PLEASE bring back the Topic Browser

I'm seriously missing the true ability to do a topical search while trying to do a topical study!

I know this was raised as a gap before, but wanted to bring this to the forefront again to expedite the return of topical browsing / searching.

For some reason this didn't even make it to the Missing Features list: http://www.logos.com/4/missingfeatures

Thanks,

Peter

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Comments

steve clark

i agree.

The only topic browsing in L4 is in the passage guide. And that is a joke; this hurts my eyes and frustrates me.

Plus you can only type in a Bible passage.

You are right, there is no Topic Search tool. This is one reason that i keep L3

Dave Hooton

I don't think anybody is satisfied with the current concept of doing a Basic Search and getting "topics" under certain conditions.

J.R. Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86735#Comment_86735

Although I like the Wordle [Y]

Blair Laird

I'm seriously missing the true ability to do a topical search while trying to do a topical study!

I know this was raised as a gap before, but wanted to bring this to the forefront again to expedite the return of topical browsing / searching.

For some reason this didn't even make it to the Missing Features list: http://www.logos.com/4/missingfeatures

Thanks,

Peter

It should be on the missing features list, I agree.

MJ. Smith

I'm seriously missing the true ability to do a topical search while trying to do a topical study!

Did I misunderstand? I thought Logos' explanation of the limitations of the topic search now was that we didn't have a true topic search in L3 and that we were getting a true topic search in L4 as books got retagged. I've certainly seen an increase in the material appearing under "Topics" and given that it came from places like "Topical Bible" it indicated that the tagging was being done.

[I think L3 used a head word search rather than topic search, but I certainly could be wrong.]

Tes

The only topic browsing in L4 is in the passage guide. And that is a joke; this hurts my eyes and frustrates me

Petrli,as a Christian wouldn't it better to use a better language?

Mary-Ellen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86762#Comment_86762

[I think L3 used a head word search rather than topic search,

In addition to headwords, L3 uses the subject index from the back of the original print resource (and maybe more?).

A wonderful feature of the Topic Browser is that it generates a list of topics from a "find" word. E.g., I just looked up "narrative" and got a long list of topics that begin with narrative, e.g., narrative, Hebrew; narrative, rescue; narrative theology; narrative exegesis. This is a great tool to help me both narrow my target and enlarge my thinking at the same time.

L4 is just not complete by not taking full advantage of the topic indexing that already resides in the resources.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86791#Comment_86791

[I think L3 used a head word search rather than topic search,

In addition to headwords, L3 uses the subject index from the back of the original print resource (and maybe more?).

A wonderful feature of the Topic Browser is that it generates a list of topics from a "find" word. E.g., I just looked up "narrative" and got a long list of topics that begin with narrative, e.g., narrative, Hebrew; narrative, rescue; narrative theology; narrative exegesis. This is a great tool to help me both narrow my target and enlarge my thinking at the same time.

L4 is just not complete by not taking full advantage of the topic indexing that already resides in the resources.

Mary-Ellen, you're right. I think so far L3 and L4 have offered 3 different ways to do a topic-like search:

1) Topic Browser - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a list of "topics" based on the subject index of each book in the library - only available in L3; still missing in L4.

2) Topics section in the Passage Guide - user types in a Bible reference, and Logos returns a "wordle" of topics which are presumably head words from certain dictionaries and indexes in your library - new in L4.

3) Reading Lists - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a reading list which was submitted by other users on the topics.logos.com wiki website - new in L4.

I'm requesting #1 to be re-introduced in L4. Hope this clarifies it for everyone.

Thanks,

Peter

Terry Poperszky

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86783#Comment_86783

Petrli,as a Christian wouldn't it better to use a better language?

Tes, please be careful about trying to be the language police. I personally find nothing offensive in his language or their content.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86762#Comment_86762

I think L3 used a head word search rather than topic search, but I certainly could be wrong.

L3 used a topic search which yielded more results than a true headword search because of the loose connection of "topic" words to a serious discussion in the section with which they are associated. As I understand it, Logos want to construct a database of topics and topic alternatives in order to gain more accurate results by matching them to resource headwords. Some dictionaries provide their own alternatives eg. xxxxxxx: see yyyyyyyy. I think Logos would prefer to list yyyyyyyy in the Topic section (of Basic Search).

The most obvious disadvantage of the current Topic search is that it may list 2 - 3 dictionaries whilst we have (and can find) 9 - 10 dictionaries with the same headword(s) for that topic.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86798#Comment_86798

Petrli,as a Christian wouldn't it better to use a better language?

Tes, please be careful about trying to be the language police. I personally find nothing offensive in his language or their content.

Yes, nothing offensive there as far as I'm concerned. Maybe as a non-native English speaker, you mistook his words for something rude? (I've made the reverse mistake before in a language not my own; tried to say something and it came out meaning something embarrassing! [:$])

By the way, it was Steve Clark you were quoting, not Peter Li.

Tes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86798#Comment_86798

OK. If it so,I accept it.Thank you.

Tes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86807#Comment_86807

OK, thank you Rosie,you are right ,that does'nt go with my mentality ,I will try to ignore when I see such words for the future. Thank you all for having petience with me .I apologize as well.God bless you

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86820#Comment_86820

OK, thank you Rosie,you are right ,that does'nt go with my mentality ,I will try to ignore when I see such words for the future. Thank you all for having petience with me .I apologize as well.God bless you

No worries. Blessings. We appreciate you.

Friedrich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86783#Comment_86783

The only topic browsing in L4 is in the passage guide. And that is a joke; this hurts my eyes and frustrates me

Petrli,as a Christian wouldn't it better to use a better language?

actually using the words "that is a joke" IS a bit demeaning sounding. Better would be: "I have no clue how to make this useful to me."

That said, Tes, use the "Reply" button, not "Quick Reply" when you want to quote someone. WHen the "reply" dialogue box opens, select the text you want to quote, and then click "quote" and that part of the text will appear on your reply. (if you want the whole thing to be quoted, no need to select/hightlight, just click "quote" without doing a highlight and ALL will be quoted)

The reason is two fold:

the way you did it above looks like YOU said "this is a joke" etc, because the quote is not attributed to anybody in your reply, and the text itself is as though you wrote it yourself
if you actually use "reply/quote" method I detail above, there will be no mistaking who made it. In this case, you said Peter Li said something bad, and you really were referring to Steve Clark. I searched Peter's comments and kept thinking "what on EARTH could have offended Tes?!" Now, knowing what Steve said, i can see your point a little bit.

Dan

Mary-Ellen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86797#Comment_86797

1) Topic Browser - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a list of "topics" based on the subject index of each book in the library - only available in L3; still missing in L4.

2) Topics section in the Passage Guide - user types in a Bible reference, and Logos returns a "wordle" of topics which are presumably head words from certain dictionaries and indexes in your library - new in L4.

3) Reading Lists - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a reading list which was submitted by other users on the topics.logos.com wiki website - new in L4.

I'm requesting #1 to be re-introduced in L4. Hope this clarifies it for everyone.

Excellent recap, thanks!

Kevin Becker

Peter, I appreciate how helpful the topic browser was to you. Personally, I found that it missed a lot of stuff and I needed to do other searches to mine my library for all its worth.

Here's a post by Sean Boisen http://community.logos.com/forums/p/3470/27363.aspx#27363 that explains some of the background of this issue.

J. Morris

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86832#Comment_86832

The current 'topic browser' is woefully inadequate... I'd agree the look of it is confusing... While L3's topic browser might not have been searching efficiently (from what I've heard), I still have to use it instead of L4 when I'm needing to search a topic.

Tes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86828#Comment_86828

That said, Tes, use the "Reply" button, not "Quick Reply" when you want to quote someone. WHen the "reply" dialogue box opens, select the text you want to quote, and then click "quote" and that part of the text will appear on your reply. (if you want the whole thing to be quoted, no need to select/hightlight, just click "quote" without doing a highlight and ALL will be quoted)

Thank you so much Dan for taking time to settle down the matter,and showing me how I have to use ,I really appriciate you!God blesss you!

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86797#Comment_86797

1) Topic Browser - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a list of "topics" based on the subject index of each book in the library - only available in L3; still missing in L4.

2) Topics section in the Passage Guide - user types in a Bible reference, and Logos returns a "wordle" of topics which are presumably head words from certain dictionaries and indexes in your library - new in L4.

3) Reading Lists - user types in a given topic, and Logos returns a reading list which was submitted by other users on the topics.logos.com wiki website - new in L4.

One that you're missing is:

4) Topic section at the top of a Basic Search:

This isn't very fully fleshed out yet in L4 because it depends on a lot more work being done behind the scenes in their topics database (aka concepts database).

steve clark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86858#Comment_86858

I am the guilty party of saying the 'joke' part and apologize if it offended anyone. But the wordle looks like a child's puzzle.

The wordle requires much scrutinizing to find a useful phrase, which most often isn't what i was looking for. Then its back to twisting my head, zooming to a floating window and searching further. All this distracts from my original intent of finding information on a specific topic. This may be cute, but not appropriate for serious research!

The PG does not allow for entering a specific word (i.e. I had typed in Life and it decided to inject Gen 2:whatever). So the topics it selected in the wordle have little relevance to the topic that i wanted to search. (yes, i understand this is not its true intended usage). But it seems the only place where Topic is presented.

Yes i can use Search, but that will yield every location in every book in my library, which i find pretty useless (to view 30,000 lines in a small slowly scrolling window).

I can see where it is said that L4 may be more accurate (or that is their hope). But even in the inaccuracy of L3, i would often find some useful hits on a topic that i could select with a word.

Sorry for stirring others up with my opinion. [Guess this is one of my buttons [:D] ]

Terry Poperszky

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86828#Comment_86828

actually using the words "that is a joke" IS a bit demeaning sounding. Better would be: "I have no clue how to make this useful to me."

Dan, this is the problem, "better" to who/whom? Right now there are people starting to patrol the forum enforcing "Christian Correctness", (No Tess, I am not talking about you). Let's all be adults, thicken our skins and practice an attitude of Grace toward each other.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/86867#Comment_86867

One that you're missing is:

4) Topic section at the top of a Basic Search...

Yes, Rosie, thanks. I did miss that one, and I agree with your assessment.

Yes i can use Search, but that will yield every location in every book in my library, which i find pretty useless (to view 30,000 lines in a small slowly scrolling window).

Yes, I agree with you, Steve.

Peter