Taking Notes & Creating Outlines

I'd like to get some user feedback on this, if I could.

In Logos 3, I typically used the note files to take notes & create full-length outlines for study. This was great because of the way the editor was laid out & the ability to generate links to my references in a single click. One of the main reasons I liked this is because it didn't require me to use a separate application or try to keep another app sized & kept on top of Logos somehow.

Since moving to L4 and playing around with its notes feature, I don't think that I'm going to be using its notes for full fledged note taking & outlining because of its apparent limitations.

So, my question is this. What do you think is the best route to go for creating notes & outlines? Also, how would you go about setting it up? I'm thinking about just using Microsoft Word, but I'm on a laptop (1440x900) and am not looking forward to Alt+Tabbing (or constant mouse clicking) back & forth btwn two apps just to take notes.

Any & all thoughts are welcome as I try to find the best way to study :-)

lj.

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Frank Sauer

Well I never really used the notes feature and most likely missed out from what I have heard from many of the guys during the V4 process. However with notes not being the same now, I guess I can be relieved...

I have always preferred using MS Word for my Notes, Outlines and Sermons... Especially with the CBV and more so the Smart Tags it was nice inline working for me.

MJ. Smith

What do you think is the best route to go for creating notes & outlines?

I am still struggling with this as well. Given the support for a complete re-working of the notes from the news groups and forum groups I am surprised at what appears to be the continued limitations of the notes. I keep hoping that I've just not figured out how Logos expects me to work with the notes to get my desired results. My current issues:

1) it still appears that a note can be attached to one and only one reference - if that is true I promise to be very annoyed with Logos for a very long time. This is what makes me think that Logos expects the Guide and/or search to handle this function

2) I haven't succeeded in copying a table into a note - I understand that is just my problem so I'm continuing to work on it.

3) On the first note box in the Passage Guide, even in read mode the window does not expand sufficiently for easy reading - and I only had 9 lines total (7 in a converted-to-text-table)

4) The URL link in notes apparently doesn't link to a URL

5) I can't get the reference (as opposed to selection) link to work

I haven't come close to testing out longer notes, links where the reference differs among translations, etc. However, I've found the note feature as easy to use - I simply place the notes in the left-most pane. The linkage is about the same: 1 click for menu, 1 click for link type 1 click for note file - I'm not concerned at 3 clicks for the interface. The notes in a note file read easily in place and the reading view is great for long notes.

So dispite my gripes, I don't see notes being worse for notetaking and outlines. Can you explain to me why you don't think it continues to meet your needs? It sounds like we had similar uses for it in L3.

LaRosa Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/26734#Comment_26734

right now, there are a couple of glaring issues that make it difficult for me to use the notes in Logos 4:

1) All notes for a single file are now in a single view, whereas in Logos 3, each note in a file was in its own view/window. Given that my outlines are really long sometimes (i.e. my outline for 1 Thess. 1 was about 8 pages in MS Word), it can become tedious to keep scrolling. The way I typically do it is to have one note file per study (i.e. 1 Thessalonians) and a note for each section of the study

2) Copying & pasting doesn't work (at least for outlines)... it'll paste & look fine, but as soon as I navigate elsewhere I lose nearly all formatting (except for bold & italics). So, for outlines, I have to manually go back & fix them.

3) Logos 4 also seems to put in a LOT of white space between nested list elements, which makes it that much harder to read through my notes & really long outlines (esp. those with many levels of nested elements).

Those are some of the issues I'm facing & trying to reconcile. So far, this is the only issue I have with Logos 4 and trying to find the best way to work with it, given that taking & using notes was a major part of how I used Logos 3.

LaRosa Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/26972#Comment_26972

what would be great is if it were somehow possible to embed a MS Word document or window and use that as my editor...

either way, I'm thinking MS Word is the direction I'll go.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/26972#Comment_26972

1) All notes for a single file are now in a single view, whereas in Logos 3, each note in a file was in its own view/window. Given that my outlines are really long sometimes (i.e. my outline for 1 Thess. 1 was about 8 pages in MS Word), it can become tedious to keep scrolling. The way I typically do it is to have one note file per study (i.e. 1 Thessalonians) and a note for each section of the study

2) Copying & pasting doesn't work (at least for outlines)... it'll paste & look fine, but as soon as I navigate elsewhere I lose nearly all formatting (except for bold & italics). So, for outlines, I have to manually go back & fix them.

I think you're on target here - they do need and open/close feature on the notes. I've been having a problem on the cut and paste as well but have simply assumed that it is a bug that will be fixed.

Steven Kaminski

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/27365#Comment_27365

I gotta say that I don't think Logos should try to have a full notes and outlining feature. It's really not Logos' bailiwick.

Instead, I think they should allow connections to/from 3rd party products to do this. That was possible in version 3, but is not yet as fully possible in v 4, since the API is not open.

Therefore, we'll have to wait a while for the better note/outline options.

Mark Watts

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/26972#Comment_26972

I would add to this list a number 4

4) How do you print a note? Or even a clipping? The only thing I can see that has the ability to print is a handout except I don't want to create a handout, I just want to print out my notes for the study that I lead.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/27431#Comment_27431

I don't think Logos should try to have a full notes and outlining feature.

To me, that depends upon what you mean by full notes. To me, the minimum functionality - which isn't all working - is:

1) ability to attach note to selection or reference (supposedly there but ...)

2) ability to copy and paste formatted information - tables and outlines

3) ability to enter URL links (native or copied is okay)

4) ability to give them titles, expand and contract within note file, some print capability ... perhaps from the read view mode

5) since they didn't give me the critical multi-link capability, they need to appear under My Content of Passage Guide.

I love the way that notes have been expanded to be included in Passage Guides etc.