Suggestion: Improve Maps

Donovan R. Palmer
Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795
edited December 2024 in English Forum

Mapping features are an age old issue with Logos and while there is some improvement, L4 still falls very short. A few of my disappointments:

1. The zooming feature is not intuitive. There should be a google earth type slider to present the user with an understanding of the current zoom level. When I first used L4 maps, it was not clear to me how to zoom either.

2. When you open the "Biblical Places" tool and search for something like "Caesarea Philippi" the software presents you with a map zoomed all the way out and doesn't indicate where it is. It doesn't even bother to centre the map on the location you are looking for.  (see below) Zoomed in at this scale, you can't read the writing on the map anyhow. By the time you do zoom in to read the writing, the "Caesarea Philippi" is off of the map, leaving you to drag the map around looking for the location.

image

3. There is no dynamic way to drop information off of the map that you want. You can't measure distances. You can't overlay useful information like the journeys of Jesus, Paul, etc. In other words, these maps are static and in a day and age of interactivity, I would love to see this go to the next level.

I could go on, but I hope that most of all Logos would see my comments in a constructive, rather than critical light. L4 is a huge improvement, but in many ways, maps still seem like a static bolt on that have not received any kind of real attention.

EDIT: Cleaned up typos. I accidentally posted this and then got distracted.

 

Comments

  • Robert Pavich
    Robert Pavich Member Posts: 5,685 ✭✭✭

    Donovan,

    Until you mentioned it; I hadn't noticed the centering issue...hmm...weird.

    I would also like to throw in my vote for more overlays....as many as possible to toggle on and off....Journeys of biblical figures, major roads, locations of ancient Hardees....

    Robert Pavich

    For help go to the Wiki: http://wiki.logos.com/Table_of_Contents__

  • Kelly D. Sipes
    Kelly D. Sipes Member Posts: 4 ✭✭

    When I need a map I still go back to my old Quickverse program, Logos and maps have always been disappointing.  The google type map would be great

  • Jack Caviness
    Jack Caviness MVP Posts: 13,588

    Mapping features are an age old issue with Logos and while there is some improvement, L4 still falls very short.

    When attempting to confirm your suggestions, I encountered a repeatable crash in L4 Windows which I reported in a new thread on the Logos 4 Forum.

    After working around that problem, I agree completely with your analysis.

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,201 ✭✭✭✭
    Very much agree. When I read of the way to zoom on the forum, initially my key-combination wouldn't work. Not sure the reason but suspect it has to do with how +/- is handled on some keyboards. Eventually threw in the towel.

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • John Brumett
    John Brumett Member Posts: 612 ✭✭

    Donovan:  Type Control F and type in the city or cut and paste it in and it will zoom in to the location for the city that you are looking for.  An improvement for Maps would be the ability to tag information with the Maps so if your were in Joshua 6 and studing the Battle for Jericho the first map to appear would be the Logos's Map for the Battle of Jericho and Ai. The second map to appear in the list would be Holman's map #36 on Joshua's Central and Southern Campaigns.  I also wish that the MacMillian Bible Atlas 3rd Edition was included in Logos.  This contains many detailed maps on the Battle in the O.T. 

        While I on the subject it would be nice to tag images so I could search for other maps in my library related to specific passages of the Bible or the ability to incorporate others good maps in Biblical Places.    

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795

    Donovan:  Type Control F and type in the city or cut and paste it in and it will zoom in to the location for the city that you are looking for.

    This is good to know about.

    AND actually today when I type in a city name, the map is zooming to the location of question. I have no clue why it wasn't doing this yesterday or on previous attempts in the past for that matter. Must be a bug.

  • Robert Pavich
    Robert Pavich Member Posts: 5,685 ✭✭✭

    Robert Pavich

    For help go to the Wiki: http://wiki.logos.com/Table_of_Contents__

  • Jonathan Vliet
    Jonathan Vliet Member Posts: 45 ✭✭✭

    I agree, with you.  Good observation.  

    How cool would it be if there was also an option to specify the time period in history - Say I wanted to research Syria around 300BC, I could type in (or choose) 300BC and my searches would reflect that time period!   

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,194 ✭✭✭✭✭


    ...You can't measure distances....

    You can measure distances. That is described at about 1:42 in the video Biblical Places - Maps on http://logos.com/videos. Hold down the Ctrl key, click on one location and drag to another. Here's a thread where people are discussing the shortcomings of the way it is currently implemented (http://community.logos.com/forums/t/9599.aspx), but at least you can do it.