A lot of work has gone into the venerable Factbook to curate information from your library. As it is changing, how often do you use it?
I love the Factbook since it best represents what Logos has always been for me personally - a Gigantor Encyclopaedia! 😁💪👍️
I wish there had been an option between "every day" and "occasionally." I can't say EVERY day, but most days.
I agree. After I set it up, I wanted to tweak it to add something in between, but I think once a poll is under way you can’t change it.
I had given up on Factbook and stopped using it altogether. Just didn't help me. Lately, I'm trying it out again and I do find it helps somewhat with looking up things, stuff. So I answered "occasionally".
I TRY it occasionally, but usually empty. My layout plus pre-defined search panels are quicker.
I don't use it every day, but I use it more days than not.
Would you share a picture of your most useful layout?
The Factbooks is quite good. It's not often the tool I am looking for, but when I am, there is nothing equal to it.
I use it everyday. Disappointed occasionally but still use it.
Oops … quoted GaoLu's 2nd entry.
"Most useful", but only one layout, by window:
My Verbum is like an organized office; each volume/tool quickly at hand. Supports my own Bible app (neurals, etc), with Accordance adding graphics mainly (mapping, timelines, mss's, etc).
Accordance adding graphics mainly (mapping, timelines, mss's, etc).
Nice. Would love to see a screenshot of your layout. Sounds very optimised. I use Accordance for maps too. Also for some types of search. Would love to see Logos maps be reimagined.
We're getting off your Factbook vote, a bit. Though I'd argue a good layout and search-strategy is more efficient than Factbook. Below is my Accordance. For all practical purposes, the mapping and timelines stay in-place on the left, with the right, being my recent purchases or imagery. Not tremendously impressive but works for me. When Kristin argues for workspaces, I'd like to see hers (how she uses them).
I especially like the mapping. Maybe it's growing up in the American 'west', where roads and trails avoid hills/mountains, and water is a criticality. 'Where Paul walked' would not have been easy-going. Plenty of time to think.
As you can see above, I'm completely 'lost' on quoting. I don't think Jason's used to dealing with oldies (joking).
That’s cool @DMB ! 👍What does you Logos layout look like that complements that?
Its name says what it must be, but 'No.'
I mostly forget I have one.
I am subscriptionLESS.
As to GaoLu above, there's a lot of windows! Since you're OL-ish, below is my Old Testament window. Just to illustrate 'the power of Logos!!' and some of my favorite power-features:
Nice! I love learning how others learn and do research! Thanks for sharing! 🔥
I use Factbook every time I open Logos. There are some gaps in the data, but it is getting better all the time.
I find I am using it more and more. I just keep forgetting how amazing it is, and I haven't played around with it enough to have made it a habit. I intend to use it more regularly.
I hover over words for more information regularly.
I find myself using it a lot more than I used to, as it seems to have been configured now to come up with more useful and targeted answers than the original version, which I felt was a good concept but not very well executed. I think that the improvements mentioned by Mark that have come through in v38 and those he mentioned as being planned for coming versions, together with making Summarisation available in more areas (Lenses?) of it will make it an increasingly useful tool.
It's useful for broad topics that and introductory material. It's nice to help get the toes wet before digging into a more detailed search.
For study on specific passages I'd rather keep my passage guide and other layouts.
Occasionally (really rather infrequently)
I sometimes find it useful to find initial introductory material on a topical subject or background information on a specific individual. It's not part of my exegetical workflow.
So, today I was in 2 Samuel 15. For some reason, I decided to "right click" on the word Absalom, 2Sa 2:2, and use Factbook, to find out more about Absalom. I was hoping to see his wife, his children, maybe what he did in life… And once again I was disappointed or else I don't know how to use Factbook. Factbook seemed to focus on the "Hebrew word" of Absalom and not about Absalom. Like I said, I'm not a diligent user of Factbook so I may not know all the ins and outs of Factbook. But, again, I was disappointed…. and moved on.
Edit: Meant to say also… I just went to Search and found what I was looking for.
Edit 2: To be fair…. I opened Factbook then typed in "Absalom" and chose "Absalom (Son of David)" and it worked… Just got to remember not to do the "right clicking" on a work in the bible and choose Factbook. lol
What about it disappoints you?
Factbook, like everything else in the right click menu, runs based on the left column. If you select the lemma, it will run Factbook on the lemma. If you select Absalom the person, it will run on that.
I put every day but, like others, it was because that better describes my use than "occasionally."
I use it up to several times a week in sermon preparation. Not quite every day, but I would say more than "occasionally" seems to imply.
Same here. Facebook has gotten better and better since it was introduced several years ago.
I have found (or not found) items that I expect to be present in Factbook are not present. For example, I entered "Recollection" into Factbook and I received a good entry/definition from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. I was content and then I went down to the 'Books from Your Library' section and get no results. Yet, I know I have books and resources that discuss "Recollection". Also, I have clicked on the Today on Christian History card at times on the Explore section of my desktop and in some cases there are no entries. I would expect there to be something if the card is created. For example today on Karl Barth, there is information. This is not the case all the times but sometimes…hence, I use it practically everyday but sometimes I am disappointed.
I know it is a work in progress…just imagine the amount of data/information to input.
KSC
Ah yes, that's less of a factbook issue and more of a resource issue meaning the resources you are using for that topic aren't tagged resources.
I like it, but same as post above doesn't pick up all my books in my library on certain topics or searches. I was wondering if it has to do with Factbook tags? I am not sure what those are. For example, i have a book Life and times of the Messiah another book and two other books The New manners and Customs of the bible and Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible and some others. I put Palestine in the factbook search and the Life and times did not show up and I know it has chapters, etc. on that topic. However, the last two Manners books came up in the search. Was wondering if I need to do anything to cause books to be searched in Factbook?
Also, no map, charts came up in the search. I did get many Dictionaries which likely have charts. But the Factbook search doesn't seem reliable to search all your books and resources.
The search on Palestine was just a test I was using to see how many of my books would be included. Many seemed to be missed.
Pendeta
@xnman
Just got to remember not to do the "right clicking" on a work in the bible and choose Factbook. lol
No, you need to select lemma or person on the left side before clicking for Factbook. You ALWAYS have to check the left side tab before choosing the right side action.
It does have to do with factbook tags and whether a resource has had factbook tagging added to it or not.
I have found (or not found) items that I expect to be present in Factbook are not present. For example, I entered "Recollection" into Factbook and I received a good entry/definition from The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. I was content and then I went down to the 'Books from Your Library' section and get no results.
I have found (or not found) items that I expect to be present in Factbook are not present. For example, I entered "Recollection" into Factbook and I received a good entry/definition from
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
I was content and then I went down to the 'Books from Your Library' section and get no results.
This is a misunderstanding of the purpose of the "From Your Library" section.
Rather than showing a list of books that mention the subject on the page, this is showing a list of books that are predominantly about that subject. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church definitely would not qualify as such for the subject of "Recollection". I've noticed that the help file doesn't make this clear, and I asked for this to be updated.
I used it a little at first, but now that I see they are actively putting information and functionality into it, it makes sense to use it whenever you are beginning to trace names, places, and other background info. It's really like a relay switch to deep dive into your library.
Thanks, good to know! I did find the search for topic at bottom of the factbook to be real helpful and it seems to do a much greater search string than my normal searches. It pulled 100's of article's etc fom a ton of my books even the Life and Times of the Messiah.
So, I will be using the Factbook more often and using the search at the bottom of the Factbook.
Thanks again!
Every day
Yeah using the expanded search at the bottom of each entry can be extremely useful. Glad that helped.
I have tried Factbook several times, but it just doesn't produce the information I am looking for. One big problem (feature) with Factbook is that it pulls information from books in my library. I own a number of books that contain bad or misleading information. Factbook doesn't know which books I trust and which ones I don't. Factbook isn't able to discern.
I feel like Factbook and many other tools have made Logos a bloated software package. I wish Logos was modular so that people could add on the features they wanted as modules. Also, my library should be independent of the Logos version I'm running. Instead, it seems I'm forced to use the latest version of Logos in order to use the latest version of a few of my books (like BDAG).
I rarely use it but then I rarely think about it. There are a couple of issues that might help. Turning on the factbook links breaks too much click and double click functionality to be useful to me. I might think about it more (and thus use it ore) if right clicking on a word provided a more obvious link than the current select the factbook title on the left side and then a visible factbook search option appears on the right. Not sure why add factbook tags is so prominent as I can't see that is used constantly as compared to just looking something up in factbook. Lastly, what I think would make factbook most valuable to me is a notes or other section on each entry that lets me add my own notes, references/links, clippings, media to any entry that syncs to all my machines. This would make factbook immensely more useful to me as it would become somewhat of a research and study hub.
It's sort of hit-and-miss for me. I just looked up "Complementarianism" and there's no key article, no journal articles, no books from my library, and only one dictionary. I'm sure as more tags are added it'll become more useful.
I tried "Complementarianism" and the results are most anemic. LBD had an article. Oddly, I show no Journal entries yet Factbook Tags produced something like 80 hits, all from journals. That's a start. An "All" search does a terrible job. Almost entirely books from the store, but almost nothing from my library. A "Books" Smart search does poorly but produces results. A "Books" Precise search does a great job and produces the results I want.
Ok, I've been reading about Factbook… and thinking maybe I am just not getting what Factbook really does. I'm like that sometimes. So…
I fire up Factbook and type in "Parable of the vineyard" in quotes, and press enter. Factbook thinks I want to know about some kind of vineyard…. not about the parable about the vineyard. So I get all kinds of information, which is not relevant to what I asked about.
So Factbook failed again. Am I being to unrealistic about Factbook? 🤔
Logos calls it Laborers in the Vineyard (edit: I see Graham has a different name. Maybe it uses the heading from your top Bible?). I find it easier to type in the keyword "vineyard" and then click on the one I want.
Try just entering vineyard and selecting the option you want from the dropdown
Imagine if AI could figure it out.
@Graham Criddle - Thanks again! I guess my lack of using Factbook caught me up. I will try to use it more. Thanks again!
My factbook use is more then occasional but not every time. I am finding Factbook a one stop shop that eliminates the need to start with other tools and features directly.
