Two Notes Questions

Kathy Nesper
Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56
edited November 21 in English Forum

Please bear with me if these are covered elsewhere, but Logos is so feature rich and the forum has so many posts that it can be difficult to find what I need here or in Help. 🙂

  1. Is there a way to view my notes and/or publisher-inherent ones at the bottom of my reading pane? For example, in a printed Study Bible there is a line at the bottom of the page, and beneath it are the notes that appear within the text--1, a, etc., footnote style. One can simply glance at the bottom of the page to see these. And one can write one's own notes in the margin. So everything is viewable in one place.

    In Logos, I currently have separate panes open for my multiple-resource layout, for my preferred translation's study notes (which is a separate book), and for my own notes. I would love to be able to see all these things together. Is there any kind of view or layout that would accommodate that? If not, I would love for Logos to think about it! (I believe I can view my panes horizontally instead of vertically, but that's not quite what I'm asking for.)
  2. Is there a way to migrate (or copy) all my own notes into a notebook, or some other function that saves them as a document and keeps it updated? Sometimes Logos is slow to populate my synced highlights and notes, particularly on Android, and I'd like to have them saved in another way where I could scan them easily.

I hope I made those questions clear. Thank you in advance for your insights!

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Comments

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,674

    In Logos, I currently have separate panes open for my multiple-resource layout, for my preferred translation's study notes (which is a separate book), and for my own notes. I would love to be able to see all these things together.

    User notes were not meant to be combined with footnotes for viewing together in a resource's panel (not pane). But they can be shown if you choose 1 Column and tick to Show Footnotes in its Panel Menu i.e. in different parts of the panel. It is not possible when the supplied study notes are a separate resource.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,674

    Is there a way to migrate (or copy) all my own notes into a notebook, or some other function that saves them as a document and keeps it updated? Sometimes Logos is slow to populate my synced highlights and notes, particularly on Android, and I'd like to have them saved in another way where I could scan them easily.

    If Logos is slow to sync between mobile apps and Desktop, it would be better to accept that because your Notes are securely stored on FL servers. There is no other safe way to sync your notes.

    Perhaps you could clarify "slow" together with the number of notes you have. Is this connected with your other thread on Notes?

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    1507 notes (!), plus highlights. I'm beginning to wonder if it would be better for me to create a notebook where I keep those kinds of things or something like that, rather than putting so many verse-specific notes in the Bible itself. I also use anchors that are only for the verse, not specific to the translation, so that they appear across my translations. I imagine that takes up space too.

    "Slow," as in I haven't timed it but long enough that I've given up and gone to my desktop version. I should clarify - I don't really mean sync. I mean that they simply don't appear. Most of the time, they pop in pretty quickly, which is why it's noticeable when they don't.

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    Dave, I really appreciate your help and patience. And I feel that you're helping me circle around what I may need to do. [:)]

    I played around with this suggestion a bit and found that I don't have a column option in my multiple-translation layout panel. (I hope I got that terminology correct.) So I opened another translation and selected one column and show footnotes, as you suggested. I see the notes icons on the page (since I enter them using reference-only anchors instead of translation-specific ones), but there are still no footnotes appearing at the bottom of the page.

    It might be easier to simply state what I'm trying to accomplish, and perhaps there's a better way for me to do it than entering notes. I highlight and mark up my Bibles a lot, entering notes from a sermon, personal meditations, etc. In print copies, I would do that in the margins--and then I could easily see what I entered the next time I read that passage. In Logos, my notes are icons, but that means having to repeatedly click on them as I read through a passage in order to see the notes. (I know I can hover for a quick view, but sometimes they're too long to see fully.)

    Perhaps it would be better for me to keep a notebook or document of longer comments that can be open in a separate pane and enter only simple things in notes? (But then it wouldn't be synced with my translation....) Or...?

    Your suggestions will be welcome! I would love to really dig in and study all the features of Logos, but for the time being I'm just trying to get my most important functions figured out.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,674

    So I opened another translation and selected one column and show footnotes, as you suggested. I see the notes icons on the page (since I enter them using reference-only anchors instead of translation-specific ones), but there are still no footnotes appearing at the bottom of the page.

    It depends on the translation and the proximity of your notes to its footnotes. What translation?

    I would do that in the margins--and then I could easily see what I entered the next time I read that passage. In Logos, my notes are icons, but that means having to repeatedly click on them as I read through a passage in order to see the notes. (I know I can hover for a quick view, but sometimes they're too long to see fully.)

    Perhaps it would be better for me to keep a notebook or document of longer comments that can be open in a separate pane and enter only simple things in notes? (But then it wouldn't be synced with my translation....) Or...?

    That would be counterproductive. I suggest that you have a Notes panel underneath your translation (by dragging and re-sizing) and accept that clicking is the best way to display your notes.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    NIV (2011). But again, I'm using a multi-translation layout so it may be unavailable there even if available in those same translations idividually. I opened a couple of other translations separately to see if I could make ny notes appear there--I think one was Holman Christian Bible, and I don't remember the other. Is there one where you know it should work, so I can try it to see what it would look like? I

    I don't mind clicking as long as the notes can quickly be seen without the steps I'm currently facing. Your idea of arranging a separate notes pane looks like it might do what I need if the columns/show footnotes approach doesn't work.

    Thanks!

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,674

    I don't mind clicking as long as the notes can quickly be seen without the steps I'm currently facing. Your idea of arranging a separate notes pane looks like it might do what I need if the columns/show footnotes approach doesn't work.

    You always need the Notes tool for viewing your notes and the columns/show footnotes approach will only work with a single translation. But you can hover over the footnotes in a multi-translation setup, or view the footnotes fully expanded for the first translation using the Power Lookup tool in another panel.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • 1Cor10 31
    1Cor10 31 Member Posts: 737 ✭✭

    Perhaps it would be better for me to keep a notebook or document of longer comments that can be open in a separate pane and enter only simple things in notes? (But then it wouldn't be synced with my translation....) Or...?

    I used to have my thoughts as I read the Bible in a separate Word file (just like you). Once I understood the benefits of Notes tool, there's no going back. I am now 100% using Notes tool to jot down my thoughts, collect quotes from commentaries etc. As I go through the Bible this time around, I take my notes using the Notes tool. I am also going back to the Word file to bring back my thoughts from the previous go-arounds of the Bible. Eventually, everything will be in Notes.

    As Dave said, if you hover the Notes icon, you can see the notes you've made, so there is no clicking to be done unless the Note is a really long one and cannot be fully shown in the pop up.

    One advantage of using Notes, is that you can combine verses that talk about the same theme/topic/issue/idea in a single Note. All the verses can be included as Anchors in a single Notes. Then Logos attaches the same Note to all the Anchor verses. This also avoids duplication and ensures that all of your thoughts related to that idea is in one place and can be accessed in all the verses related to the theme/topic/issue/idea.

    I believe in a Win-Win-Win God

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    Dave, I wasn't aware of that capability for Power Lookup. I love it! Thank you for suggesting it!

    However, I don't see my Notes there. Just to be clear--there's no way to make them appear in a Power Lookup panel? Regardless, I'll really use this feature so I appreciate you suggesting it.

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    Thank you so much for your post! Yes, it's my long notes that are the problem. I'd like to be able to see them without having to open a separate panel. But I think Dave's suggestion of a panel below my multi-translation one is going to be workable. I also appreciate the benefit of your (and Dave's) experience that Notes are the way to go vs. a separate document or notebook.

    It had never occurred to me to use anchors to multiple passages as multiple-passage cross-references to a single note --duh! I have some notes like, "See my note on XXXX XX:XX." I'll have to edit all those to simply add anchors in the original note. Wonderful suggestion--and so obvious that I should have thought of it. :-)

    I appreciate you both holding my hand through these questions.

  • Kathy Nesper
    Kathy Nesper Member Posts: 56

    One last post (I think). I just did a Logos session using your recent suggestions, and it's great! I have my layout open at the bottom, Notes panel above it, and Power Lookup panel at the right. Now I can see all the resource's own references scrolling along with my reading in Power Lookup, and all I have to do to see my highlights and notes at the same time as what I'm reading is one simple click. Before, the click opened a separate Notes panel and I had to toggle back and forth between it and my reading. (That will be especially helpful when the anchor isn't properly created for some reason and I don't remember which specific verse I was creating the note for! :-) )

    The only improvement I can think of would be having my Notes panel scroll along with the Bible text. But this is workable.

    Thanks for hanging in with me!