How do people organize their personal notes?
I have several note files that I put notes in.
- The biggest note file is highlights and contains thousands of entries. I manage the complexity of this by keeping all of the highlights associated with a specific translation so that I can just open this translation and find the highlight quickly by verse. I also use search to find things in this large collection.
- The second file is topical where I collect notes on various topics in the Bible. I use the outlining in the notes window to create categories and sub-categories. But the problem with this is that because I have hundreds of entries I can not collapse the "outline" so that I can not see the organization other than scroll thru hundreds of entries. I find that sometimes I start two different categories that really cover the same topic, but is in two different parts of the hierarchy. This is the crutch of my problem. I can not search for headings, and I scrolling thru a large list is untenable. Perhaps I need to flatten this and then store things alphabetic. The problem with this is synonyms: did I store that topic as "greed" or "love of money".
- My third file is for Bible Studies, and I organize these around Scripture, but some are topical and have the same issue as my topical file.
What do people do to organize the chaos? Perhaps I need more files and thus can make each file smaller.
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Doug Hiser said:
What do people do to organize the chaos?
Hi Doug,
I've seen a number of different philosophies on organizing notes, most of them dependent on the nature of the note-taker. You sound like one who takes more-than-the-average number of notes, so you probably do need a better system. Hopefully you'll get several different ideas here. As for mine...
Here are a couple screenshots of my notes files. Basic construction is simple: I have a file for each book of the Bible (they are numbered with some numbering system that seems conventional...someone who's been to seminary can probably name the system...I copied it from other sources...the intent was for the notes files to automatically sort themselves numerically, but that doesn't happen in the drop down list). I also have notes files for topics of interest, a current study I might be working on, or a particular resource. You can see some of these in the two screenshots below.
HTH.
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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Hi Doug.
My answer? I don't. (Probably not the helpful advice you were wanting.)
Logos was 'never' designed with notes in mind ('Bible study'). Each addition has been similar to a visit to the dentist for Logos.
I keep ALL my notes outside Logos. Even highlights, I have a single file and delete it every now and then (mainly use highlights to get my brain engaged and keep track of where I'm at).
But then I use maybe 4 or 5 Bible packages. I re-PB my notes every couple months and they come into Logos as a commentary. So also my other packages.
EDIT: But as Doc notes for you, I'm a heavy note taker. My note database has 101K notes in it now. But that's over a lengthy period.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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HTH,
I like the extra level of organization. I think I will have to reorganize things into multiple files. I don't know about a file per book in the Bible, but I could start off by Torah, History, Minor Prophet type organization and then break things out as needed.
The topical studies will require some planning and thought, but this at least help things one level.
Thanks.
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Denise,
101k notes. That is a lot. I like Logos because then I have my notes where ever I go, but finding the right note has become a problem. Thanks for the input. It is worth considering moving things out of Logos now before I get much bigger. It took me a day to move my notes into Logos and they have grown in the last year.
Blessings.
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Doug Hiser said:
What do people do to organize the chaos?
I use a different program. [:$]I have one note file for each chapter of the Bible and one note file for every verse (which has notes so far).
The first chapter note file often contains background information and outlines for the entire book. Chapter files after that are beginning to include "preaching this" sections in which I include my thoughts and suggestions for my son who is aiming for ministry.
I have many thousands of files. This would be recklessly cumbersome if the program I used for this did not automatically load the proper verse or chapter note when I navigated to a given reference.
Ideally I could define pericope notes rather than verse notes, but I can't so often enough in the first verse in a given pericope I mention the boundaries of the text and proceed from there.
My full notes (when I have adequate time to do them properly) are based around this template:
[quote]Comparative Passages:
Parsing & Textual Variance:
Diagram:
Syntax and Exegesis:
Translation:
Explanation:
Application:
Introduction / Illustration:
Sarcasm is my love language. Obviously I love you. 0 -
TCBlack,
That sounds very involved, but your notes are more detailed than mine. I am not a pastor but just lay person. I like the Highlight notes in Logos because I can click on the star, or hover over it and see it's content. The notes I loose in Logos are my topical notes and bible studies. Perhaps these would be better outside of Logos, because it would work well to read these offline.
Thanks for the comment.
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Logos will search through your personal notes files and report the results separately. You will lose this feature if you keep the notes elsewhere.
By default, I start a notes file for each resource. However, for some topics; e.g. apologetics, I create a special file. One advantage of finer grained notes and highlights is that if you choose to collaborate on a particular resource or topic at a later time you can share particular notes files more conveniently. I haven't decided yet whether my ESV and ESV Study Bible get separate notes files. Following RCBlack's paradigm, I could break out specific books and chapters, but still combine notes between the resources.
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I have just started to create a note file for each book of the Bible. I then plan to set up each note file as a favorite for easy navigation.
Here's my problem: how do you move notes between note files? So if one note is in the file "01.Genesis" and I want to move it to "02.Exodus", how do I do it?
For large notes - well articles really - I use Microsoft OneNote. Easy to search on topics and on words.
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I have several Bible reference organized sets: "Bible Notes", "Evangelism Notes", "Discipleship Notes", "Leadership Notes". Some have some topical entries (evangelism).
I have a topical notes set, arranged alphabetically. The titles must be organized tidily to avoid a mess. For instance: Jesus, divinity as opposed to Divinity of Jesus.
I have a set call "article notes" in which I put notes on books I read (usually based on a highlighted statement).
I have a Jewish Backgrounds set organized by reference.
I have all a highlights drip-pan in which all the automatically created notes go when I don't want to actually write a note.
In addition to that, I use favorites to categorize resources and that means I don't need to do this through notes.
If all else fails, I can search "My Content" to find an entry.
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I messed up when I was a new user - got click happy and ended up deleting all my notes. Alabama24 helped out so I could get my notes back and in the process shared his note strategy. See this thread.
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Thanks all for your suggestions. I think I will implement a combination of ideas presented here and will for one, spread things out in multiple files. To answer Richard's question of how do you move notes: this is difficult in Logos and I use the old labor intensive technique of cut and paste one note at a time. I spent hours if not days moving my notes into Logos and I would only consider moving my topical notes because there are only perhaps a hundred.
I wish Logo's let us select multiple notes and copy/cut and paste them into other files. I also wish they had the feature of collapsing the hierarchy that is inherent in the notes files, so that the complexity could better be managed.
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Thanks Doug. Mmmm..... I thought as much, but was hoping that it was not the case. Oh, well.
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Doug,
I just found out how to move notes between note files. Open up the two note files in separate panes in Logos (not tabs). Drag and drop the note indicator (e.g. the green star or yellow sticky note or whatever icon you use) and drag it from one file to the next.
Hope that helps, it certainly helps me.
Richard.
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Okay, does anyone know how to specify the note file that a note is saved in?
So for example, I am ready Luke and make a note on verse 3. How can I get it to save in the Luke note file? Say I then switch to John and want to save a new note there? Logos seems to bring up the last note file opened.
God bless,
Richard.
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Richard Kingston said:
So for example, I am ready Luke and make a note on verse 3. How can I get it to save in the Luke note file? Say I then switch to John and want to save a new note there? Logos seems to bring up the last note file opened.
In the right-click menu you should see the option to save the note in either the last document opened or any of your currently open notes documents.
There isn't the facility to specify another notesfile when creating a note so you either need to have the notes document open or it to be the most recently one used. This facility has been requested but it isn't there at the moment.
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David A Egolf said:
Logos will search through your personal notes files and report the results separately. You will lose this feature if you keep the notes elsewhere.
have you actually tried to "search through your personal notes files" and find the results with ease? Notes are the most convoluted way to search for anything in Logos.
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I use one note file for each book in the bible, and prefix their name with "Bible:" e.g.: "Bible: Genesis". Sometimes I combine books, e.g. "1 & 2 Thessalonins". For systematic theology I use the prefix ST, e.g. "ST: Baptism". I use CONF: For note documents about a specific denomination (or confession). e.g. "CONF: Calvinism". Then I have a bunch of note files from before I started this system. I try to keep highlights and notes together. So highlights from the study in Romans go to "Bible: Romans". But there are exceptions as well. A highlight in Romans might also go into "ST: Baptism" or "Pauline studies", depending on the reason for the highlight. Sometimes I wish I could have a copy of the highlight in more than one note file.
Richard Kingston said:Okay, does anyone know how to specify the note file that a note is saved in? So for example, I am ready Luke and make a note on verse 3. How can I get it to save in the Luke note file? Say I then switch to John and want to save a new note there? Logos seems to bring up the last note file opened.
When I want to insert a note into a text, I usually start with making a highlight, and then I add the note content to the highlight. This is only one way to go, but I like it. You need to open the highlighting panel to choose which note file you want to add it to. You could even keep open the note file you want to use, and select "Most recent note file".
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Thanks Sakarias. I will try this out as soon as I get home tonight - well as soon as my dinner is done, the kids are read to, the dishes done, the wife listened to. So that 120 seconds of time between opening my laptop and falling asleep.
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Interestingly, the iOS app allows the selection of a specific note document. Hit the note button and at the bottom of the new pop-up you can select whatever note document you want. That gives me hope that this is on Logos' "to-do" list for the PC app.
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Richard Kingston said:
That gives me hope that this is on Logos' "to-do" list for the PC app.
The Mac Version already has this feature. I right-click (or control-click or tap w/ two fingers) on the selected text and brings up a pop that let's me do many things from searching to reporting a typo to adding the note to a specific note file. I don't know if the list of note files have to be in your favorites list or not, since all three of my files are also favorites. I don't use the highlight pane and the Mac version does not have a list of note files. If I need to change the look of the highlight I do so from the note in the note file.
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Richard Kingston said:
So for example, I am reading Luke and make a note on verse 3. How can I get it to save in the Luke note file? Say I then switch to John and want to save a new note there? Logos seems to bring up the last note file opened.
In your example, Richard, if you switch to John and want to save a new note in the "John Notes" file, try this:
- Click Documents on the menu bar.
- Scroll down and click John Notes document to open it in its panel.
- In your Bible, highlight some text in the verse(s) you want to note, and right-click.
You will see the dialog box for creating the note. - In the right pane, click Reference to attach the note to the highlighted verse(s).
- In the right pane, click "John Notes" in the lower corner.
The note will appear in "John Notes."
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