you can switch back to the Old Notes system for the time being, or you can wait for them to finish adding all of the old features that are slated to go into the new tool. Resource links are one of those features that is on its way. https://www.logos.com/faq/notes
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I notice yet another issue with notes. First, let me say that having a list of tags to select from is very nice and finally makes use of tags - and in an efficient manner. Except for one thing. The tags are listed by number frequency rather than alphabetically which shocks me. I don't access information by how much information I have, but by topic. I certainly hope this gets changed.
I brought this up during the beta testing of the new Notes Tool. I hope they reconsider this decision.
Agreed
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Thanks David, I look forward to being able to sort by Bible reference. The features I would love to see added to Notes is:
1. Sorting notes by reference
2. Create and find notebooks in the Docs panel
3. Bring back "Split View"
4. More indenting options like hanging indent
5. A format painter like in Word would be great!
Thanks
- Create and find notebooks in the Docs panel
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You'll see that at number 5 in the list of upcoming features that David linked to and posted above.
Thanks. I'll look for it. But that appears to mean that I can't use notes in my normal way until then and any note I copy/paste until then will have to be manually changed. No thanks.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
you can switch back to the Old Notes system for the time being
Thanks. I checked out your link and ran into this warning:
We strongly recommend that you switch back to the new notes system before creating any notes. Creating notes in the old notes system may cause sync and data errors when switching back to the new Notes tool.
So basically Notes is dead for me. There are too many inconsistent and poorly thought out behaviors that don't assist the way I take and use notes.
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
3. Bring back "Split View"
We sort of have split view don't we?
Have a great day,
jmac0 -
you can switch back to the Old Notes system for the time being
Thanks. I checked out your link and ran into this warning:
We strongly recommend that you switch back to the new notes system before creating any notes. Creating notes in the old notes system may cause sync and data errors when switching back to the new Notes tool.
So basically Notes is dead for me. There are too many inconsistent and poorly thought out behaviors that don't assist the way I take and use notes.
This is a fair point on the warning. It was explained during the beta that this has to do with once a notebook is changed in the new Notes Tool it quits syncing that from the Old Notes System. So, unless this has changed, you would need to have a dedicated notebook that you ONLY use in the Old System. I would wait before I tried that until FL verified that is still the case.
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David,I understand the frustration and it is a valid point. You can do one of two things, you can switch back to the Old Notes system for the time being, or you can wait for them to finish adding all of the old features that are slated to go into the new tool. Resource links are one of those features that is on its way. https://www.logos.com/faq/notes
I have used Logos notes extensively for a couple decades. I cannot stress strongly enough the level of frustration with the "upgrade".
Ugh...0 -
How does one "switch back to Logos 7 notes"??
Enter "set prefer notes tool to no" in the command box
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Thank you, Graham.
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I have used Logos notes extensively for a couple decades. I cannot stress strongly enough the level of frustration with the "upgrade".
Ugh...I understand, but not everyone (who also use notes extensively) have the same opinion. Thankfully, you can use the old system for the time being until they get the other features added in. Everyone wins in that situation in my opinion.
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Totally agree. Having used Logos since the days when it was on a handful of diskettes, this upgrade has been by far the most frustrating. They clearly released a Beta version. And the new note system is painful to use.
I've told all my colleagues to not upgrade since the program is not ready for prime time yet.
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Totally agree. Having used Logos since the days when it was on a handful of diskettes, this upgrade has been by far the most frustrating. They clearly released a Beta version. And the new note system is painful to use.
I've told all my colleagues to not upgrade since the program is not ready for prime time yet.
I disagree that it isn't ready for prime time. I've been using the New Notes Tool for about a year and love it.
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the new note system is painful to use
I'd love to hear more about what you're finding painful to use. It may help us prioritize the work we're planning to do as we continue to improve the new Notes tool.
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