what is the best way to organize highlights?

Kristin · 2025-05-22T04:58:40+00:00

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I am having some confusion about highlights and how they interact with notebooks. In case it matters, I have several notebooks regarding different classes and topics, and I do export them and sort them by reference.

My understanding is that if I highlight something and the highlight is in a notebook, that it will also be included in the export notebook export. So to prevent this, I need to make sure the highlights are not in the notebook. I also heard someone say that highlights should be in "No Notebook." Is this correct?

That all said, I am working with a specific book and I have a notebook for this book. When I select text and create a note, it goes in my notebook for that book without an issue. However, if I then highlight a word in the book, that random yellow highlight ALSO goes in the notebook. I then need to select it and move it to "No Notebook" and continue reading.

So I guess I have a couple questions.

Am I correct that highlights should be in "no notebook" since they will otherwise be exported with the rest of the anchors and notes?
Is how I am doing it where I just select each highlight and move it every time to get it out of the main notebook the most efficient? I am hoping there is a better way since it is sort of distracting to stop my work and move the highlight to "no notebook" every 30 seconds.

I create a lot of notes and also a lot of highlights, so I want to make sure I am doing this correctly before I get too deep into it. Any clarity about the above questions and any insight regarding highlights in general would be appreciated.

Thank you.

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Kristin

So I guess I have a couple questions.

Am I correct that highlights should be in "no notebook" since they will otherwise be exported with the rest of the anchors and notes?
Is how I am doing it where I just select each highlight and move it every time to get it out of the main notebook the most efficient? I am hoping there is a better way since it is sort of distracting to stop my work and move the highlight to "no notebook" every 30 seconds.

Thank you.

Kristin

So I guess I have a couple questions.

Am I correct that highlights should be in "no notebook" since they will otherwise be exported with the rest of the anchors and notes?
Is how I am doing it where I just select each highlight and move it every time to get it out of the main notebook the most efficient? I am hoping there is a better way since it is sort of distracting to stop my work and move the highlight to "no notebook" every 30 seconds.

Thank you.

Jonathan Bradley

Kristin,

I've never done anything with exporting notebooks, so I don't have much feedback there. For what purpose would you be exporting a notebook out of Logos? (Pardon my ignorance!).

The answer to keeping highlights out of a notebook is to create a specific highlighting palette and set it to put the highlights into the "no notebook" option.

NB.Mick

Am I correct that highlights should be in "no notebook" since they will otherwise be exported with the rest of the anchors and notes?

No. As far as I know, exporting from a notebook will always only export the selected notes. If you filter the notebook to only notes and then select all, the export will not have any highlights in it.

Kristin

I've never done anything with exporting notebooks, so I don't have much feedback there. For what purpose would you be exporting a notebook out of Logos? (Pardon my ignorance!).

Hi @Jonathan Bradley,

Regarding exporting, thb, my issues with Accordance left a real impact on me. I had written years worth of notes in Accordance. If I printed it it would be a book a few inches think. Then the notes started corrupting. I had heard of data corruption as a concept, but I never knew what it meant until I experienced it. Tech support was not able to undo the damage, and it left me very fearful of my work not being safe. I then decided to export all of my notes to preserve them, and realized Accordance had an import function, but not an export function. I then spent the next few YEARS exporting my notes by hand. This was time consuming and also gave me carpel tunnel in my right hand. So I started exporting them using my left hand and got carpel tunnel there also. Then I FINALLY got them exported. Some was exported how I wanted, and some less elegantly, but it is thankfully all on my computer. So then before I even considered adding ANY notes to Logos, I made sure there was an export function. I have been assured by multiple people that notes don't corrupt here, but the experience really left an impression on me. I thus periodically export my notes just to make sure they are safe. I know Logos notes has their issues (not being defaulted to sort by biblical reference, doesn't scroll in parallel, anchors need to be added one at a time, etc), but even with its quirks it is a FAR better system. I love the anchors and how I can use different icons for different notebooks. I thus feel for the first time in years that I have the chance to organize my notes. So that is the story of needing to export them. :)

No. As far as I know, exporting from a notebook will always only export the selected notes. If you filter the notebook to only notes and then select all, the export will not have any highlights in it.

Thank you for clarifying this. I did not know this since I got the highlights out of the notebook before I exported them, but I will keep this in mind. I think moving them to no notebook likely makes the most sense though since they also clog the notebook visually when it is open to the side. I know I can filter them out, but the problem is that the notes don't remember biblical sort and filtering preferences and it needs to be re-done every time, which is not practical.

Jonathan Bradley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1370180#Comment_1370180

@Kristin, that is a good reason to export notes. I had only ever mildly used accordance, and a couple other types of Bible Software; I have been using Logos for the bulk of my time using Bible software. That is a legitimate concern, the loss of notes, and being able to keep a copy of them outside of the software is, I think, a great idea. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Randall Cue

Hi @Kristin . It is good to see you here. I appreciate the questions you ask.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Randy

Kristin

Hi @Kristin . It is good to see you here. I appreciate the questions you ask.

Thank you, that is kind of you to say. :)