Who primarily uses Logos Notes for their bible notes?
I'm thinking of going completely digital with my notes so that rather than having a scattered mess of notes in a journal, I can instead somehow organise them all digitally eg. All my notes on Genesis are in the same Notebook rather than different journals, or I can highlight questions I have in a certain colour etc.
I would love to get any ideas and methods on both general note taking (my method is quite pathetic) and the use of the Logos software, anything that might help me come up with a good note taking system.
Feel free to show me images of your notebook/note setup, any help appreciated 
"Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:6
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I once kept noteworthy quotes in a physical notebook, but the more I used Logos, the more I use it to organize my notes. My system isn't great, but it works for me, and I've been doing it for so long I can't change now. I link quotes and articles to Bible passages. So, for example, Micah 6:8 is the place I keep anything related to social justice. Debate about the creation is linked to Genesis 1:1. The downside is after several years, there are dozens of links and its not very manageable, but you can search through My Documents. I still have a filing cabinet of notes from seminary, organized by Bible passage, doctrine, and topics, but I consult it less and less. Something like Evernote would be great for that, but I'm not interested in all the time necessary to convert those files. I think I remember some people on this forum using a combination of Logos notes and then a digital note storage provider like Evernote.
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I use a different notebook within Logos notes for each book of the Bible. I link the individual notes within each notebook to whatever chapter, pericope, passage, verse or word/words for which the notes are relevant. The individual notes within each notebook contain text from my thoughts, commentaries and other resources in Logos, and/or other resources or information from sources outside of the Logos environment. Most of these notes are linked only to selected text ("selection") in my preferred Bible, but I also frequently link them to a given Bible "reference" so that they will appear in other translations and resources, when I want notes to be visible across my library for references to a given verse or passage. I have other notes and notebooks I use within Logos as well, but that is the system I use for Bible notes. YMMV, but it works for me. [:)].
In general, beyond your Bible notes, if you are trying to move beyond physical notebooks, take a look at Microsoft OneNote. Free + cross-platform = a good combination.
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I have tried to use Logos Notes several times but I find the Logos notes feature to be cumbersome, and more so with each "improvement". I use MSWord and have my notes organized by the book of the Bible or category of systematic theology. I also have a set of notes organized by Biblical theology.
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I do use Logos notes for bible notes. The way that I keep them is by having different notebooks for different purposes. This way I can hide or show different ones at different times and not get overwhelmed by note indicators. I also use different colors and icon shapes for different purposes (though I'm not 100% consistent with this and the system has changed over the years).
Some of my different journal types are
- "Quotes" (where I compile things others have said about the passage that I found particularly helpful or good. This is a wonderful use especially to use when wanting to store good quotes from books you read so that you will find them next time you study or read a particular passage),
- "prayers" (prayers in response to passages),
- "journal" (more devotional responsive observations),
- "questions" (just document questions, concerns, issues, tentative observations...more freeform not conclusions),
- "interpretations" (more commentary style. Use hyperlinks to link to diagram documents)
- Cross references (a note filled with cross references and links to passage lists)
- Word study (word study observations and conclusions and I often use hyperlinks to link to word study documents and books.
Logos has improved greatly over the years. I did move away from it and used OneNote for a few years. I regret those years as the notes I took during those times are largely "lost" to my daily interaction. I can find them but it is an extra step I just don't do...or I don't even know to do it. THe great thing about having your notes in Logos is that you are reminded of their existence in the context of interacting with a passage they are referencing. Being able to have multiple anchors for a single notes has only improved their utility.
Jacob Hantla
Pastor/Elder, Grace Bible Church
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Notes works easiest when the note is about a particular biblical passage b/c it can be anchored to it.
To anchor a note to a topic, you can use tags. Create a new tag for each topic you want to track for future reference.
I don't try to be too systematic with notes and instead rely on the filtering tools in the panel on the left to filter out what I want to find. Without filters, the notes look chaotic.
But as soon as you filter out highlights, it starts to look more sensible.
HTH
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Genghis said:
Notes works easiest when the note is about a particular biblical passage b/c it can be anchored to it.
To anchor a note to a topic, you can use tags. Create a new tag for each topic you want to track for future reference.
I don't try to be too systematic with notes and instead rely on the filtering tools in the panel on the left to filter out what I want to find. Without filters, the notes look chaotic.
But as soon as you filter out highlights, it starts to look more sensible.
HTH
I agree. This is the way I have come to use Notes in Logos. Works for me.
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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Dan Starcevich said:
I have tried to use Logos Notes several times but I find the Logos notes feature to be cumbersome, and more so with each "improvement".
Same.
I like having the indication of a note in Logos, but found the system of various notes within notebooks mixed with highlights too difficult to maintain. I've experimented with various notetaking applications such as Evernote or DevonThink.
I've settled on the plain text editor Obsidian as plain text will be around until Jesus returns and can be read by any text editor/word processor. I've lost too many documents to formats that changed and are no longer compatible or apps that would not export well. Obsidian has a system of links & backlinks to navigate between various notes. I have a folder for each book of the Bible and a note for each chapter. Headings allow me to link to specific passages or verses. Marking tags allows me to search & group various themes.
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When I first started with Logos Notes, I didn't set up right. I didn't understand tags and thus didn't use them. When I learned how handy they are and how much they add to Notes... I went back through all my notes and worked out a "tag system" for me.
Now, tags are simplified, easy and manageable..... for me at least. I open Notes, search for the topic (tag) I want and walla.... I'm on my way. KISS works. [8-|]
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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Logos probably qualifies as the place I "primarily use" for Bible notes. It's not the only place, but when I want notes integrated with Logos, then Logos is the best place.
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Back in 2012 when I made the decision to go all digital for ministry resources that included print notebooks are no longer needed. I have been using Logos Notes exclusively since 2012. I am grateful it's gotten better over time.
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Dan, completely agree. That's why I preferred WS - simple, not just for notes but many other tasks.
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Are there some good training video on Notes?
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Dave M said:
Are there some good training video on Notes?
https://support.logos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017978372-Notes-Tool would be a good place to start
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I use MS Word- Logos notes is to cumbersome, I like a simplified system.
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For many years any notes I have taken - biblical or against other resources - has been done virtually exclusively in Logos.
(The exclusion is that I have a number of things I try to include in my morning devotional time and I have found it easiest to work through a template in OneNote. This includes a Bible reading, so I copy the text for that day into OneNote and make notes there and then copy them immediately back into Logos).
I don't particularly have a well thought out system but have found it very benefical for a number of reasons:
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Graham Criddle said:
For many years any notes I have taken - biblical or against other resources - has been done virtually exclusively in Logos.
(The exclusion is that I have a number of things I try to include in my morning devotional time and I have found it easiest to work through a template in OneNote. This includes a Bible reading, so I copy the text for that day into OneNote and make notes there and then copy them immediately back into Logos).
I don't particularly have a well thought out system but have found it very benefical for a number of reasons:
Are you going to give us the reasons?
"Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:6
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nl said:
Are you going to give us the reasons?
Sorry - I did type them but they disappeared!
- Getting a visual prompt when reading a passage that I have made notes on it before
- Automatically creating links to Bible passages when entering references in a note
- Being able to include links to other Logos resources within a note
- The ability to add labels to highlights to provide extra annotations on a passage and use these as the basis for searching
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Graham Criddle said:nl said:
Are you going to give us the reasons?
Sorry - I did type them but they disappeared!
- Getting a visual prompt when reading a passage that I have made notes on it before
- Automatically creating links to Bible passages when entering references in a note
- Being able to include links to other Logos resources within a note
- The ability to add labels to highlights to provide extra annotations on a passage and use these as the basis for searching
Very much agree with the first 2, and is a main reason I'm moving to Logos Notes
Could you expand on these last 2 points? How can I link a logos resource in a note?
What do you mean by the last point?
"Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:6
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nl said:
Could you expand on these last 2 points? How can I link a logos resource in a note?
We can copy a block of text from a resource into a note - and that automatically creates a link to it
Or we can use the link button in the toolbar to add a direct link to a place in a resource - using the Copy as URL option from the panel menu
and then selecting a word to add the link to:
and pasting the copied link:
That word in the note is then linked to the specific place in the resource
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nl said:
What do you mean by the last point?
The general use of labels is described at https://support.logos.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028814371-Using-Labels
I don't use them heavily but found them very useful when studying how the disciples learned from watching and listening to Jesus as told in the Gospels.
I created a highlighting palette with some highlights including labels denoting specific actions:
and then, when reading the text, I applied labels as appropriate.
When I come to those passages I can see that indicated. Here, I thought that the disciples were both listening and observing
and I can use Logos Search features (here I am using an Inline Search) to find all such occurrences
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Hey Paul
Is it possible to make exterbal links from Obsidian to Logos?
Ole
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Ole W. Jakobsen said:
Hey Paul
Is it possible to make exterbal links from Obsidian to Logos?
Ole
Yes, Obsidian uses markdown format for links and formatting plain text.
I link using the L4 format instead of the URL. In this example, clicking Genesis 1 in the square brackets links to Genesis 1 in NASB:
[Genesis 1](logosres:nasb95;ref=BibleNASB95.Ge1)
The URL format looks like this:
[Genesis 1](https://ref.ly/logosres/nasb95?ref=BibleNASB95.Ge1)
You can find the Logos link by clicking the three dots in the top right of the resource you are using & clicking "Copy Location As" or use the keyboard shortcut (CMD-OPT-C on a Mac).
The link in Obsidian will not show a preview, but clicking it takes you to the resource.
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Dan Starcevich said:
I use MSWord and have my notes organized by the book of the Bible or category of systematic theology.
Dan in your opinion would it be worth to turn MSWord notes into Personal Book?
I am not sure if notes are searchable, at least with a PB proximity search can be used.
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I keep all of my Bible study notes in Logos. Whether its an anchor text or tags, even notes in commentaries or other books, if I take a note on a specific passage, I can see all other linked passages it paints a bigger picture of context.
I use AmpleNote for my system of productivity. It allows me to create back links for my personal and professional knowledge manager.
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Yes I think it would be. BTW, I am doing this way because I started taking notes in Word before I started using Logos in 1998. If I were going to do it again I would probably make more use of the Notes feature.
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Yes I think it would be. BTW, I am doing this way because I started taking notes in Word before I started using Logos in 1998. If I were going to do it again I would probably make more use of the Notes feature.
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Graham Criddle said:
When I come to those passages I can see that indicated. Here, I thought that the disciples were both listening and observing
Graham this is really cool. Every day is a school day. This opens up all sort of possibilities to create atomic observations and link them. I am going to have to play with thisL
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Yes, I use it all the time but not in a sophisticated way. But over the years, they become a kind of commentary in themselves.
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I use Notebooks because I can tag my notes and they are searchable.
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Ole W. Jakobsen said:
Hey Paul
Is it possible to make exterbal links from Obsidian to Logos?
Ole
I use Obsidian as my main driver of notes. I use Logos Notes to curate and build study products, particularly at an atomic note / Zettlekasten level, then blend them together in Obsidian with other stuff, particularly driven by ReadWise Reader. There are too many articles and books that are not in Logos. e.g. Last night I was looking at some Dallas Willard books. They are available in the Kindle, but not in Logos. I read, clip and make notes in Kindle, then this is automatically fed into Obsidian. I clip books in Logos, but I have to manually export them as RTF, then convert them to MarkDown. It is easy to do, but manual. There is a feedback to create interoperability with ReadWise here: (the 4th most requested feature on the desktop)
https://feedback.logos.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/send-highlights-to-readwise
The exception to this is Bible studies on the texts. Most of this resides in Logos. When I have notes that I want to factor into something I am pulling together in Obsidian, I make a deep link to the note in Obsidian. Unfortunately, Logos will not allow me to deep link back and in this way, it is a bit of a walled garden in that it does not honour standard MacOS links. I also do some of my work in personal books and I index the word files back into DevonThink, which then allows me to make associations with my Obsidian files in global searches and AI references.
Here is my current workflow at a high level. I used to use Zotero, but as I am not currently engaged in formal studies and need a reference manager, I just use DevonThink.
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xnman said:
When I first started with Logos Notes, I didn't set up right. I didn't understand tags and thus didn't use them. When I learned how handy they are and how much they add to Notes... I went back through all my notes and worked out a "tag system" for me.
Now, tags are simplified, easy and manageable..... for me at least. I open Notes, search for the topic (tag) I want and walla.... I'm on my way. KISS works.
I use the same kind of notes and tag system XNMAN mentions. Notebook are my top level catagories and tags are my sub
A few years ago I came across the “Your Content“ feature in the Guides tool. You can use it to search your notes for mentions of bible verses. But you can also connect it to your Bible using the Link Set and then if you have it open next to your Bible as you scroll through it surfaces notes you have made where you have referenced the Bible verses you are looking at. It even shows up notes where you have only typed in the verse reference but haven’t anchored it to the text.
You can also use the Favourites Tool to organise your as well as organise links to almost every other tool Logos provides like searches, layouts, guides, locations in resources, and external web links. You can create folders and subfolders and organise your current research really effectively.
I learned about that from Michel Pauw, in a video he made when Logos 10 was released. He mentions it at 9.34 mins in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRKpFoHzT48👁️ 👁️
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Antony Brennan said:
A few years ago I came across the “Your Content“ feature in the Guides tool. You can use it to search your notes for mentions of bible verses. But you can also connect it to your Bible using the Link Set and then if you have it open next to your Bible as you scroll through it surfaces notes you have made where you have referenced the Bible verses you are looking at. It even shows up notes where you have only typed in the verse reference but haven’t anchored it to the text.
I learned about that from Michel Pauw, in a video he made when Logos 10 was released. He mentions it at 9.34 mins in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRKpFoHzT48
Definitely "Your Contents" looks interesting. Didn't know about it. Thanks!
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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