Newbie to Logos looking for some help...

Well, after 20 years of putting it off, I finally took the plunge and purchased Logos. I've got to say, I'm blown away. I should have done this a LONG time ago.

That said, I'm having trouble coming up with a organizational system for my note taking. I anticipate taking thousands of notes on hundreds of topics and subtopics over the years and I'm having some problems figuring out a way to structure a note taking organizational method for not only easy recall, but also for easy usage while studying. I can see myself studying one topic and coming across something pertinent to another topic and needing to get both topics notated and stored for easy recall down the road.

I've read quite a few posts on the subject, but nothing I've read yet seems to cover it all. I see that we have clippings, notes, tagging, and highlighting tools available to us. I've heard some folks organize their notes through highlighting. I've read others do so through tagging. I've read many do it with notebooks (which is the direction I'd be leaning in) and someone mentioned doing it through using "Favorites", which seemed intriguing as well.

I guess what I'm getting at is the fact that I can see myself taking tens of thousands of notes on a myriad of subjects, and I'm searching for a method to organize those notes where I can later recall what I need, when I need it...without having a rats nest to go through to find what I'm looking for.

Has anyone posted a comprehensive organizational method for their note taking to be shared with others??? Do you folks have any suggestions? Is there a reason one might use the "Favorites" feature over creating individual Notebooks with subcategories within that notebook. One thing that concerns me about this (notebooks) is finding said subcategories again.

I would be very grateful for ALL the advice I can get b/c I'm just starting out with this software and this seems to be my largest hurdle at the moment. I'd like to begin with the right footing. Thank you!!!

Eric

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Allen Browne

Hi Eric. Good question. I’m not “Logos” (just a user), but happy to share what I do. As you go, I’m sure you’ll develop approaches that suit what you want to achieve.

I have one notebook where I enter all my Bible notes ("Allen’s Bible Notes"). There are thousands of them, but most are brief. Many contain cross-references to other Bible texts, and hyperlinks to other people’s insights that I’ll be able to locate next time I look at this text. Some of these notes are linked to multiple Bible verses.

I create another notebook for any major topic I plan to spend months or years studying (e.g. kingdom of God, or Pseudepigrapha).

Another notebook ("Articles") links to articles I want to keep track of (usually external links).

I’m incessantly highlighting as I read, but I don’t have these highlights well-organized. They’re just in the default “notebooks” that Logos has created for me over the years (“Emphasis Markup”, “Highlight”, etc). I don’t need to search for them: they just show up in the books where I need them.

I don’t have any reason to use clippings.

I use MS Word for anything bigger than a mere note attached to a book or Bible text. That includes sermons, lectures, blog posts, and systematic or structured study.

That’s what suits me. Hope your new tool leads you to many productive insights.

Dave Hooton

I've read quite a few posts on the subject, but nothing I've read yet seems to cover it all. I see that we have clippings, notes, tagging, and highlighting tools available to us. I've heard some folks organize their notes through highlighting. I've read others do so through tagging. I've read many do it with notebooks (which is the direction I'd be leaning in) and someone mentioned doing it through using "Favorites", which seemed intriguing as well.

I'm not into Notes and Highlighting, because I'm a Clipper! You could organize specific studies by Notebooks, but your own personal notes are distributed amongst many Notes. With Clippings, my own Notes can be organised into a sequence that represents the way I have divided my study/topic e.g. my study of Daniel 11-12 is divided into a clipping for Dan 11:1-12:3 with my notes + a clipping for Dan 12:4-13 and more notes. That is ideal for a Bible Study and even a Sermon, because I think more about content than presentation. Actually, I'm not sure that one Bible Study session would be sufficient to cover 58 verses and 4 pages of notes, but I can cover the first part (you can't effectively do this from a Notebook)!

I sometimes use Favorites to capture alternate views of a topic that I could reference in a Bible Study.

John Connell

Have you seen this thread? https://community.logos.com/forums/t/178726.aspx

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

That said, I'm having trouble coming up with a organizational system for my note taking.

Welcome [:D]

Faithlife has a Logos Notes group => https://faithlife.com/logos-notes/activity that includes a webinar about Logos Notes.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Armin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1175009#Comment_1175009

Hi Eric. Good question. I’m not “Logos” (just a user), but happy to share what I do. As you go, I’m sure you’ll develop approaches that suit what you want to achieve.

I have one notebook where I enter all my Bible notes ("Allen’s Bible Notes"). There are thousands of them, but most are brief. Many contain cross-references to other Bible texts, and hyperlinks to other people’s insights that I’ll be able to locate next time I look at this text. Some of these notes are linked to multiple Bible verses.

I create another notebook for any major topic I plan to spend months or years studying (e.g. kingdom of God, or Pseudepigrapha).

Another notebook ("Articles") links to articles I want to keep track of (usually external links).

I’m incessantly highlighting as I read, but I don’t have these highlights well-organized. They’re just in the default “notebooks” that Logos has created for me over the years (“Emphasis Markup”, “Highlight”, etc). I don’t need to search for them: they just show up in the books where I need them.

I don’t have any reason to use clippings.

I use MS Word for anything bigger than a mere note attached to a book or Bible text. That includes sermons, lectures, blog posts, and systematic or structured study.

That’s what suits me. Hope your new tool leads you to many productive insights.

This pretty much sums up my approach. I keep thinking about how to improve on it but I still haven't found the "perfect" solution for me. But even if I decide on a non-perfect approach, I want to be sure it works for me for the rest of my life, because it will take a lot of time arranging 21,600 notes/highlights. I don't want to do this twice.

Eric Cox

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1175009#Comment_1175009

Thank you. I appreciate your insight and gained a couple ideas from it! [:)]

Hamilton Ramos

Hi Eric:

I am not an expert, I have not done the full system myself, so take what I am going to suggest as a speculative theorizing just to spark your creativity.

In theory the superb system for notetaking is Zettlekasten...

https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-the-zettelkasten-method/

https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/

https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/

So once you get the initial understanding of the system, then you can personalize it.

A good numeric taxonomy for id could be inspired from:

https://www.logos.com/product/16107/dictionary-of-bible-themes

To allow linkabiity to specific locations in resources:

https://blog.logos.com/create-links-specific-logos-resources/

I particularly would in a theoretical system of mine:

use the links to populate a mind map like visual index. Imagine the words of a mind map having links to the information.

If the content required lots of links to specific locations in L9 resources, then the primary link would be to a Powerpoint mind map that then had the links for each resource within a sub topic.

The notes themselves I would do in a Word document, that then with time I could turn into personal book (PB) in logos to have it being searchable.

I am not sure if links to within specific locations in resources can be placed in notes.

I myself would not use L9 notes because long time ago someone noticed and comment that large notes in Logos made the search capacities slower.

I am not sure if that has been improved.

Canvas would be a good alternative for the mind map like visual index if it was capable of working with url, but at this time I do not think it can, so I would use Powerpoint.

I would imagine that with practice one could perfect the system to own needs, and desires.

Just a different angle for further research, reflection and constructive comment.

1Cor10 31

What works for me may not work for you, but here it goes...

First, I tend to think of everything in the form of Q&A. When I am reading, I am asking questions constantly. When I write reserch papers, the research question I am addressing is right up at the top. When I teach, the first slide usually contains the big picture question(n) that I'm going to address that day. For good or for bad, that is my wiring. I think of actionable knowledge - either to you or to whomsoever you are preaching - as an answer to a question that you or your listeners care about. Thus all my notes fall under an answer to questions that I raise to myself.

Second, I organize these questions under various topics such as "prayer," "good works," "evangelism," etc. Each topic has various subheadings, always in the form of Questions. For example, under "prayer," I could have "When prayers answered?" "When answeres delayed?" etc.

Third, all the topics are linked upwards to the unifying them of how each helps achieve "the goal of God." This is the central thread that runs through my theology. The central thread has changed over time as my understanding has increased, but this is where I land right now. You have to figure out yours and organize your topics accordingly.

Given above constraints and given my minimal knowledge of Logos software, I prefer to put my thoughts and cut-paste what I read into a Word document. This allows me to use the headings feature to organize content in Word. The only constraint with headings is that you can have a maximum of 9 subheadings. But the advantage of headings is that it allows easy reorganization as your understanding evolves. And your understanding will evolve and you will be forced to reorganize.

In addition to above, I do have one Word file for each book of the Bible. Here all my thoughts/notes for a given verse/passage are collected. I then cut-paste the same notes under various places in the Topics file. So there is duplication, which I think is unavoidable. For example, a verse might say something about God's sovereignty and prayer. Thus, all the notes on the verse will be in the Book of the Bible, but the thoughts on sovereignty is also transferred to the topic under sovereignty and the thoughts on prayer is also transferred to the topic under prayer.

Hope it helps at the margin.