Media Tool - Does this work for anyone?

This has got to be the most useless feature in Logos Bible Software. It does not load most of the time. If it does, it doesn't populate. I have yet to successfully right click and send something to the "visual copy" (where does that language come from and how does one know that triggers the "media tool"??).

Am I doing something wrong?

Is there anyone using this successfully?

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MJ. Smith

Is there anyone using this successfully?

I have to game the system to go back and add the metadata. I rarely use Visual copy but I've not had problems with it. I assume you have watched the training Media Tool – Logos Help Center Are you on Mac or PC ... I am strictly PC. Perhaps if you upload a screen of it failing to load we might spot the problem or we might need logs.

skypeace

I use it daily to post the Verse of the Day across various social media and use it constantly to post Bible verses using the specific HCSB verse template. I have used it with Windows 10 and now 11 It is a significant part of my daily online ministry workflow. I admit that a couple of years ago there was a slight learning curve, but for me not as heavy as other parts of Logos.

EastTN

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1196878#Comment_1196878

I have been using it recently to develop a presentation deck for an adult class I'll be teaching in a few weeks. It's a bit clunky, but works well enough for key verses that I want to highlight with a background graphic. For reference, I'm running the desktop application on Microsoft Windows with a fairly new desktop, and with decent broadband internet.

Sean Boisen

Ross, can you explain more about what you're trying to do and why it's not working?

There are multiple use cases for Media Tool. One is sharing quotes from a resource: here's what I did just now.

Selected some text from Dr. Barry Beitzel in Lexham Geographic Commentary on Acts through Revelation
With the text selected, right-click to bring up the context menu. Selection was the only option on the left: on the right i chose Visual Copy
That opened Media Tool and inserted the selected text, pre-selecting a format, style, etc. (all of which is editable)
I clicked Save As to save it as a PNG file, which is inserted below

For the use case of sharing a quote with others in a visually appealing style, that seemed pretty easy and slick.

I recognize you may be trying to do something different, however: can you walk through it so we can figure out how to make it work for you?

Ross Strader

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197275#Comment_1197275

Thank you all for the responses. The Logos forum is top notch, as always.
Sean, to your question, I have 16’ i9 MBP w plenty of power. Every time I right click to ‘visual copy’— whether it be a verse or quote from commentary or article, etc., it pulls up a media tool window and is blank. I go back to selection, right click and select visual copy again. Usually at this point it triggers the media tool window again and then after many seconds will display the text. When selecting alternate background (or theme?) the right side pane displays and slowly begins to populate options. I can select an option and experience the active window change, but the process is like it is running through quicksand. Alternatively, I have opened the media tool and tried to use the left column browser selections. My experience is those selections, while numerous, do not all behave properly. Some bog down my computer. When navigating to a selection with multiple slides, for instance a Bible book intro (pick any book of the Bible), it is about 50/50 that all the slides will appear and if they do it is about 50/50 whether I am able to scroll them all before the media tool window freezes.
I’ve used Logos for over 20yrs and invested fully in the library. I would not consider myself a novice, though I have not tinkered much under the hood of the program.
This particular ‘tool’ compared to the other functions of the program, in my experience, is bloated, slow, and when in use absolutely hogs the computer’s resources. On top of that, the “send to” ppt or keynote is an export that then requires multiple steps to resize for a presentation. the media tool behaves like ppt (primitively) with title and content boxes that can be manipulated, but exports as a picture when resized is blurry. I cannot understand why the export shows up in ppt or keynote 1/5 the size of a slide.
The time it takes to use the media tool (at least for me) is ridiculous. I can cut and paste exponentially faster and then manipulate the text in the presentation software.
Which brings me to a rant about this kind of functionality even being in the Logos program in the first place. Ugh.
I’m sure I am a minority. Who knows. My experience is the ‘input’ or ‘production’ features like sermon builder, notes, media tool; these are sub-par tools that are slow and require lots of ‘finesse’ to achieve a desired result. The bulk of the Logos program feels very 2022, while those particular tools feel very 1982.

Sean Boisen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197283#Comment_1197283

Thanks for supplying that additional information Ross. My experience (also on a MBP) is not at all the same: it's quite snappy. If i bring up Media Tool from the Tools menu (not from a selection), it will spin for a couple of seconds, but give me a full UI and interaction in maybe 5 seconds, with 31k results.

I'm afraid I don't have anything else to suggest, other than this: give our customer support folks a call, and I'm confident they'll do their best to figure out the problem and solve or improve it if they can.

skypeace

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197302#Comment_1197302

Just did a Visual Copy of a verse on my slowest laptop which is an i7 8th Gen Windows 11 unit that I leave running all day everyday, and it proved to be quite brisk at moving from verse selection to placing it into a template and then saving. I only have just over 6K volumes and my highest package is a Platinum 9.

All I can think is you may have some corrupted files, paths or settings that may need attention. I know little to nothing about Apple products and don't care for them even though my first Mac was given to me as a gift from Woz. He donated a bunch to our Robotics Team also.

I hope you get this sorted out as Visual Copy and The Media Tools are a valuable asset for ministry. I use it daily and move directly from Visual Copy to Photoshop multiple times a day.

Mike Binks

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197283#Comment_1197283

Just for comparison I tried with my Macmini

Every time I right click to ‘visual copy’— whether it be a verse or quote from commentary or article, etc., it pulls up a media tool window and is blank. I go back to selection, right click and select visual copy again. Usually at this point it triggers the media tool window again and then after many seconds will display the text.

Fully populated in about 3 seconds.

When selecting alternate background (or theme?) the right side pane displays and slowly begins to populate options. I can select an option and experience the active window change, but the process is like it is running through quicksand.

Again about 3 seconds

Using the Media tool about 5 seconds for this

and 3 seconds from that to this

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197353#Comment_1197353

Ross, do you have a hard-drive or SSD? That can make adifference in load time...

Don Schuman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197355#Comment_1197355

Apparently the media tool is connected to the online LOGOS server, so when they have outages, we are out of luck, such as this Sunday morning. Most weekdays, it is fine. My guess is that their Proclaim is a resource hog and too many people use it for Logos to support.