Hidden Books: Consider moving into Library Prioritization

This statement does not make sense as books are hidden so that they can be physically removed from the installation and not appear in features where they could be used or listed.

This is true from how it currently works, and I would definitely be happy to see it moved outside of Settings and the UI improved if nothing else. However, I think it's a mistake to combine these two concepts as if it's necessary that they are one and the same. A user's desire to generally hide something because they usually don't want to interact with it / include it in search is not necessarily the same thing as what a user doesn't want to have downloaded.

If Hidden was a first-class concept, you could add an "Include Hidden" checkbox in Books search, for example. You're likely thinking you can accomplish this same thing with Collections. The difference is that "Hidden" would go beyond that. For instance, books in Hidden wouldn't show up in Factbook or be processed as content anywhere else the software might try and show additional / related info, but the books themselves would still be available as needed.

If I was to take this further, I'd say you introduce a higher-level concept of "Study Context". It would act like separate user profiles with an easy way to switch between them, and then you could have differing configurations of "Hidden" assigned to each context to constrain what resources are included based on your current study goals.

I don't believe you could ever achieve the scenario I laid out with "Include Hidden" or "Study Context" with Cloud Resources. The idea here is that you actually do have the books on your device, but you're managing when they're relevant to you.

I believe you still can't accomplish what I'm asking about. Books in collections are still processed by Factbook, used in Insights and other links, etc. If I want to be in "Staunchly Catholic" mode, my end goal would be that I'd be able to hide all the other non-Staunchly Catholic stuff such that it didn't show up in all the places it might show up, but I'm not looking to be permanently rid of those resources, either.

@Bradley Grainger (Logos) - I'm overloading the term which is causing mental friction here for long time users.

I think there are two concepts:

1) Books you never want to engage with ever - currently called Hidden but I think should be called "Ignored" or "Banished" or something like that. :) - it would be great to see the UI improved here for adding / removing and getting it out of its hiding place in Settings. They are still technically part of your library and should just have a way to reflect themselves in the Library (albeit tucked away and out of sight).

2) Books you don't want bleeding into your current study context (but in a different study context you might) - these are the ones I'm calling "Hidden". They should still be on my device. If you loaded one directly from the Library, it would open up, but it doesn't influence any of the features that feed content or navigation like Insights Panel, Factbook, etc.

As an aside, you mentioned hiding a book being simple from the Library. If I right-click a resource in the Library, the option I see is labeled "Remove from this device". I'm assuming this is what you're referring to as hidden? If so, I'd expect it to be labeled "Add to Hidden Books" as that's what the current section in Program Settings is called (or, alternatively, change "Hidden Books" in "Program Settings to "Removed from this Device"

Clever… hiding the Hide option. 😂. I had no idea Ctrl-Right-Click would do anything - does it do anything elsewhere?

Got it, but I feel like this bolsters my position. At the point where you feel the need to add hidden menu items to accomplish something in your software, it's time for a full UX revisit of the feature and user goals.

"Hidden" books right now are more liked "Banished" or "Excommunicated" books. The implications of "Hidden" and the reality are vastly different. It should be rebranded and surfaced in a way (perhaps in the library) where you can communicate the intent and a user can manage it easily. I'd advocate you should reserve the use of the word "Hidden" to enable some of the context-related scenarios I proposed above even if you don't want to get to them right now.