Highlighting strategy: Separate files for separate books, or one file to rule them all?
I find myself making highlights much more frequently lately, and I anticipate that trend will continue. I do this because (1) it helps me remember the material and (2) it enables me to later come back and skim what I thought were the more important ideas in a book or article. So far I have had Logos save all highlights to a single "Solid Colors" notes file, but I am reconsidering the way I do highlights after a recent scare I had where I could not access or add to that file from my mobile device (https://community.logos.com/forums/p/101763/704354.aspx). I would like to solicit feedback regarding how others handle highlighting. Do you maintain separate highlight files for separate books, do you have one master notes file containing all your highlights, or do you have a strategy somewhere between these two options? What do you like/dislike about how you manage all your highlights, and is there a better way to do it?
Comments
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Matthew said:
Do you maintain separate highlight files for separate books, do you have one master notes file containing all your highlights, or do you have a strategy somewhere between these two options?
I have multiple notes documents based around a number of different areas:
- I have one for each biblical book for general notes on those books
- i have documents for devotional reading so I can keep notes relating to that
- i have documents for each book (meaning non-biblical book) for notes and highlights
- i have documents for themes I study
- i have documents for sermon series (with an individual note for each sermon)
- and others....
I find this is better than maintaining a single notes document for several reasons:
- it is easier to navigate
- it allows me to easily enable / disable particular notes or highlights if I don't want them displayed while wanting to display others
- it "makes sense" to me to have the notes and highlights associated with particular books or topics
The one issue with this is that you need to ensure that you are putting the notes and highlights in the correct place so always need to maintain an awareness of what resource / notes document you are working with at any particular time.
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The default behavior is a disaster waiting to happen. I am a strong believer in "resource specific" note files. I also utilize a few thematic note files (I.e. Song suggestions) and temporary note files (Sermon research). For my taste, book by book in the bible is overkill, but I know why some would want it.
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Graham Criddle said:i have documents for each book (meaning non-biblical book) for notes and highlights
This is increasingly what I am thinking about doing, although honestly it did not even occur to me that you could have both "regular notes" and "highlighter notes" in the same file, so I just learned something new! I would assume you just name the notes file whatever the name of the book you are working with is?
Graham Criddle said:it allows me to easily enable / disable particular notes or highlights if I don't want them displayed while wanting to display others
Can you elaborate on this?
Graham Criddle said:The one issue with this is that you need to ensure that you are putting the notes and highlights in the correct place so always need to maintain an awareness of what resource / notes document you are working with at any particular time.
I know how to do this on the Android app. I think this can be done on the desktop version by right-clicking and telling Logos what file to send the highlight to. Is there a faster way to do this on the desktop? What I have been doing so far is I set a keyboard shortcut that applies a yellow highlight under "Solid Colors." Following your advice, I take it I would have to re-program that shortcut every time I change books?
Thanks for the help!
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Matthew said:
I would assume you just name the notes file whatever the name of the book you are working with is?
thats what I do.
Matthew said:Graham Criddle said:it allows me to easily enable / disable particular notes or highlights if I don't want them displayed while wanting to display others
Can you elaborate on this?
each resource has a "visual filter" menu (three circles icon). You will find the name of each and every related note file for that resource. One of the reasons I don't use a note file for each bible book is because I don't want 66 note files in that list!
anyway... You can turn the note file on & off. Imagine you have a note file for devotional use and another for sermon prep. You Can easily switch one off while you use the other.
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Matthew said:
I know how to do this on the Android app. I think this can be done on the desktop version by right-clicking and telling Logos what file to send the highlight to. Is there a faster way to do this on the desktop? What I have been doing so far is I set a keyboard shortcut that applies a yellow highlight under "Solid Colors." Following your advice, I take it I would have to re-program that shortcut every time I change books?
on the desktop app, you change the behavior in the highlighting pallet menu (hover over the right side of its name to get a menu button). The behavior you will want is "last used" (what I call "sticky"). The note will go into the note file you "last used" (opened, clicked on tab, etc) Until you interact with another note document.
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alabama24 said:
each resource has a "visual filter" menu (three circles icon). You will find the name of each and every related note file for that resource. One of the reasons I don't use a note file for each bible book is because I don't want 66 note files in that list!
Let me make sure I understand you, especially the part about "each and every related note file for that resource." The highlighting I am doing is for non-Bibles, primarily monographs. If, for example, I make highlights over time in 500 monographs, and for each monograph I create a separate file to store those highlights, am I to understand that I will NOT have to deal with a list of 500 visual filters? If I follow your logic correctly, only 1 out of those 500 notes files would ever be related to a given monograph, so I would NOT run into the problem of having an endless list of visual filters?
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alabama24 said:
on the desktop app, you change the behavior in the highlighting pallet menu (hover over the right side of its name to get a menu button). The behavior you will want is "last used" (what I call "sticky"). The note will go into the note file you "last used" (opened, clicked on tab, etc) Until you interact with another note document.
Thanks for the tip! I will have to mess around with this when I have a chance and will post back if I cannot get it figured out. What all counts as "interacting" though? Does merely opening the document count as interacting with it, or do I have to actually send an initial highlight to it to count?
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Matthew said:
If I follow your logic correctly, only 1 out of those 500 notes files would ever be related to a given monograph, so I would NOT run into the problem of having an endless list of visual filters?
Correct. Bibles can be a little different, so let me show you my list for the NIV:
I have one "resource specific" note document for this resource. It is currently titled "01- RP:NIV M'Cheyne (2015)." I will let you figure out why I named it the way I did, except I will tell you that the "01" is for ease on the mobile app. All of my "currently reading" works are given a numerical prefix.
You will notice that there are 5 other note files. 4 are "thematic" and were created not with highlights, but with notes attached by reference. That means that those note files will be available in EVERY and ALL "versified" resource (including bibles and commentaries).
The note document with ESV in it likely means I made a mistake at some point and either added a note "by reference" in that note document, or added a highlight to the NIV in that document (which for me is rare to do).
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alabama24 said:Matthew said:
If I follow your logic correctly, only 1 out of those 500 notes files would ever be related to a given monograph, so I would NOT run into the problem of having an endless list of visual filters?
Correct. Bibles can be a little different, so let me show you my list for the NIV:
I would have said the same as Alabama and so was very surprised when it doesn't seem to be the case!
While the list of notes-related visual filters in a Bible only seems to include notes documents which relate to notes or highlights in that Bible, the list for monographs seems to include a lot of biblical ones as well as demonstrated below:
The book in the bottom of the shot has many filters associated with it which are nothing to do with the resource. I created one to demonstrate this which simply has one bible note by reference and it appears in the list of filters.
This is different behaviour to that on the iPad app which only shows relevant filters.
I'll flag this in the beta forum (though I am seeing this on the stable release) and see if it is expected
EDIT: Cross posted in https://community.logos.com/forums/t/101872.aspx
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Matthew said:
I am afraid of what the answer might be, but is there an easy, non-time-consuming way to transfer highlights from one large file into many smaller ones?
Sorry, but the only way is to drag them from one file to another[:(]
If you have the two open side-by-side you can do it quite quickly but it still takes time.
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Graham Criddle said:
Sorry, but the only way is to drag them from one file to another
Well, on the bright side that at least means I am not going to have to re-highlight everything. I am still not where I am physically able to try this yet. I will be curious to see if it is possible to check the box to the left of each individual highlight and move all the highlights from a particular resource at once. I guess I will find out! Thanks again to both of you for your help!
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Matthew said:
I guess I will find out!
I don't think there is currently any mechanism better than the one outlined at https://wiki.logos.com/Notes#How_can_I_copy.2fmove_notes_to_a_New_Note_file
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alabama24 said:
The default behavior is a disaster waiting to happen.
I really wish they would change the default.
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One thing that threw me early on in my use of Logos was my unpleasant discovery that Logos was taking my highlights and classifying them as notes. Even worse was that without notifying me in any way, it was choosing to name the notes file according to the high-level highlight category name to which my specific highlighter belonged (Solid Colors, Emphasis Markup, Highlighter Pens, or Inductive). I could understand how/why it might do this if it had to store them somewhere without input from me, but what I couldn't understand was why it was doing it that way by default, rather than giving me the option of choosing where to put them. What I didn't know at the time, was that by hovering over any of the four highlighter category names, I could alter that default behavior by getting a drop-down menu that would allow me to choose other options for where the highlights went--e.g. choosing one of the notes files I had created, or even more versatile, the option to simply use my most recently opened notes file, whatever that might be.
At this point I have a question for Matthew. An excerpt from your post reads: The behavior you will want is "last used" (what I call "sticky"). I don't see a "last used" option, but when hovering over a highlighter category name and getting its drop-down menu, there is a "save in" option that when selected, provides a "Most recent note file" option. Is that the same thing you're referring to by "last used"?
Sadly, after discovering this hidden ability to choose a file/location for my highlights, I forgot I had to keep going through this rather convoluted (and out of sight) process to ensure future highlights went to the appropriate place. As a result, I rediscovered much later, that once again, I had many, many, many highlights that were in the wrong place. I realized they were either in Logos' default notes file choice, or just as bad, were in a specific notes file I had chosen but forgot to change when highlighting in other resources, or... even worse, they were scattered across numerous unrelated notes files because I had chosen the "Most recent note file" option, forgetting that my most recently opened notes file (for actual notes I was making) was now also the recipient of all the highlights I made with highlighters in that highlighter category.
Well, I guess I'm just a slow learner, because stumbling across this thread made me realize I had once again forgotten about how mucked up highlighting can get when
- Highlights go to notes files
- Background highlighter options at the category level determine where all future highlights for that category will go, and that depending on the option chosen, those highlights might all go to the same notes file or to any number of notes files
- When you highlight, Logos does not show you which notes file it's using as it does when you make actual notes
Bottom line--it's real easy (for people like me) to completely hose the filing structure for highlights. And I'm very good at doing that. [:^)]
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Rick Ausdahl said:
At this point I have a question for Matthew. An excerpt from your post reads: The behavior you will want is "last used" (what I call "sticky"). I don't see a "last used" option, but when hovering over a highlighter category name and getting its drop-down menu, there is a "save in" option that when selected, provides a "Most recent note file" option. Is that the same thing you're referring to by "last used"?
It wasn't Matthew, it was me... and yes. I was being sloppy. I always think of it as "last used," but FL calls it "most recent note file."
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I've thought about posting a thread on this subject for a long time. Please add my voice to the chorus of those who find the default behavior for highlights and notes to be nonsensical.
I also mess up highlights all the time: why isn't the default behavior a book-specific note file (one that users don't have to select each time they change books)? Shouldn't multiple book note files be the exception rather than the rule?
The whole process of choosing where you want your notes to go, by opening a note files and choosing the right file in the right-click menu, is clunky and unwieldy, to say the least.
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Rick Ausdahl said:
Bottom line--it's real easy (for people like me) to completely hose the filing structure for highlights. And I'm very good at doing that.
Don't feel bad, Rick. The whole reason I started this thread is because after losing access to all my highlights I realized there is probably a better way to handle them than what I have been doing. I was taking a "put all my eggs in one basket approach" and had a minor panic attack when my basket went missing!
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Alabama,alabama24 said:Rick Ausdahl said:At this point I have a question for Matthew. An excerpt from your post reads: The behavior you will want is "last used" (what I call "sticky"). I don't see a "last used" option, but when hovering over a highlighter category name and getting its drop-down menu, there is a "save in" option that when selected, provides a "Most recent note file" option. Is that the same thing you're referring to by "last used"?
It wasn't Matthew, it was me... and yes. I was being sloppy. I always think of it as "last used," but FL calls it "most recent note file."
my apologies to both you and Matthew. Thanks for catching (and noting) the error.
FYI, I didn't take it at all as being sloppy. I figured that's what you were referring to--it's just that with some of these Logos options being a little off the beaten path so to speak, I wanted to double-check in case it might yet be another option that I hadn't found or... that I had forgotten.
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Hi, Matthew. Boy, I can see how that would have you concerned alright. Such a loss would be discouraging indeed!Matthew said:Rick Ausdahl said:Bottom line--it's real easy (for people like me) to completely hose the filing structure for highlights. And I'm very good at doing that.
Don't feel bad, Rick. The whole reason I started this thread is because after losing access to all my highlights I realized there is probably a better way to handle them than what I have been doing. I was taking a "put all my eggs in one basket approach" and had a minor panic attack when my basket went missing!
My situation isn't as dire, but the highlights in my notes files are a mess now. As just one example, I've been doing a study of Genesis utilizing two different commentaries. After stumbling across this thread and checking the status of my Genesis notes file, I realized (as suspected) that while the notes files has all of my actual Genesis related notes, it only has some of my Genesis related highlights. It also has many highlights unrelated to my Genesis study--highlights that actually belong in a number of different notes files. And a little further checking confirmed that many of my highlights that should be there are in fact scattered throughout other notes files unrelated to Genesis. So... if I'm going to clean things up, I'll to have to go through every single notes file I have to determine if it has highlights it shouldn't, and if so, get them moved by dragging them (one-by-one) into the appropriate (or at least into a more appropriate) notes file.
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Greg F said:
I've thought about posting a thread on this subject for a long time. Please add my voice to the chorus of those who find the default behavior for highlights and notes to be nonsensical.
I also mess up highlights all the time: why isn't the default behavior a book-specific note file (one that users don't have to select each time they change books)? Shouldn't multiple book note files be the exception rather than the rule?
The whole process of choosing where you want your notes to go, by opening a note files and choosing the right file in the right-click menu, is clunky and unwieldy, to say the least.
Hi, Greg! FWIW, I have brought it up before to see if there would be enough interest to submit a change request, but I didn't get enough feedback/support to pursue it. I was surprised at how little interest there seemed to be. I figured maybe it was because those who had been burned often enough or badly enough had learned their lesson so well it was no longer an issue for them, or... I was simply in the minority and most people had their Logos process down so well, they knew how and when to adjust their Logos highlight and note file settings to avoid the problem, AND they always remembered to do it.
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This is an area that I would like to see some major improvement in. I was one who was bit bad by using the default and my highlight file got large enough to cause things to break. I now use book-based highlighting. It did solve my problem and I believe is necessary to prevent future problems, even though they fixed some of the earlier problems.
It was not pleasant redistributing the highlights from the original file even using Graham's recommendation. But its possible and is a one-time deal even though it required a couple of hours for me. An easier way to mass move really needs to be developed.
And an easier way to associate highlights to book-based files is also critically important. I am always getting a few highlights in the wrong file based on last-used most recent. It just is not a natural way of operating and very error prone. Instead of a default to one file, the default needs to be a book-based file, with options to do it different.
But once you get a system, it works more or less okay. For sure move away from the single file --- a disaster waiting to happen again.
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Danny Parker said:
I was one who was bit bad by using the default and my highlight file got large enough to cause things to break.
Danny, this is probably where I was headed, so I am thankful I had a smaller issue that turned out to be solvable rather than something catastrophic.
Danny Parker said:For sure move away from the single file --- a disaster waiting to happen again.
This is now at the very top of my Logos to-do list!
All of my Bible-related notes are stored safely in Word documents, and that is where they will stay until imported directly into Logos as personal books. I put WAY too much time into slowly creating them to even take the chance that they are destroyed/corrupted/deleted. It takes some extra effort, but I have one Word document for each book of the Bible, and they are formatted so that Logos will read them as a commentary with the series name "Personal Notes." Having them sourced in Word instead of Logos also allows me greater flexibility in regarding how they are formatted.
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Matthew said:
having them sourced in Word instead of Logos
This is wise at a number of levels. There is too much invested in research to rely on LOGOS only features (back up, formatting, ease of duplication, etc.), especially features that were not built with sufficient industrial grade - e.g., Faithlife has always indicated that they are not intending to duplicate word processors, so maybe we should stop short of using it as a full word processor. With PBB and other methods we have the capability of bringing key parts of this research back into LOGOS.
We enter dangerous territory when we begin to stretch the capabilities of LOGOS beyond its common use. As with any piece of software, a company will always adapt based on common usage - the extreme power user or user that takes significant advantages of niche capabilities is always at risk of losing capability. That is just the way businesses work. Let the extreme user beware.
My 1/2 cent.
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Rick Ausdahl said:
Alabama,
my apologies to both you and Matthew. Thanks for catching (and noting) the error.
no apologies needed, no offense taken. [:)]
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Since I started this thread I figured I would post an update to let everyone know that I forced myself to sit down and break my massive note file that contained all my highlights into smaller files, one for each book. Was unpleasantly surprised to find that you can only drag notes/highlights from one note file to another if you are using a certain view for those files. The most practical view to use would have been "Quotes," as that view automatically shows all of my highlights for a given resource one after the other, but I was unable to move highlights with that view (I ultimately opted for "Compact"). In any case it is water under the bridge now. My library is a little more organized and I have learned a better way to use Logos to prevent heartache down the road. As always, thank you to everyone for the helpful insights!
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Greg F said:
I've thought about posting a thread on this subject for a long time. Please add my voice to the chorus of those who find the default behavior for highlights and notes to be nonsensical.
I also mess up highlights all the time: why isn't the default behavior a book-specific note file (one that users don't have to select each time they change books)? Shouldn't multiple book note files be the exception rather than the rule?
The whole process of choosing where you want your notes to go, by opening a note files and choosing the right file in the right-click menu, is clunky and unwieldy, to say the least.
While watching a LearnLogos training video from John Fallahee, I realized that by setting up my own custom highlighting palettes, I can significantly increase the odds that my highlights will always get stored in the Notes files I want them in. So I thought I'd post here just in case it's of help to anyone else. I've played with the following two highlighting options, but first, a note about the benefits.
Your mileage may vary, but for me the benefit of both options is I'm reminded that I have to keep track of which Notes file Logos is going to use when I highlight. With either option, when I open the highlighting tool, instead of just seeing the original four generic stock palettes provided by Logos and having to remember to keep track of which Notes File is currently attached to each palette (and change them if necessary), I now also see my custom palettes with name prefixes like Genesis and Romans. When it's time to highlight something Genesis related, I'm NOT likely to select one of the Logos stock palettes or even a custom Romans palette I've created, when there's a Genesis palette staring me in the face. By the same token, if I begin study in a new book or a new topic and I don't want all my highlights dumped in the Logos stock palettes Notes files, seeing the other custom palettes I've created will help remind me to create a new one.
OPTION 1
Duplicate one or more of the Logos stock palettes and rename the duplicates based on the Notes File in which I want the highlights stored.
Example
I'm working my way through Genesis and want to ensure all my Genesis related highlights from the "Solid Colors" palette go to my Genesis Notes file. I'll duplicate the "Solid Colors" palette and rename the duplicate palette "Genesis Solid Colors". I'll then select the new Genesis palette I just created and assign it to my Genesis Notes file. I now have all the highlighting styles from the original palette available for my Genesis highlighting, without having to change the default Notes file Logos has assigned to the original "Solid Colors" palette. If I'm also working my way through Romans, I'll duplicate the original "Solid Colors" palette again, but this time name it "Romans Solid Colors" and assign it to my Romans Notes file.
OPTION 2
Create a custom palette from scratch, populating it with styles I create. I then name the palette according to the book or topic I'm studying (e.g. Genesis, Romans, Son of Man) and assign it to the appropriate Notes file. And if it works well for my general highlighting needs, when I start a new study, I can simply duplicate it, rename it, and assign it to the appropriate Notes file.
The advantage of option 2, is that I can create just one custom palette per Notes file, whereas with option 1, if I want to use styles from more than one Logos provided palette, I have to duplicate and rename each palette I want to use. E.g. if I'm studying Genesis and want to use styles from both the "Solid Colors" and "Emphasis Markup" palettes, I have to duplicate both and rename them as "Genesis Solid Colors" and "Genesis Emphasis Markup".
The disadvantage of option 2, is that when building a custom palette from scratch, the highlighting style options available are fairly limited compared to the wide range of styles Logos provides in its four stock palettes. If you want a custom palette but can't be satisfied with the styles Logos will let you create from scratch, option 2 won't work for you.
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Thank you Rick, this is the best I've heard so far!
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Schumitinu said:
Thank you Rick, this is the best I've heard so far!
Thanks Schumitinu! I spent many hours sorting out notes files that became a real mess from my highlighting before I understood what was going on. Hopefully it will help others avoid that headache. One caveat to keep in mind though even if using one of the options I described, is that if highlighting from a mobile device, you still have to just "remember" to verify your highlights will be going to the right notes file.
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