Can we please separate notes and highlights

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358316#Comment_1358316

DMB

Agree. But they're too dug in. Work-arounds and complicatedness.

Morgan

Create a notebook 'Highlights' then right click through every highlighting style you use and have it send to that notebook by default. Tedious, but workable if you have only a limited palette you use.

Yasmin Stephen

This is my setup as well, and it works wonders for my sanity.

ASUNDER

At first I was upset that a highlight creates a note. But then realized what is the point of a highlight if I can't reference it later? Why did I highlight this passage?

Is this a coloring book? No, there is a reason to highlight. To bring to our attention things we find important. It's color coding for efficiency. Our mind processes colours faster than anything else. Having a note associated with a highlight that we can sort and filter later increases this efficiency.

The thing about this is like the "second brain" productivity gurus. They are great at curating information. But are often missing the critical aspect; the spirit of the action, not just the letter. As in, why are they doing this activity? There is the phenomenon of doing the easy things to check off our to-do list; "productivity strategies". But what is really going on is we are staying busy to make us feel productive, as a cloak to avoid the hard things, but to tell ourselves we are being productive. Keeping that dopamine drip going, but still spinning on the hamster wheel. Because the point about knowledge is to apply it. Not just to have it neatly sorted, to have it look nice and collecting dust on our shelf.

NichtnurBibelleser

Can we please separate notes and highlights

Could you create a poll for this?

Antony Brennan

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358316#Comment_1358316

Morgan is right. You can already send the highlights to any folder you choose. I don’t have notes and highlight mixed in the same folder unless I choose to.

The point is you highlight for one reason and attach notes for another- not to have them automatically mix within a specific folder that you created for a specific reason. Though my highlights and notes are for teaching reasons- it does not benefit the process to have them come out in a tangled mess.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358395#Comment_1358395

Again, I beg to differ. For some, there is no relationship between highlights and notes; for others, they are very closely linked. It is reasonable to request that the default be that highlights be in a separate notebook. It is not reasonable to ask that those who already have the notes and highlights as they want them - some combined, some separated, be messed up. I add notes to a highlight to explain why the element is highlighted precisely because I use them for teaching.

Jonathan Bradley

Once I learned about making separate highlighter pallettes that can be attached to specific notebooks…This is the way.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358433#Comment_1358433

so it’s not reasonable to have notes be notes- I’m making notes not highlighting.

Once again after $65k investment since 1995- I’m just except the fact it’s our way or the highway.

Thank you

@Whyndell Grizzard

so it’s not reasonable to have notes be notes- I’m making notes not highlighting.

What I said was that some people use notes in a way that notes are just notes - and that is fine for them. However, some of us take advantage of the fact that notes and highlights can be used in a combined manner - and that is fine as well. Any changes must reflect both types of users. One possible change that would assist the first group would be for the default to keep notes and highlights separate; people combining them would make the conscious choice to do so.

@MJ. Smith - I understand your thoughts… but will add that there needs to be a separation of Notes and Highlights. If Highlights can be made to go to a specific "notebook" (which they can) I think that will work to some degree. For those of us (me in specific) who don't use Highlights…. then we (I) view Highlights as a nuisance. I just don't like my bibles, books, etc. all marked up.

As to Notes…. I would love to see Logos work on the the formatting in Notes whereby we have better formatting, maybe something like we have in Sermon Editor.

Just my 2 cents… which now they want to do away with pennies… and I won't have 2 cents any longer…. shucks!!! lol 😎

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358316#Comment_1358316

@xnman

but will add that there needs to be a separation of Notes and Highlights.

I agree that users need to be able to separate notes and highlights (which they can do now) and they need to be able to combine them as they are logically united in data modeling (which they can do now). This is NOT a problem in the underlying architecture of the data. It is a problem of the user interface in that users are divided between two very different models in their heads - one that sees a highlight simply as a visual note and one that see a chasm between textual and visual notes. Any change should not affect the underlying data model which is sound, nor should it have any effect on the on the users who see visual and textual notes are closely related. What it must do is make it simpler for those who see a chasm between textual and visual notes to keep the two separate without having to give it any serious thought.

Mark

Can you give more detailed instruction on how to do this? What do you mean by right click through every highlight style and send that to notebook called highlighting?

Well I guess I have no idea what Logos is doing. I went to my notes file for Psalm 119 in which contains lessons, only to find all kinds of highlight entries where books relating to Psalm 119, as well bible references have now taken residence- 100's of them. So now I have had to delete all these highlights in order to clear them from my Notebook on the Psalm 119 lessons.

I'm to the point that the only way to use Notes is take 2 Prozac's, with a shot of Crown Royal and call my psychiatrist in the morning. (Sarcasm is meant)

select palette and select menu
at bottom of menu, select notebook
select notebook you want you highlights in

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358504#Comment_1358504

No need to delete them - move them as a group to another notebook. You probably have all your highlights set to go into the active notebook i.e. the notebook just used previously. Sorry its so stressful for you. I say a well-designed system should never require more than a strong cuppa tea.

MJ, I will look at this tomorrow afternoon- but from what I see this isn't efficient, nor what I want to spend a lot of time in.

Spent the day moving my notes to PBB file in Word, and creating a collection for them. Even though as I add to them I'll have to rebuild PBB, I will spend a lot less time than trying to constantly separate Notes and Highlights in Logos.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358487#Comment_1358487

@MJ. Smith Appreciate your suggested work around…. but it would be nice NOT to have to do all that. 😎

scooter

Be brave. In Canada, we haven't had pennies for many years, but still occasionally say 'Just my 2 cents.'

Our saying for the nickel is: 'He pinches a nickel till the little beaver screams.' for one who is cheap. The obverse side has said beaver on it.

scooter

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358504#Comment_1358504

I have read many of your posts over the years. On the Pro + Crown + psych eval made me laugh out loud.

Yeah, they SB separated unless one wants them together. And a highlight is not a note.

yeah just went through the so-called work- around, no way it’s a huge waste of time. So it’s back to making PBB’s. I will start with my current series on Ps. 119, then go back and redo several others.

I’m 70, so I to use my last 45 yrs wisely.

1Cor10 31

@Whyndell Grizzard

I understand your frustration, Whyndell. I don’t think you need to worry about anything fancy if you just want to get rid of highlights. Here is what I do…

I was in Psalm 119 today and since my Notes were going into a Notebook I created, my highlights were also going into the same Notebook (by design, your Highlight and Notes go into the latest Notebook that you’ve used). You can see my Notes and Highlights interspersed.

Picture1.jpg

I think this is what is frustrating you as you suddenly see a whole bunch of unintended and intended highlights sitting in your Notebook.

(A) To get rid of the highlights…

1. Go to the Notebook where you want to throw the highlights out.

2. Hit Ctrl+Left click on mouse to select the highlight you want. Make sure you click on the left part of the highlight, otherwise the highlight will open.

3. Hold the Ctrl Key (don’t let go like God never lets go of us). Then Left click on mouse on the next highlight. Keep doing that for all the highlights.

(If there are a bunch of highlights one after the other, you can use Shift+Down Arrow key to select them faster)

4. Once you’ve selected all the highlights to get rid of, Select “No Notebook” and hit “Apply Changes” at the bottom right corner. As far as I can recall, I didn’t create this “No Notebook”, but Logos has created this.

Picture2.jpg

5. I selected 120 notes to get rid of in 2min:15 sec, so this is not too time consuming, I think.

(B) To make sure Notes are not going to the wrong Notebook, I created “No Topic” Notebook, which is my default Notebook where all my Notes go. If I am studying something specific and I want to put my Notes into that Notebook, I select that Notebook before making Notes.

Hope this helps.

@1Cor10 31

Thank you for your post illustrating what was being missed by some. And please, everyone, setting your highlights to go to a particular notebook (or no notebook) is not a "work around", it is a necessary option that keeps the tool flexible enough to serve all users.

@Whyndell Grizzard —- Like I said with @MJ. Smith, I appreciate your work arounds… but really… I mean really, in a world of AI and whiz bang computers…. we gotta put up with software whereby we have to remember all quirky work arounds, just to make things work and appear the way we want to see them?

How about all of us users getting on board and requesting ( in one big voice together) that Logos make the software that works for us??? C'mon… what's wrong that concept? Logos wants to make their software better, we want it better…so what's the problem? Maybe because a bunch of us are willing to sit by and put up with mediocre software… As for me, I'm not in that camp. I think Logos should take Highlights out of Notes or make it so that if I choose to have Highlights that my Notes are not interfered with.

I fully understand that it may take time, I fully understand that until we get it the way we want it, that we need "work arounds" BUT… these work arounds should only be temporary. But with half of the people "content with having work arounds" then all we'll ever wind up with is mediocre software. And I for one, hope and pray that never happens in Logos.

I am me, and I approve this post! lol 😎

@xnman

I will try to get you to understand one last time - not everyone uses Logos like you, not everyone thinks of the data like you; not everyone uses Logos like @Harry Hahne ; not everyone thinks of the data like @Harry Hahne; not everyone uses Logos like me, not everyone thinks of the data like me. But anyone with a solid knowledge of data analysis and relational database design would understand that logically notes and highlights are variants of the same thing whether they are implemented that way or not - think standard, mathematical normalization rules.
Logos implementation must support (a) those who never want highlights mixed with notes and could care less where they are, (b) those who need to control and group highlights so they can turn them on and off - location vis a vis notes is irrelevant, and (c ) those who who need to control and group highlights and notes as a single unit. The current implementation achieves this. Any modification that does not achieve this is called "shafting your fellow Logosian in favor of your personal preference."

I suggest that people reframe the question as "I want my visual notes and my textual notes permanently separated. I don't want that separation to require any advanced knowledge on my part - I want it to "just work". I believe that those who wish to mingle visual notes and textual notes should have to do so explicitly. Therefore, please create a default notebook simply for the default of visual notes and require any other destination to be explicitly chosen - in the palette, right context menu …"

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358577#Comment_1358577

Thank you very well said :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358587#Comment_1358587

And to answer you- I don't want to have to get a degree in computer science just to use Logos. I'll say without reservation if Logos's mindset is "tough that's the way it's gonna be" then write me a check, Accordance is just around the corner.

You can close this thread had enough of Logos for this year already.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358554#Comment_1358554

Shaking my head as I do not understand why achieving the same end by a different means is controversial.

Ed Fernandez

Hello… Pardon me but I heard that acronym “PBB” mentioned a couple of times already… What does it stand for?

I have always wondered about notes and highlights, so I am enjoying reading you guys… and yes, a few LOLs here and there…

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358557#Comment_1358557

Personal Book Builder

Ed Fernandez

Thank you, I will have to come back and revisit this at some point.

ASUNDER

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358544#Comment_1358544

"Visiting Canada, I stepped off the plane and a strange looking fellow said, do you got a loonie?
Naturally I would have shot him. But then I was taught that they call it a loonie up there. Where I come from we call it a dollar cause it's worth a dollar." 😂
- Americans

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358478#Comment_1358478

I don't think it's like that "my way or the highway". People make the best products they can. This is just how the devs coded it, based on their best ability. We try and persuade them to give us different options for our own preferences.

@MJ. Smith ..

Wellll… in your "adult to child" posting (which you do regularly) … Quote: "But anyone with a solid knowledge of data analysis and relational database design would understand that logically notes and highlights are variants of the same thing whether they are implemented that way or not - think standard, mathematical normalization rules."

I definitely don't use Logos like you do, don't see Logos as you do, and don't want to. But in a world of databases, I worked with Sybase, Oracle, Prolog, and a couple of others …. which doesn't mean anything other than to say, with relational databases, one of the reasons they were created was to store data efficiently so that it could be presented to the customer the way the customer wanted it.

Your argument is "why don't we accept the merging of Notes and Highlights" (my quote) simply because you… who supposedly know more than little ole me, thinks for whatever reason, that it's the right thing to do.

To put it simply… I object! I see nothing wrong with there being a distinction between Notes and Highlights and I definitely, all the more, think there should be. Especially in a relational database world.

And I see nothing wrong with a discussion of the subject.

You would keep Logos as "mediocre program". Why not think outside the box and think of what it could become. But that does take a little bit of imagination…..

in my humble opinion… which I do believe I am allowed to express. Thank you very much! 😎

Edit:

I remember yours and my argument about "searching in Logos" … and I remember well how you argued to keep search the same. Now please, just think for a moment, if I had agreed with you and we left search in Logos like it was then? Logos would be a poor "mediocre program" as to what it is now. I am glad there are people that listen.

Lighten up… a program is made for customers…. Let the customers discuss it and have a voice in the matter.

@xnman

I am sorry that my style of communication makes you feel "talked down to". That is never my intention. I have explained in the past why my communication style is as it is — multiple autistic young adults in the family combined with a natural terse precision. (If you think I'm terse you should "hear" my cousin.) This has clearly resulted in a massive misunderstanding of positions. I am sorry that we have not learned to understand other each and will take a recognition of that failure forward.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358505#Comment_1358505

@MJ. Smith No problem. I normally appreciate the way you want to help people. Keep it up. 😎

Magistra

This is very helpful! Thank you.

David Paul

I'm coming late to this particular party, but I was just about to post a thread topic on this issue. Again, back in L3, you could create a note and give the note a visual markup. But you could also add additional markups to that note markup to create different visual effects. If, in the process of combining a few markups, you didn't get the kind of visual result you wanted (i.e. not enough contrast between foreground and background elements), you could erase the added markups and start over WITHOUT ERASING THE NOTE ALTOGETHER.

It now appears that erasing ANY PART of a combination of markup overlaps WILL ERASE EVERYTHING, INCLUDING THE NOTE ITSELF!! That is ridiculous…truly, truly ridiculous. NOTES MUST BE UNAFFECTED BY MARKUP CHANGES. Each note has one pinned markup (which can be changed), but any other overlayed markup CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DELETE THE NOTE ITSELF. It's crazy that I have to type such a comment.

Doc B

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358575#Comment_1358575

Gotta agree with MJ on this one. There are times I don't want HL in a notebook with my notes, but there are times where it is essential that they are in the same notebook. So I prefer the flexibility to the divorce.

Now, if they'll allow the anchors to show up when print/exporting the HLs, it'd be a really good tool.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1358945#Comment_1358945

So, you agree it better to have them separated, with the option to incorporate one with the other as you will, not the reverse, which is a royal, complicated pain, as it stands today it is not very intuitive.

EastTN

I'm fine with MJ's suggested framing of the problem:

I suggest that people reframe the question as "I want my visual notes and my textual notes permanently separated. I don't want that separation to require any advanced knowledge on my part - I want it to "just work". I believe that those who wish to mingle visual notes and textual notes should have to do so explicitly. Therefore, please create a default notebook simply for the default of visual notes and require any other destination to be explicitly chosen - in the palette, right context menu …"

We really do need a solution, though. I've completely stopped using the notes feature, because it simply doesn't work for me due to this single issue. This drastically reduces the value of Logos for my study.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1359327#Comment_1359327

why doesn't setting the highlighting palettes to default to a highlights only notebook not work for you? that is a piece that I don't understand.

EastTN

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1359379#Comment_1359379

Perhaps because I just haven't figured it out yet? I think you articulated where I am pretty well: "I don't want that separation to require any advanced knowledge on my part - I want it to "just work""

Some of this may well be user limitations on my part. I hope to be able to retire in the next few years, but for now, I still have a full-time secular job. I can do a lot with Logos, but there's a limit to how much time I can put into learning work arounds. A feature may be incredibly powerful, but if it doesn't "just work," it's not useful to me.

As an aside, MJ, I do want to thank you for all the time you put in with hints, tips and tricks, and just general problem solving. That's a huge contribution to the community.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1359390#Comment_1359390

Thanks, I agree that highlights should go into a separate notebook by default precisely because users who do not understand the feature are left in the best position to set it as they want it when they do understand.

My thinking…. let Highlights go to Highlights notebook by default. No confusion, no mess, simple, easy peezy. 😎 Problem solved.

Much of the confusion, etc. is because the Hightlights blend in with Notes… but making Highlights have a default place to go solves the problem. Then users can move them as they wish.