Highlighting Methods

Joey Midgett · 2025-04-04T10:42:17+00:00

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I know this discussion has been raised before, maybe hundreds of times, but I just wanted to see how everyone else uses their highlights. I know some are very simple and some can be quite complex.

Do you rather go for something simple, or do you mark it up with all kinds of highlights signifying different topics and or questions?

Do you use notebooks for your highlights? I mean, I know they are all in fact notes, but do you just leave them in "No Notebook" Or do you have them all in a certain notebook, or do you have separate notebooks for certain types of notes?

Just trying to get a feel for what other people do, as my method has been quite random and chaotic with no real organization, and I want to try to get some kind of organized method going.

Simple answers as well as your complex methods are welcome.

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NichtnurBibelleser

I use the following for over 20 years now in any book/text I work throught:

yellow: any (substantial) reference to place/time
red: Person(s)
blue: technical terms
green: title of literary works (or title of movie, painting etc.)
orange: motifs/themes
brown: (church) history
pencil wavy line: statements I question or I disagree with

NichtnurBibelleser

From this I built some Dynamic Visual Filters which allow me to ´see´ the Highlights in a new book in Logos without having to add them manually. You can find them here (scroll down).

Francis

I use multiple Notebooks to differentiate between note types. The big divisions I use are essentially:

Bible notes: notes on the Biblical text itself, attached to references. I use a specific icon and color for these and no highlight. The idea is to be able to see there is note with the icon and read/edit them as needed without cluttering the biblical text too much. While it is possible to toggle visual indicators on and off, this approach is a happy medium for me.

Topical notes: studies on various topics. I do use an icon and color combination although it does not matter a great deal because I do not typically attach them to a resource. I could possibly do so with Factbook tags.

Articles/Books notes: my comments and notes as I read pretty much everything else beside the Bible. I use a different icon color and typically an underline highlight to show what part of the text I am commenting on.

Various projects notebooks: when I need to keep a lot of notes on a project, I may create a notebook for it. For instance, I have an ongoing study on ancient law codes that I return to from time to time. It would be inconvenient to have these notes as "articles/books" notes because I'd have to filter each time by the several resources involved if I wanted to revisit these specific notes. So in this case, I find it more useful to group them in their own notebook.

I have other notebooks that I use but less consistently: notes on evangelism, notes on discipleship, notes on application, homiletical notes, teaching notes. These tend to be attached to Bible verses and so do not really fit with my approach in Topical Notes, although there can be overlap. I do use them but the others above are my regular go-to's.

I have also used labels and more complex highlights. However, I have largely moved on from more elaborate marking systems as I don't like the clutter and this sort of interaction with the text is not my learning style preference. The one I would really recommend is numbers: I have [1], [2], [3] all the way to 9 as styles in one of my palettes with shortcuts being the corresponding numbers on the keyboard. These are really handy to add numbering to a text when helpful.

I also use highlights with no notebook but keep it simple. Most of the time, I prefer to use an underline as it is less cluttering than highlighter pens styles. I do use the latter when I want the selection to stand out more: yellow for a normal standout, red for a critical standout.

DMB

Simple here: yellow/interesting, orange/excellent-point, red/terrible-logic.

Mainly, I just want to enhance the visual cortex > brain. Later I erase all my highlights; when I re-read a book, I want the author's thoughts … not mine.

I also have dynamic highlighting, like Nichtnur (same link, near top): https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1356729

Theophan Dort

I mostly just use a yellow highlighter, and rarely a red one for disagreement, and my purpose usually is to highlight main points that I can skim in reviewing at a later date, so I can remind myself, get the "gist" of it, and delve deeper when I need to. I sometimes add a red underline to the yellow highlighting for really important points that meant a lot to me and that I especially want to draw my attention on reviewing.

But I also found this article very interesting, and I did borrow his technique for marking inline lists with numbered highlights: Mark Ward - How to Highlight a Book Like a Bible Nerd.

scooter

Although the Q is answered, I will leave a comment.

I use multiple different colours for the same idea. I get tired of the same colour used thru-out.

God is: purple, purple underline, pink double underline, grey w/ pink underline, grey w/ different pink underline + wine underline.

'This is wrong' has many, many options. Grey [no line under]. Different mixes of colour I make from green, orange, gray [as spelled by L] + brown. Sometimes a para. needs 2 wrong-o colours: I disagree w/ both assessments, but wish to see them separately……You can overlay a mix of colours on the spot: go to 'Solid Colors' + throw down a couple.

I made up many hi-lite squares for category 'super-important.'

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1365371#Comment_1365371

Artist!

Joey Midgett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1365371#Comment_1365371

Thanks everybody for all the ideas. And, Scooter the Q isn't answered as I was really looking for all kinds of different ideas. Still haven't settled on one yet.

scooter

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1365387#Comment_1365387

Way in the past I used grey as a + underline. I reread old books and find this outdated use. Now, grey is [-].

'Still haven't settled on' seems to mean you are still experimenting.

Possible idea: Pick one of your books that you would almost assuredly will never read. Experiment on it. Take a subject. Try 3 different colours on it, one below the other…………Which one is most comfortable for your eyes. Ex: purple is too intense for me, so I use it sparingly for God.