New Feature: Notes and Highlighting

Alan Palmer (Logos)
Alan Palmer (Logos) Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,080
edited November 21 in English Forum

We have added the ability to take, edit, and remove notes and highlights in the web app. These are entirely new and separate from your desktop notes/highlights.

You can create notes and highlights on selections or references through the right click context menu (see above).

You can also access the notes panel itself from the Tools menu.

Notes and highlights can be enabled/disabled in the visual filter menu of the resource panel toolbar.

They are different from desktop notes in several key ways:

  1. First and foremost, they are not broken into different "documents".
  2. We have not added support for specific highlight styles and indicators.
  3. Contents of notes are plain text (do not support formatting, links, etc.).

These differences are subject to change as we continue fleshing out the web app but we wanted to provide this basic level of functionality as early as possible.

Tagged:

Comments

  • Doug Newby
    Doug Newby Member Posts: 48

    Thank you for adding this functionality.  This is a wonderful addition to the web app.  Just so I understand correctly; when you say "new and separate from your desktop notes/highlights" you mean that notes/highlights done in the web app do not sync to desktop/mobile and vise versa?

    Thanks again for your continued development of the web app platform

  • Kevin A. Purcell
    Kevin A. Purcell Member Posts: 3,408 ✭✭✭

    Are these supposed to sync with the desktop or mobile apps so I can see them there? If not, it kind of defeats the purpose for my workflow. Still, I'm glad this exists and look forward to improvements.

    • Would love formatting, but that's the least of my hopes.
    • Syncing is a must for me to regularly use this feature.
    • The behavior of the notes panel syncing up with the Bible panel so that you can start typing in the notes panel is great. I wish this existed in the desktop app and mobile app. It would keep us from having to right click on desktop and add note. This is how a lot of other Bible software apps work.

    Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
    Brushy Mountain Baptist Association

    www.kevinpurcell.org

  • Kevin A. Purcell
    Kevin A. Purcell Member Posts: 3,408 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for adding this functionality.  This is a wonderful addition to the web app.  Just so I understand correctly; when you say "new and separate from your desktop notes/highlights" you mean that notes/highlights done in the web app do not sync to desktop/mobile and vise versa?

    Thanks again for your continued development of the web app platform

    I just tested this and no, they don't seem to show up on the desktop app. I'm hoping that will change soon.

    Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
    Brushy Mountain Baptist Association

    www.kevinpurcell.org

  • Doug Newby
    Doug Newby Member Posts: 48

    Thank you for the confirmation.  I just checked my iPhone and my test note did not sync there either.

  • David Mitchell
    David Mitchell Member Posts: 1,275 ✭✭✭

     Just so I understand correctly; when you say "new and separate from your desktop notes/highlights" you mean that notes/highlights done in the web app do not sync to desktop/mobile and vise versa?

    That is correct. The notes and highlights in the web app are stored in the same system as the rest of them, but we made a deliberate decision to keep them separated so that we could get something out the door without having to implement full rich text support.

    At some point in the future (no schedule guarantees!) we intend to make notes that you take in the web app available on your other devices.

    David Mitchell
    Development Lead
    Faithlife

  • Fr Devin Roza
    Fr Devin Roza MVP Posts: 2,413

    That is correct. The notes and highlights in the web app are stored in the same system as the rest of them, but we made a deliberate decision to keep them separated so that we could get something out the door without having to implement full rich text support.

    At some point in the future (no schedule guarantees!) we intend to make notes that you take in the web app available on your other devices.

    I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to "migrate" the desktop notes to a more flexible and powerful "centralized" note repository, where things like "note documents" become just one more type of tagging that the note has, with the added benefits to speed, searching, flexibility, etc. that a system like this could bring. 

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

     Just so I understand correctly; when you say "new and separate from your desktop notes/highlights" you mean that notes/highlights done in the web app do not sync to desktop/mobile and vise versa?

    That is correct. The notes and highlights in the web app are stored in the same system as the rest of them, but we made a deliberate decision to keep them separated so that we could get something out the door without having to implement full rich text support.

    At some point in the future (no schedule guarantees!) we intend to make notes that you take in the web app available on your other devices.

    Was excited about this addition to the web app till  I read they dont' syn with desktop app, that is useless to me, this point in time and potentially is going to lead to complaints if you don't make it very clear and upfront these don't sync with desktop or mobile apps. I"ll be stearing clear of using this feature until it syncs with desktop and mobile apps.

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,512

    potentially is going to lead to complaints if you don't make it very clear and upfront these don't sync with desktop or mobile apps

    +1

    The "very clear" part is important to me. It isn't simply enough to put this in the release notes. 

    macOS, iOS & iPadOS |Logs| Install
    truth over tribe

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    That is correct. The notes and highlights in the web app are stored in the same system as the rest of them, but we made a deliberate decision to keep them separated so that we could get something out the door without having to implement full rich text support.

    At some point in the future (no schedule guarantees!) we intend to make notes that you take in the web app available on your other devices.

    I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to "migrate" the desktop notes to a more flexible and powerful "centralized" note repository, where things like "note documents" become just one more type of tagging that the note has, with the added benefits to speed, searching, flexibility, etc. that a system like this could bring. 

    That's exactly where we plan to go.

  • Thomas Zimmermann
    Thomas Zimmermann Member Posts: 76

    I'd be so happy if there was a more centralized highlighting system that does away with the notes. As a regular reader I highlight a lot of stuff. As the palette based note files grew to large, I had to split it up to resource specific note files. Now my notes are essentially useless as the resource specific ones clutter up all the other note files.

    Well, if there will be a solution someday, to migrate these into a centralized system that then syncs Desktop, Mobile, App I'd be so happy ;-)

    user since Logos 4

  • PetahChristian
    PetahChristian MVP Posts: 4,636

    As a regular reader I highlight a lot of stuff. As the palette based note files grew to large, I had to split it up to resource specific note files. Now my notes are essentially useless as the resource specific ones clutter up all the other note files.

    I ran into the same issue when switching from palette-based to resource-specific notes, and ended up using emoji in the titles to help spot my specific notes from among the highlighter notes.

    Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!

  • Thomas Zimmermann
    Thomas Zimmermann Member Posts: 76

    I ran into the same issue when switching from palette-based to resource-specific notes, and ended up using emoji in the titles to help spot my specific notes from among the highlighter notes.

    Wow, that is helpful :-) Thank you!

    user since Logos 4

  • Gene Mintz
    Gene Mintz Member Posts: 1

    Well, unfortunately it's as good as nothing for cross platform users.

  • Bernhard
    Bernhard Member Posts: 660 ✭✭

    Well, unfortunately it's as good as nothing for cross platform users.

    You are answering in a thread that is 7 years old. Full cross platform sync and I believe feature parity has been implemented a long time ago. See also https://www.logos.com/features/notes and the link to help there.

  • Gregory Kavonius
    Gregory Kavonius Member Posts: 20 ✭✭

    I can see all of my desktop notes and highlights on the web app. But I will have to create one on the web app and see if I can see it on my desktop.

    Note: I was able to see a note I created on the web app on my mobile app, so that's cool! [Y]