Logos Tool Design Really Needs Re-Design

I know the apologists will demur. 'Well, sure, there's always improvements, but overall ...'.

I'm sorry but Advanced Timeline (and Timeline) is a complete waste (and a lot of great data, expensively collected). Apparently it's a book-thing ... you click on Jesus' resurrection and if you don't have 'that' book, well, sorry. It doesn't know how to use 'the Bible' in 'Logos Bible Software'. Not dated.

Then, there's Atlas. Their 4th try, I think. What a great design opportunity missed ... again quite a bit of investment.

Today, I was in a monograph on Enoch, which pointed to Carrhae. That didn't ring a bell, so I right-clicked it, and my dictionaries knew about it ... it's the old Haran. The right-click couldn't bring up Factbook however (am I surprised).

So, I manually pulled up Factbook, and it knows it's a location. Well, that's good. But that's all. It also claims I don't have any dictionaries that know about it. Not good. I assume it wants specific dictionaries I don't waste ;money on.

I'm sure glad I'm not new to Logos and its designer. I could go on to the next tool design.

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Comments

Andrew Batishko

Thanks for the report. I've passed this along to our data team. The entry for Carrhae possibly needs to be merged with the entry for Haran.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1278043#Comment_1278043

I appreciate the quick answer, Andrew.

But seriously, the Factbook dictionary entry doesn't locate indexed dictionaries (ignoring the link to Haran)? No books in my $50K library?? Why buy more books ... it can't find them. I just feel sorry for new users. The tool designs are just mysterious (not being mean, just literal).

Andrew Batishko

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1278046#Comment_1278046

The book in your screenshot (Eerdman's) links its article on Carrhae to the entry on Haran. There's only one book in our catalog that actually links directly to Carrhae, and I suspect that it should do likewise and also link to Haran. Then Carrhae and Haran would be merged into a single Factbook page, and presumably Carrhae would be an alternate title on Haran, which would allow it to be found if that's what you type. At this point, I think the confusion would go away.

That said, I'm not on the data team, so it's entirely possible that there's a different solution desired. It really is a problem with messy data though, and hopefully that can get cleaned up.

Dudley Rose

I've been a Logos user since Logos X days and use it regularly for ministry and scholarly work, and I want to add my hope that the Advanced Timeline and the Atlas can be improved.

I've tried to make use of the Timeline. I've gone through all of MP Seminars' videos about it, and I still can't quite make it useful.

Regarding the Atlas, ideally, I could right click on a location in a Bible and get a context sensitive map in Atlas. If I'm reading Mark 8:27 and want to see where Caesarea Phillippi is and get a context relevant map, selecting the text and right clicking doesn't lead to the Atlas, or the Factbook for that matter.

In the ESV Study Bible I can find a map which not only shows the location of Caesarea Phillippi, but the context of the particular journey of Jesus.

If I hand enter Caesarea Phillippi in Factbook, I can find my way to a similar map, but Factbook doesn't appear by right clicking on Caesarea Phillipi in the Bible.

Doc B

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1278199#Comment_1278199

Regarding the Atlas, ideally, I could right click on a location in a Bible and get a context sensitive map in Atlas.

Exactly.

I suspect we are a bit spoiled by Google. For any location (business, town, etc.), there's a thumbnail of a map...when clicked, Google Maps opens with the location pinned. (two examples below)

I think Logos should work in a similar way. Since locations are already tagged, it shouldn't be a complete makeover to implement.

A double-click (desktop) or press-hold (mobile) on any location/city/area name in the Bible should have a popup menu that includes, "Show on Atlas," which of course would open the atlas with that location pinned.

Carlos Balderas

Thank you for the comments, I'll share this feedback with the team so we can keep improving our data and the way we present it.