Search for "Lord" finds "LORD" when Match Case option selected

Harry Hahne
Harry Hahne Member Posts: 962 ✭✭✭
in Beta Desktop App Forum

Why does a search for "Lord" find "LORD" when the Match Case option selected? I am searching the NASB 1995 with Match Case selected.

It appears that Logos treats a search for "LORD" in the Old Testament not as all capitals, but as if it were Lord, but with a different font or character attribute. But I suspect most users would think of this word as all capitals, particularly since the context menu shows the selection as LORD, not Lᴏʀᴅ. 

To make this worse, searching on the selection of LORD with the context menu creates a search with all capitals: LORD. If match case on, this will fail to find most verses (only Zech 14:20  and Rev 19:16). A user might rightly want to find other instances of LORD and use Match Case to exclude "Lord" or "lord".

I don't think Logos distinguishes any other display characteristics in a search. I suspect that the digital text of the English Bible in Logos uses the Unicode small capital letters characters for this word. But a user should not need to know this technical distinction.

This can create some peculiar situations. For example, a search for the text within a Old Testament quotation in the New Testament will fail, because selecting the text and doing a search on the text inserts all capitals, rather than the upper and lower case characters that are in fact used. For example, if you select "NEAR YOU" in Romans 10:8 and search on the selection with Match Case selected, no matches are found, not even Romans 10:8. So a search for a phrase in a Bible verse is not even found when you select the text and use the context menu to create a search. Granted, one should turn off Match case to make this work.

I understand that in the distinction between LORD and Lord, I can get a more precise result with a Hebrew word search with a Reverse Interlinear Bible. But this is one of those things that I stumble across every once in a while in Logos, when I am trying to help out someone with no knowledge of Hebrew. Something that should have been easy to demonstrate proved to be difficult.

Comments

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,750

    Wikipedia said:

    "In typography, small caps (short for "small capitals") are lowercase characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight, close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures"

    In short, it is working as I expect although I do see your point.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,087

    Harry Hahne said:

    I suspect that the digital text of the English Bible in Logos uses the Unicode small capital letters characters for this word. But a user should not need to know this technical distinction.

    Where  a word is in small caps Logos detects it as lower case, and makes the first letter of some words a large cap e.g. LORD, the first word of a phrase in NASB95 e.g. Ro 10:8. Some other NASB95 words are treated this way e.g. HIM in Ro 10:11. So "Match Case" will not distinguish Lord and LORD, but does distinguish lord. FL made this distinction for LORD (in bibles) when users complained it was not detected by using LORD.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)
    Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :) MVP Posts: 23,148

    Harry Hahne said:

    Why does a search for "Lord" find "LORD" when the Match Case option selected?

    Advanced search [match all] Lord also finds Small Caps "LORD" while [match all] LORD only finds ALL CAPS "LORD"

    Harry Hahne said:

    I understand that in the distinction between LORD and Lord, I can get a more precise result with a Hebrew word search with a Reverse Interlinear Bible. But this is one of those things that I stumble across every once in a while in Logos, when I am trying to help out someone with no knowledge of Hebrew. Something that should have been easy to demonstrate proved to be difficult.

    Concur difficult for Small Caps "Lord" searching.

    King James Version 1900 has Small Caps "Lord" for two lemma's: <Lemma = lbs/he/יָהּ> & <Lemma = lbs/he/יהוה>

    Keep Smiling [:)]

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,087
    https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1186886#Comment_1186886

    " rel="nofollow">Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :) said:

    Harry Hahne said:

    Why does a search for "Lord" find "LORD" when the Match Case option selected?

    Advanced search [match all] Lord also finds Small Caps "LORD" while [match all] LORD only finds ALL CAPS "LORD"

    The advanced search [match all]  doesn't contribute anything extra here.

    If Match Case is selected, LORD returns exactly the same results as [match all] LORD, and Lord returns the same as [match all] Lord.

    What is interesting is that 8 interlinear bibles have a small number of results (1 to 7) for LORD (Yahweh), whilst NET has 26 in Nehemiah and Daniel to emphasize their use of Yahweh!?

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

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