New in Logos 9: Commentaries guide section redesign

One of my two favourite new features!

I agree! This is a huge timesaver that will save me from unnecessarily clicking through many of the commentaries that happen to be in my library.

I strongly urge Faithlife to complete tagging of the commentaries, especially the Type and Era taggings. Is there any way we can help expedite this tagging process? Can we help fill out a spreadsheet to speed up the process?

Yeah, this is easily one of the best new features of L9. Love it!

A lot of the commentaries are still not tagged accordingly (or without tag at all). Especially under the "year" part, which should be the minimum for all commentaries tag.

There are more commentaries that aren't included in the subcategories than the ones are tagged in the subcategories. 

Yeah, this is easily one of the best new features of L9

[Y] I like the fact that I now know which commentary is which, a long-standing frustration. I don't think I'll use the different ways to sort the commentaries very often, but labeling the commentaries will be quite helpful.

There are more commentaries that aren't included in the subcategories than the ones are tagged in the subcategories. 

Yes and no. In my library, and I imagine most other libraries that are much smaller than yours, almost all of them have era tagging. Denominational tagging is much less far advanced. Faithlife has affirmed that they're actively working on this. I suggest reporting any mistakes that you may find.

Description: Identify your commentaries at a glance with book covers, series abbreviations, and authors. Sort by default, series, or author; or group by Type of commentary, Era in which it was written, or Denomination of the author.

Learn more about the Commentaries guide section.

Can someone explain to me what drives how the commentary titles appear in the new guides?

It doesn't seem to use consistently either the long or short titles in my library. I used to edit my commentary titles so that they appear similarly in the commentary guides, but that is not the case anymore.... 

One of my two favourite new features!

What's the other one?

One of my two favourite new features!

What's the other one?

This one.

One of my two favourite new features!

What's the other one?

This one.

I love dark mode on my ipad but it didn't function well for me on my MacBook.  I had trouble reading the headings in the Omasticon. Any issues on your end?

I can confirm that the headings below each section is white on white.

Can someone explain to me what drives how the commentary titles appear in the new guides?

Sure! It uses (in order):

• Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

We are judicious in coming up with series abbreviations, following the SBL style guide for the most part (iirc). 

Sure! It uses (in order):

• Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);

Are you already planning to expose this new metadata as a column in the Library panel shortly (like Abbreviated Title), or should I add that request to feedback.faithlife.com?

Are you already planning to expose this new metadata as a column in the Library panel shortly (like Abbreviated Title), or should I add that request to feedback.faithlife.com?

Technologically speaking, it's a resource "trait" so probably part of if/when we expose those to the library, but I haven't heard about this one specifically. Never wrong to add things to feedback.faithlife.com. 

I agree! This is a huge timesaver that will save me from unnecessarily clicking through many of the commentaries that happen to be in my library.

I strongly urge Faithlife to complete tagging of the commentaries, especially the Type and Era taggings. Is there any way we can help expedite this tagging process? Can we help fill out a spreadsheet to speed up the process?

BUMP.

@Sean (or whoever is responsible for this work), can you please prioritize and see to it that many more commentaries are tagged for the revamped Commentaries section in the Passage Guide?

Are you already planning to expose this new metadata as a column in the Library panel shortly (like Abbreviated Title), or should I add that request to feedback.faithlife.com?

Technologically speaking, it's a resource "trait" so probably part of if/when we expose those to the library, but I haven't heard about this one specifically.

First time for everything!

Never wrong to add things to feedback.faithlife.com. 

I may quote you on this in the future...

Also, done: https://feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/842

My vote is in. Thanks for setting that up. Carla

It doesn't seem to use consistently either the long or short titles in my library. I used to edit my commentary titles so that they appear similarly in the commentary guides, but that is not the case anymore.... 

Concur customized commentary titles no longer appear for Series resources (not like). Please Vote/Comment => Commentary Guides: Add Abbreviated Title after "Abbreviated Series" OR Series

A number of Commentary Series have more than one volume for Bible Book(s). Revamped Commentary Guide shows Series, Passage, Author(s) so requesting change to show Series, Volume (preferably Abbreviated Title), Passage, Author(s). Personally have customized Abbreviated Title to include year of content, which now does not appear in Commentary Guides. Forum reply => https://community.logos.com/forums/p/194962/112853… includes a screen shot showing a couple series having more than one volume.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Personally have customized Abbreviated Title to include year of content, which now does not appear in Commentary Guides.

Created another item for Vote/Comment => Commentary Guides: Add all milestones in Commentary resource

A number of commentaries have more than one section for a Biblical passage.

An example is a Passage Guide for Philippians 4:4-9 including links to all articles found by Search {Milestone <Pp4.4-9>}

You can see the full and abbreviated title by hovering your mouse on the little book cover icon in the Commentary Guide.

Thanks [:D] helped me learn full customized Commentary Title appears on hovering mouse on book cover icon while hovering mouse on rest of the line shows pop-up that has abbreviated title in lower right. Also learned when a series has more than one volume, the volumes are in chronological order from oldest to newest since my custom titles begin with content year (can be much earlier than publication date for older resources).

Keep Smiling [:)]

I know this is buried but I wanted to give a quick update on the labeling of a Commentary by  Commentary Type, Author Denomination, and Era.

We have approximately 7000 Bible Commentaries in the English language.

About 6700 have been annotated with Era. (The remaining 300 are almost all WordSearch titles that just got flipped from a Monograph to a Commentary)

About 6000 have been identified with Commentary Type. (Like era, of the remaining 1000 commentaries about 300 of those are WordSearch titles that just got flipped from a Monograph to a Bible Commentary.)

About 3000 have been identified with an Author Denomination. Our strategy was to identify commentary sets sold in Standard and Denominational base packages and/or Commentary series we sell that are significant enough that the SBL style guide gave them their own standard abbreviation. On this there are certain authors we don't have information for yet or the information we do have doesn't yet fit in our schema.

We're in the process of updating the remainder of the commentaries (and non-English commentaries as well). On your end this will be a silent update and you should quietly notice more commentaries being labeled under categories.

Thanks for the update Kyle - really helpful

Description: Identify your commentaries at a glance with book covers, series abbreviations, and authors. Sort by default, series, or author; or group by Type of commentary, Era in which it was written, or Denomination of the author.

I've been using the Passage Guide for years, & its new Commentaries section looks to be almost identical to the Commentaries Guide.

Are they different? Do I need to explore the new tool separately for some reason?

Thanks for clarifying...

Thank you Kyle! That is such encouraging news!

- For the Era, any chance Modern and Contemporary be broken down by centuries?

- For the Type, can all Study Bibles be grouped under its own type?

If an entry needs to be submitted on the Feedback Board, let me know.

Thanks!

Peter

- For the Era, any chance Modern and Contemporary be broken down by centuries?

Good suggestion. I'm struggling with these a bit. Right now there are so many in each category that it's not as helpful as it could be. Figuring out a rubric to narrow it down further would be helpful.

- For the Type, can all Study Bibles be grouped under its own type?

This is in the works. I'm not sure when it will be released but we're planning on tweaking the categories further. Notes and Study Bibles are planned to be identified as their own category.

Why are 75% of my commentaries in this unnamed category?  I own L8 Reformed Silver - L8 standard Silver and L8 Baptist bronze  - and I bought whole commentary sets like The MacArthur NT Commentary (33 Vols) and others, yet they are uncategorized in here and so It does not make sense. 

Sorry for the small picture, I tried to show as much as I could, as I have over 300 Commentaries. 

Why are 75% of my commentaries in this unnamed category?  I own L8 Reformed Silver - L8 standard Silver and L8 Baptist bronze  - and I bought whole commentary sets like The MacArthur NT Commentary (33 Vols) and others, yet they are uncategorized in here and so It does not make sense.

It's a mix of a few things. A quick scan of your uncategorized has a few causes:

• We've gathered info on thousands of authors. There are some we still don't have info for them yet. As we're going through the annotation process we're making notes of uncategorized authors and will be working to assign them denominations.
• Some info we have we're not able to categorize as a denomination yet. "Evangelical" and "Dispensationalist" are the most common scenarios in that situation.
• Some just haven't been evaluated yet.
• Some don't really belong an in any category (FSB) is an example.

Again, we've annotated about 3000/7000 and are working through the rest.

Notes and Study Bibles are planned to be identified as their own category.

What's the difference between the two? Can you give some examples of "Notes"?

I agree! This is a huge timesaver that will save me from unnecessarily clicking through many of the commentaries that happen to be in my library.

I strongly urge Faithlife to complete tagging of the commentaries, especially the Type and Era taggings. Is there any way we can help expedite this tagging process? Can we help fill out a spreadsheet to speed up the process?

BUMP.

@Sean (or whoever is responsible for this work), can you please prioritize and see to it that many more commentaries are tagged for the revamped Commentaries section in the Passage Guide?

We're actively adding denominational associations for more authors, and annotating more commentaries with those associations. 

Description: Identify your commentaries at a glance with book covers, series abbreviations, and authors. Sort by default, series, or author; or group by Type of commentary, Era in which it was written, or Denomination of the author.

I've been using the Passage Guide for years, & its new Commentaries section looks to be almost identical to the Commentaries Guide.

Are they different? Do I need to explore the new tool separately for some reason?

Thanks for clarifying...

The Commentaries Guide is just the Commentaries section of the Passage Guide, exposed in its own panel. They're not different. 

Can someone explain to me what drives how the commentary titles appear in the new guides?

Sure! It uses (in order):

• Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

We are judicious in coming up with series abbreviations, following the SBL style guide for the most part (iirc). 

Shouldn't it be:

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

where a User created series title trumps all?

User Resource abbrev or User Resource title don't affect the above, but one has to know that many titles are not given an abbreviation (Short title in resource Info).

Shouldn't it be:

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

where a User created series title trumps all?

I reckon that's in with "Series title" now, but I see your point. I'll bring it up at the next meeting.

Shouldn't it be:

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

where a User created series title trumps all?

I reckon that's in with "Series title" now, but I see your point. I'll bring it up at the next meeting.

If user-created series trumps series abbreviation, then I will no longer urgently desire user-editable series abbreviations ( https://feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/842 ).

Shouldn't it be:

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

where a User created series title trumps all?

I reckon that's in with "Series title" now, but I see your point. I'll bring it up at the next meeting.

It wasn't a suggestion. I was aware it worked that way for Commentary Series, but I also validated that with a one-volume commentary. The User Series was also preferred to an Abbrev title.

Ah, my mistake. Carry on! 

Ah, my mistake. Carry on! 

I was suggesting you had omitted one case.

Just agree that the order of evaluation is

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

[:D]

I concur.

Just agree that the order of evaluation is

• User Series title
• OR Series abbreviation (new metadata added to commentary resources);
• OR Series title
• OR Resource abbreviation (if no series, eg, single-volume commentaries)
• OR Resource title

Oh good. I'm glad that that's how it works now. Time to go edit some more commentary series in my library.

The Commentaries Guide is just the Commentaries section of the Passage Guide, exposed in its own panel. They're not different.

Thank you!

I wonder how era is classified?

E.g. I don't understand why this resource https://www.logos.com/product/2190/a-textual-commentary-on-the-greek-new-testament is classified as Modern (1700-1959).

Thanks.

I wonder how era is classified?

Seem to remember era corresponds to year:

ante-nicene (AD 100-325)

nicene (AD 326-451)

byzantine (AD 452-1054)

medieval (AD 1055-1516)

reformation (AD 1517-1699)

modern (AD 1700-1959)

contemporary (AD 1960-present)

E.g. I don't understand why this resource https://www.logos.com/product/2190/a-textual-commentary-on-the-greek-new-testament is classified as Modern (1700-1959).

Concur since publication date of 1994 for second edition and 1970 for first edition should be contemporary.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Probably it is a bug. Because it is showing as modern in my end.

Probably it is a bug. Because it is showing as modern in my end.

Thanks, i've reported this issue. 

Thanks, i've reported this issue. 

Thanks.

In other context one can right click and select "report typo" for problem like this. But in the Passage Guide, there seems to be no way to right click and "report typo". If that is implemented, may be it will be more efficient to report these problems and hence improve the quality of the tagging.

Also, another potential bug report: NTTTC is classified as Exegetical but probably should be Apparatus?

Is there a way to access the commentary grouping tags for collections?

It would be nice to be able to refine searches (especially mobile) to commentaries based on type or era. 

Is there a way to access the commentary grouping tags for collections?

It would be nice to be able to refine searches (especially mobile) to commentaries based on type or era. 

Within Passage Guide (or other guides), the Commentaries section provides these as options, but they don't align with resource metadata available to Collections. The Publication Date (pubdate) is close, but will not provide the same era as the Commentaries section e.g. the K&D Old Testament is a revised 1996 publication of a product originally published 1866-1891. era is based on the latter.

You might want to campaign for this on Faithlife Feedback

Will these changes (sorting commentaries by various criteria; revamping the commentary displayed names) be coming to Logos 9 Mobile soon?

BUMP

Added these requests on FL Feedback:

Mobile: https://feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-mobile-app/posts/passage-guide-commentaries-section-improvements

Web App: https://feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-web-app/posts/passage-guide-commentaries-section-improvements-94d16b26-2e9a-4b30-be3f-6c64776b2ebb

Is it possible to list commentaries by "ascending" or "descending" dates, and not simply within an era?