Introducing the New Logos Notes

I watched a video that introduces the new Notes design...and there wasn't a single example shown of what a note pop-up window looks like when the cursor hover over the note icon. A staggering oversight. I am left having to ask:

Can Logos 8 do this?

Notice how the pop-up window of the note shows the whole contents of the note. This is accomplished without a single mouse click, just by hovering over the Note icon. Notice also how BIG the pop-up is...it isn't one of those tiny and extraordinarily annoying 2x3 in. keyholes that Logos started sporting in L4. These new, post-L3 Notes pop-up windows are so limited they are almost functionally worthless. In contrast, how big can one of these L3 (that's what you are looking at) Note pop-ups be? As big as the screen itself...

For the record, what L3 notes are capable of can't be replicated in L4, L6, L7, (and I guessing) L8, either. Why not??? Am I the only one who sees how valuable this function is? This allows pretty much any pertinent content (from your Library or elsewhere) to be pigeon-holed in the precise spot in your Bible where that information is relevant. For instance, in the screen shot below, I am about to hover over a note in verse 16...

...and when I do, this is what I see.

Isn't this 10000000000 times better than what L8 (or any L-not-3) does? But it's not just the ability to create alternate marginal references. You can include pretty much any useful info for instant reference WITHOUT A SINGLE CLICK NEEDED, such as...

...or this...

THIS IS WHAT NOTES IN LOGOS 8 SHOULD DO.

Why not?

Then expend the .00000000000001 of a joule of effort and move the cursor 1-2 mm.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Besides, how are you going to read your notes if you can't see them?

Honestly, your rejection sounds a whole lot like, "I hate those darn wheel things! They keep rolling away!"

That doesn't resolve the problem - text and notes should work politely side by side with predictable alignment. But I have no problem with your working your way and my working my way. I won't ask for changes for you nor evaluate the value of your way. Just don't ask me to pretend that one way is the only way or the right way or the best way.

Um, pretty sure you are doing what you are suggesting I'm doing, when I'm not doing it. [&]  L3 does what you insist it should do...

...which I think you know. But I CAN'T do what I want with Notes because the functionality I use constantly was removed from the program FOR STUPID REASONS.

I'm not saying Notes must be used my way or not at all...which ought to be obvious. But having the functionality I demonstrate above is EXTRAORDINARILY FUNCTIONAL and HELPFUL...not to mention FAST and EASY (because NO CLICKS ARE REQUIRED to read the note contents).

I used the old note system and it was effective for me. I would organize a sermon plan, make the note icon silver circle for sermon prep notes. Then I would write out the entire manuscript in Logos. I would take previous notes i wrote and add them all onto a word processor document, footnote what was necessary, post to my blog on Patheos, and then copy and paste that post back into Logos. I would make that new note a gold circle (for the completed sermon). I put it in a certain folder where I knew sermons were going. 

All my notes would show up in the Passage Guide, I could work with them, and my workflow became simple. I would just add notes and thoughts to a certain note and then write my sermons out. 

I used the search function to find all I needed and used my Scripture verse as my connecting search. 

However, now with this notes system, my searching has changed (and it doesn't do what I want it to do). I can't find my notes so easily and it seems that tagging is the way to sort most of my notes. My problem with this is that I have over 3000 notes and I will probably have to spend a week to tag them all. 

I wish there was a way for Logos to help tag and make it easier for me. 

The fact that my notes don't show up in the Passage Guide is a serious misstep. This should have been ready when Logos 8 was made public. I also don't like that I have to go to another menu to find my notes. 

I will adapt to this new system. But it reminds me of going from writing my sermons by hand to typing them out. It also reminds from going from odl school searching to searching digitally on Google. It just changes the way I have to work. I hope it cuts my time down. But I wish Logos would not make me have to do additional work just to make something that was already workable function properly in its own new system. 

I see a lot of people love the new notes in 8. Put me down in the camp that hates the new format. I've tried watching the tutorial video and it just confuses me even more. I've had Logos for 9 years now and most upgrades I've liked, this one is the first I loathe. It makes no sense to my brain and I can't figure out how to just make notes for a particular sermon anymore.

The new Notes system actually makes lots more sense than the old one — but I guess if you're used to the old one then the new one can be confusing. If you have a specific question, or are able to explain what you're trying to do, then I'm sure forum users would help.

Phil,

My wife and I have been owned logos through many product cycles, we are still very beginning users and have not been through the many available tutorials or read the plethora of forums on your site.  Frankly, for us, it's like drinking from the proverbial fire hose.  Therefore my question here may be too basic, (or because I am lazy... if I worked just a little harder I could find the answer on your site myself.)

 But here are two questions.

#1.  As my wife begins to use Logos more frequently, she will highlight something important for her... but when she does it shows up on my note/bible/commentary as a highlighted note.  Question:  What do we have to do to separate her notes/highlights from my notes/highlights?

#2  Is there a way to set my "preferences for highlighting" to one or more "default preferences".  I find it cumbersome to "hunt" for the correct tool each time I want to use the highlighter tool.  I would like to "set" the tool to my individual preferred default preference.  (I hope that makes sense to you?)

Thanks for any input you may have

Bill & Gail

It seems like you could use separate folders to solve some of the issue, with more than one user.

good idea, I think that might help.... will try it out, just would rather separate my wife's highlights from mine in the actual book/bible/commentary from mine... 

I guess we both could use different bibles/commentaries/etc but it would be helpful to just separate the two, which by the sounds of some of the responses is unlikely... or impossible.

Thanks for the idea

Does anyone at the Corporate and Sales Levels know about all the complaints about the New Note System?

Many people have emailed them with NO RESPONSE.

We hate to complain, but this is HURTING our ministries and research.

I have been with you for OVER 10 Years and I have upgraded 2 times.

I have loved the program and have referred many people to it, until now.

The new NOTE System is Boken and I cannot refer anyone else nor upgrade to any new versions until the NOTES copy the links to citation Resources as it used to... This HUGE lost feature almost ruins the note system for many of us.

That was the most efficient and powerful aspect of the NOTES in my opinion.
NOW IT IS GONE and the work has become 10 times harder to do than before.

I have ALREADY contacted the programmers, but I see no improvement.

Does anyone in corporate office or the sales team care that customers you have had for over 10 years are extremely disappointed and will no longer Upgrade nor refer new customers?

I hope this gets resolved soon.

I know many others who are HURT by this so-called improvement.

Yes they are aware. Yes, they HAVE addressed it here on the forums. Yes they ARE working on a whole list of things and have even made a way for people to use the old system until the new is up to their idea of a standard.

That being said, it makes no sense not to refer people because they wouldn't know what the old note system was like to not like the new system and for MANY people, myself included, we are fine with the new note system as it is while they work on reimplementing some things.

Hi Phil,

Please forgive the length of this message...

I'd like to describe how I have used Notes for the past 20 years and how the new Notes Tool has wrecked my 20-year old system (almost 3,000 notes). Perhaps I was using notes in a way it was never designed to be used, but it really worked well for me. It was also the feature used the most apart from the Passage Guide.

I had several different notebooks (My Commentary, My Messages, General Quotes/Illustrations, My Topical Bible, etc). Some of the notes were anchored, some were not. If I clicked on an anchored note in any Bible, it opened that notebook and gave me a large window in which I could easily read the note - even if it was an entire sermon (I love having my messages anchored to a specific text so I can access it immediately from the text without having to do a search of any kind). Imagine trying to read an entire sermon in the tiny window now reserved for notes! 

If I was reading a scripture and wanted to add a note to My Commentary, I simply right clicked and was given the option of creating a new note in that particular collection, automatically anchored to the text in which I was creating the note. Under the new system, my only option for creating a new note is simply to "Add a Note" with no ability to specify that it be included in the My Commentary collection.

If I want to find a quote in my "General Quotes/Illustrations" collection (which has a separate note for each topic in my system with each note containing several entries), I have to open notes, create a filter, and then try to read it in a tiny column that only displays about 1 sentence at a time. I understand I can open it in a floating window, but now I've lost the ease and simplicity of having it open in a full-size window with a single click that allows me to see both the note and my other windows at the same time.

Also, with my General Quotes/Illustrations and Topical Bible collections, I had my notes alphabetized by topic with many entries under each topic.If I want to find a quote on "Forgiveness" in the new system, I have to create a filter to narrow it down to General Quotes/Illustrations only to find that my old notes are no longer alphabetized by topic but ordered with only two options: date created or date modified. I could search for "Forgiveness" but now I've added another step to the process that was so simple and easy under the old system.

I could go on and on with examples of how my very simple system of creating personal content in notes just got immeasurably more difficult to use. Again, I LOVE LOGOS and use it every day, but this change has had huge consequences for me personally. I'm sure I would love many of the improvements if I could actually find a way to reclaim my old system of creating, collecting and accessing notes. For now, I am grateful for the option of changing back to the old system, but I pray you will find a way to keep the improvements without destroying the basic functionality of the old system.

I understand I can open it in a floating window, but that requires an extra step that didn't exist before. But quite frankly, that's the least of my worries. It's no longer possible to create notes in a specific notebook. It's not easy to get to what used to constitute one of my old notebooks and if it contains unanchored notes (My Topical Bible) the only way to organize them is either by date created or date modified. My entries are in alphabetical order by topic. My hope is that Logos will find a way to maintain the functionality of the old system while incorporating the best of the improvements.