New: Smart Synopsis Improvements

We’ve made a series of updates to Smart Synopsis to help you get more value from your study and research. The improvements focus on making summaries clearer, easier to follow, and more reliable, so you can spend less time piecing information together and more time understanding the material.

What’s New?

Clearer, more accurate summaries – Synopses now better capture the key points from your sources.
Easier to follow references – Supporting citations are highlighted more clearly, so you can see exactly where the information comes from.

These improvements make it easier to understand complex topics quickly and confidently connect ideas across your library. Whether you’re preparing for study, teaching, or research, Smart Synopsis now gives you a clearer, more reliable overview of the material.

This is now available in beta and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Try the updated Smart Synopsis today and let us know what you think!

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Comments

Graham Criddle

Hi @Savanna Lineberger - I've just been playing with this and trying to understand the differences.

The first screenshot below is from 44.0 and the second is from 45.0 beta 1

I see that 45.0 handles multiple citations better with the here, here, here links to the citation. This is nice.

And the 45.0 synopsis seems to be more detailed.

Is there anything else I should be seeing?

Graham Criddle

And do you expect this change to come to mobile and web at some point?

Savanna Lineberger

@Graham Criddle a lot of what you described is the main difference between the two. Any design differences will mainly be seen in the highlighting when hovering over a citation marker in the synopsis, and improved highlighting in source material when clicking on a citation. These changes will be coming to web and mobile shortly!

Graham Criddle

That's great - thanks again @Savanna Lineberger

Aaron Hamilton

Very positive first impressions. I like how clear it is which text the Synopsis is pulling from. However, I consider it to be a bug that I get more and more duplicates as I (perhaps accidently) click on the same number. Please, I only need one.

Andrew Batishko

However, I consider it to be a bug that I get more and more duplicates as I (perhaps accidently) click on the same number. Please, I only need one.

This is a known problem that is currently being addressed.

Aaron Hamilton

While I do like these Start and Stop bars, I also find them a bit messy, and they can be hard to follow after I have clicked several. Perhaps a countdown timer would be helpful, after which these bars disappear. This way, the user would not have to go through the trouble of clicking "Done" every time for every link clicked. I can already tell this will get old fast.

In short: I think this is a great idea, but it could be significantly improved upon.

Graham Criddle

I don't see the Start / Stop bars - just blue highlights (this is on Mac)

What am I not doing? (Although I think I probably prefer the blue highlights!)

Aaron Hamilton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378010#Comment_1378010

I'm not sure how this bug is being addressed, but in my opinion a user only needs one of these start/stop markers at a time in total. If another number is clicked from the Synopsis, the markers should move to reflect the source material for that number, rather than adding new start/stop markers. After clicking all 7 points just now from my Synopsis, my pages are filled with start/stop, and I can't even tell which material is supposed to reflect the number I just clicked on. I know I could tediously click "Done" after every point, but I think that would be a more inconvenient solution.

Dave Hooton

I tried to whom does 666 refer? in my main commentaries in Verbum 45 Beta:

The number 666 has multiple interpretations and potential meanings. Probably no other aspect of Revelation has generated more varied interpretations than the mark of the beast[1]. Several key perspectives emerge:

1. Symbolic Interpretation: Some scholars, following Irenaeus, view 666 as representing the sum of “all apostate power” - a concentration of six thousand years of unrighteousness. The number is seen as a symbolic representation of incompleteness, a demonic parody of perfection, and an allusion to idolatrous blasphemy[2][2]. The number six is associated with human imperfection (as man was created on the sixth day), and the three sixes might symbolize an unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet[3].

2. Historical Interpretations: A common scholarly interpretation links 666 to Emperor Nero, a figure with a notorious reputation[4]. However, this identification faces significant challenges, including complex transliteration methods, inconsistent spelling, and the need to convert the name through multiple languages[4]. The requirement to transliterate “Neron Caesar” into Hebrew with a defective spelling, and the fact that John’s Greek-speaking readers likely couldn’t read Hebrew, makes this interpretation doubtful[1].

3. Future Interpretation: Some suggest the number is a warning for Christians to be cautious of a future world leader who might be antichristian. While many names could potentially calculate to 666, Christians are advised to carefully examine the character of any charismatic international figure[3].

Importantly, ancient commentators like Irenaeus caution against speculative identification, suggesting the number’s true meaning will only become clear when the individual arrives on the world scene[5].

[1] Joseph L. Trafton, Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary, Rev. ed., Reading the New Testament Series (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2005), 129–130.
[2] Alan F. Johnson, “Revelation,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews through Revelation, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 535.
[3] Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 255–256.
[4] Simon J. Kistemaker and William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Book of Revelation, vol. 20 of New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 394–395.
[5] Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1995), 183–184.

Verbum 45 Beta uses the same books and generated the same references as Logos 44.1, and its presentation is superior. But paragraph 2. omits "The practice of gematria, assigning numerical values to names…." as the means of identification which requires "complex transliteration…"

The ALL Synopsis in Verbum 45 falls dismally short of its Books Synopsis (above) with no content/paragraph numbering and only two references. Logos 44.1 ALL was comparable to its Books synopsis and references.

Mark Barnes (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378049#Comment_1378049

The Start/Stop bars will be going away in a later beta. The highlighting will remain to still make it clear exactly what text is used in the synopsis.

Also in a later beta should be an improved hover tip in the synopsis itself, which will make it much easier to see the source of each comment. In my usage, that's probably the most valuable part of the improvements, so look out for that.

Mark Barnes (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378060#Comment_1378060

One of the changes we've made to this beta is that we're using more licensed books in the All Synopsis (we had feedback that it was frustrating that users couldn't actually read the footnotes). In our tests, that doesn't often result in a drop in quality, but sometimes it can. We felt the occasional drop-off in quality was worth (a) getting better access to cited content, and (b) having a higher likelihood that the answer reflects content you've purchased.

In addition, Verbum and Logos will sometimes give different answers due to the different collections of resources that they use (Verbum majors on Catholic books, of course).

Aaron Hamilton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378086#Comment_1378086

Thanks. The improved hover tip sounds great!

While the highlighting in the source text is nice, I often see a lot of highlights in the text. Even the Synopsis will highlight all of the points at once, so it can take a moment to figure out exactly which text was used for which point in the Synopsis. This is why I appreciated the Start/Stop visual indicators. However, I agree that if something like that were to be implemented, it would have to be much improved upon.

Aaron Hamilton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378087#Comment_1378087

The suggestion has been made to include a toggle that would restrict All search to owned resources, but could be switched off to open All search up to the entire catalog to see what's out there. This seems to me to be a great solution. It would eliminate the need for such compromises.

Ryland Brown

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378087#Comment_1378087

I'm glad the stop start bars are going away!

Dave Hooton

@Aaron Hamilton The suggestion has been made to include a toggle that would restrict All search to owned resources, but could be switched off to open All search up to the entire catalog to see what's out there.

Why? You can do that in Books Search and even focus on Cloud books.

Aaron Hamilton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1378559#Comment_1378559

Are you suggesting that in your view a books search is the same as an all search other than it being limited to owned books?

Dave Hooton

Are you suggesting that in your view a books search is the same as an all search other than it being limited to owned books?

A Books Search is limited to owned books, so why propose an ALL Search limited that way?

Aaron Hamilton

A Books Search is limited to owned books, so why propose an ALL Search limited that way?

An All search limited to owned books would differ from a books search in that it would search through more than just books. Maps, notes, docs... All search used to be popular in Logos 10 before the entire catalog was searched.