Exporting a Bible reading plan in text format

Michael Willemse
Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum
In Logos 3 I was
able to export my Bible Reading plan to a text file (using "file," "export").
This is important to me as I then import this (after a little bit of tweaking)
to my OliveTree bible software on my Palm Tungsten T5 so that I can keep up to
date with my Bible reading wherever I am.

 

I cannot find a way
to do this in Logos 4. Is there currently a way to do this? If not, is it in the
pipeline?



PS: I can probably still do it by exporting the reading plan into Outlook then exporting it from Outlook to text and then deleting the entries from Outlook - this is a bit more of a pain though! 

Comments

  • David Matthew
    David Matthew Member Posts: 169 ✭✭

    Looks as if we've lost this facility in Logos 4. A pity - for several years I have created a one-year Bible reading plan in Logos 3 and have been able to export it as text and get it arranged in my DTP program to print out for the benefit of folk in our local church. I was planning to do a plan for 2010 today but, alas, it apparently can't be done. Does anybody know differently?

  • Michael Krogstad
    Michael Krogstad Member Posts: 44 ✭✭

    I would be interested in how you have done this if  you are willing to share.  I have created a custom plan this year and would like it for other programs.

    Michael

  • David Matthew
    David Matthew Member Posts: 169 ✭✭

    Sorry, Michael, but I can't remember, and I no longer have Logos 3 on my computer to be able to have a go and give you the steps.

    I do know that, once I had created the reading plan in Logos, there was some facility that enabled me to export it as a text file. That way, I just imported the text file into my DTP program (Serif PagePlus), where I could format and size it to suit printing as a booklet.

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    David - I guess that you have uninstalled Logos 3 otherwise you could still use that (although I find that there are some differences between plans produced with the same parameters in Logos 3 and Logos 4).

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    Sorry David - should have read your second post which said that you no longer have Logos 3! (Sorry ...)

    I know how to do this from Logos 3 - my problem is doing it from Logos 4.

    In Logos 3, I could export directly to a text file and then manipulate that so that I could put it on my PDA Bible software. In Logos 4, it looks like I'll have to export it to Outlook and then export my Outlook calendar, separate out the Bible reading entries and then prep it for the PDA - so it adds a few more steps. (Hopefully Logos still plan to put export to text into Logos 4!)

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    Michael

    If you have Outlook you can export your reading plan into Outlook by opening the reading plan in Logos 4 and clicking on the "Export to Outlook" option. This will put a series of appointments into Outlook (you get to specify times and reminder options) with the Bible readings for each day.

    From there you can open up your calendar in Outlook and then choose "File" "Import/Export" (I am using Outlook 2003). Click on "Export to a file" and you can then select from a variety of output formats (CSV, Access, Excel). You are able to select the name of the output file, the fields you want to output (I simply specified start date, start time and subject (though you will want to select description if you want the full names of the Bible books rather than the abbreviations)) and the date range.

    This procedure will output all appointments for date range specified but it is simple to just get the records you want. I outputted the results to an Excel file and all the Bible reading entries (because they are set up as repeating appointments) appear in a group so it was easy to isolate these.

    Within Excel it is easy to manipulate the records to suit your purposes and then output the result as a text file.

    For my PDA, the readings needed to be in XML format so I import the records to access and have written a simple report which adds in all the XML coding. Let me know if you would like a copy of this database.

    When you have the data you need, it is simple to delete the appointments from Outlook by double clicking on the appointment, choosing "open the series" and then clicking on the delete button. One recurring appointment is set up for each day so you will need to delete a week's worth of "appointments" to get rid of them all.

    I did strike one snag - I have four readings each day and when I tried to export the reading plan from Outlook, the program kept crashing. To get around this, I set up four reading plans, one for each reading, importing each one into Outlook. Then after exporting the file, it was a simple matter to consolidate them into one set of readings per day again.

    Hope that all of this info is helpful to you! (Like I said in the original question, it was a bit simpler when you could export from Logos 3 directly to a text file!)

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    I would be interested in how you have done this if  you are willing to share.  I have created a custom plan this year and would like it for other programs.

    Michael


    Michael

    If you have Outlook you can export your reading plan into Outlook by opening the reading plan in Logos 4 and clicking on the "Export to Outlook" option. This will put a series of appointments into Outlook (you get to specify times and reminder options) with the Bible readings for each day.

    From there you can open up your calendar in Outlook and then choose "File" "Import/Export" (I am using Outlook 2003). Click on "Export to a file" and you can then select from a variety of output formats (CSV, Access, Excel). You are able to select the name of the output file, the fields you want to output (I simply specified start date, start time and subject (though you will want to select description if you want the full names of the Bible books rather than the abbreviations)) and the date range.

    This procedure will output all appointments for date range specified but it is simple to just get the records you want. I outputted the results to an Excel file and all the Bible reading entries (because they are set up as repeating appointments) appear in a group so it was easy to isolate these.

    Within Excel it is easy to manipulate the records to suit your purposes and then output the result as a text file.

    For my PDA, the readings needed to be in XML format so I import the records to access and have written a simple report which adds in all the XML coding. Let me know if you would like a copy of this database.

    When you have the data you need, it is simple to delete the appointments from Outlook by double clicking on the appointment, choosing "open the series" and then clicking on the delete button. One recurring appointment is set up for each day so you will need to delete a week's worth of "appointments" to get rid of them all.

    I did strike one snag - I have four readings each day and when I tried to export the reading plan from Outlook, the program kept crashing. To get around this, I set up four reading plans, one for each reading, importing each one into Outlook. Then after exporting the file, it was a simple matter to consolidate them into one set of readings per day again.

    Hope that all of this info is helpful to you! (Like I said in the original question, it was a bit simpler when you could export from Logos 3 directly to a text file!)

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    I would be interested in how you have done this if  you are willing to share.  I have created a custom plan this year and would like it for other programs.

    Michael

    Michael

    I also ran into one further problem ... when I exported from Outlook to Access it used Em dashes (the long ones) rather than standard dashes. When I generated the reading plan for Olivetree it would interpret Gen 3-5 as Genesis 3:5 rather than starting my reading at Gen 3:1. This was easily remedied by substituting standard dashes for Em dashes using Word (Ctrl-h).

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    Looks as if we've lost this facility in Logos 4. A pity - for several years I have created a one-year Bible reading plan in Logos 3 and have been able to export it as text and get it arranged in my DTP program to print out for the benefit of folk in our local church. I was planning to do a plan for 2010 today but, alas, it apparently can't be done. Does anybody know differently?

    David

    If you have Outlook it can still be done from Logos 4 using the procedure I have described in my reply to Michael (see previous two posts).

    God's blessings

  • David Lowther
    David Lowther Member Posts: 37 ✭✭

    I am going to use a Bible reading plan in Logos 4 and wanted to produce a list of the passages so that my wife could read through the same passages as I am.

    Following the instructions above, I am struggling to get a Bible reading plan exported from Outlook 2007. Exporting to Outlook works, but not from Outlook to a file. It seems that the problem is related to recurring appointments. I can export the calendar if I do not have the recurring appointments for the reading plan, but with the reading plan added, Outlook 2007 crashes with an event id 7001, ID 6 error.

    I will continue to look into the export problem (suggestions welcome), but I was wondering if someone could send me an Excel or CVS file with a plan for reading through the Bible in a year, starting on 1/1/2010, with the OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs option, from Logo 4. I tried to create the same plan in Logos 3 that is created in Logos 4, but they do not match. I could fall back to using Logos 3 for my reading plan and pring the listing for her, but I had hoped to be completely on Logos 4 well before the end of 2010.

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    I am going to use a Bible reading plan in Logos 4 and wanted to produce a list of the passages so that my wife could read through the same passages as I am.

    Following the instructions above, I am struggling to get a Bible reading plan exported from Outlook 2007. Exporting to Outlook works, but not from Outlook to a file. It seems that the problem is related to recurring appointments. I can export the calendar if I do not have the recurring appointments for the reading plan, but with the reading plan added, Outlook 2007 crashes with an event id 7001, ID 6 error.

    I will continue to look into the export problem (suggestions welcome), but I was wondering if someone could send me an Excel or CVS file with a plan for reading through the Bible in a year, starting on 1/1/2010, with the OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs option, from Logo 4. I tried to create the same plan in Logos 3 that is created in Logos 4, but they do not match. I could fall back to using Logos 3 for my reading plan and pring the listing for her, but I had hoped to be completely on Logos 4 well before the end of 2010.

    David

    Your plan looks like the one that I am using. In the OT section I don't include Psalms and Proverbs since I'm reading those separately. I do mine over six days (don't do Sunday as I am a pastor and use that time for preaching preparation). I've attached my plan in excel format.

    The problem that you had sounds like the same one that I had - I think it is caused by the commas in the calendar entries. To get around it I created four separate plans, one for each section, and exported them all to Outlook. When I did that the export from Outlook worked fine. Maybe that's causing your problem too.

    God bless ... Michael

    2450.OT NT Ps Prov.xls

  • David Lowther
    David Lowther Member Posts: 37 ✭✭

    Hi Michael - Sorry for the late reply. I was catching up on some earlier posts and finally got back to this one.

    Thanks for the file and for your suggestions. I greatly appreciate it!

  • Michael Krogstad
    Michael Krogstad Member Posts: 44 ✭✭

    My thanks as well.  I will do some playing and see.  OliveTree was one I was considering.  PocketBible was the other.

    Thanks.

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    My pleasure brothers!! [:)] Glad that it was helpful to you both.

    I've asked Logos to include the export to text feature in Logos 4 so I hope that in time it will be restored.

    God's blessings ... Michael

  • Jeremy Wilson
    Jeremy Wilson Member Posts: 5 ✭✭

    I realize that this is a very old thread, but I've got something to add that others may find useful.  I also was trying to figure out how to export the reading plan as text so I could format it to my liking in Microsoft Word.  I found that when in the reading plan editing window, if you select the Reading Plan icon in the upper-left corner and choose Print/Export..., these options are available on the right-hand side:

    • Copy to clipboard
    • Save as file:
      • Rich Text Format (Word, etc.)
      • Text Document
      • Web Page (HTML)
      • iCalendar
      • XPS Document
    • Send to new document: 
      • Microsoft Word
    • Paste into open document:
      • Microsoft Word

    I am running Logos version 4.2, so I am unsure if these options are available on prior releases, but I sure found them to be handy.

    -Jeremy

  • Michael Willemse
    Michael Willemse Member Posts: 27 ✭✭

    Jeremy

    These options weren't around a year ago so the good folk at Logos have been listening. I set up my Bible reading plan for this year yesterday and found the new options made the process much simpler. Thank you to the Logos team!