Trying to figure out how to set a series in Logos 6. Namely, I'd like to set things up so that when I'm switching from OT to NT, BHS will automatically switch over to NA28 so that I won't need to switch between windows. How would I do this?
Create a collection and set parallel resources
https://wiki.logos.com/Parallel_Resources
I would use the "Set Series" option in the Library
Select both resources and create a series in the Information Pane
More details at https://community.logos.com/forums/t/72233.aspx?PageIndex=1
Just illustrating Graham's post. OL Bible means Original Language Bible
This won't work.
Parallel resources are designed for multiple resources that contain the same references, e.g., multiple commentaries on the book of Matthew.
A custom series is intended to solve the OP's problem, and should be used for resources that (as a group) cover a reference range; e.g., make a series out of a commentary on Matthew, a commentary on Mark, a commentary on Luke, etc.
This has been helpful. Solved my problem perfectly and learned a few things in the process. Thanks everyone!
Parallel resources are designed for multiple resources that contain the same references, e.g., multiple commentaries on the book of Matthew. A custom series is intended to solve the OP's problem, and should be used for resources that (as a group) cover a reference range; e.g., make a series out of a commentary on Matthew, a commentary on Mark, a commentary on Luke, etc.
So you are saying that the series field in the library metadata by design has two meanings which may or may not cooincide:
So you are saying that the series field in the library metadata by design has two meanings which may or may not cooincide: serial association book series
A 'book series' may imply a serial association e.g. bible commentaries, or it might just be a book collection e.g. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Classic Pastoral Care, Creation Series, George Muller Collection!
BTW, another great "series" you may want to set is to put your favorite Greek and Hebrew Lexicon in the same series. I have BDAG and BDB in the same series, for example.
Then, if you use the option to "Send hyperlinks here" on your Bible and Lexicon, links from other resources, or double clicking a word to look it up, will switch between them seamlessly.
The only thing the application uses the "Series" metadata field for is serial association.
I consider the use of this field for "book series" to be a metadata error, but I have not been successful in convincing everyone (anyone?) else. [:)]
The only thing the application uses the "Series" metadata field for is serial association. I consider the use of this field for "book series" to be a metadata error, but I have not been successful in convincing everyone (anyone?) else.
I consider the use of this field for "book series" to be a metadata error, but I have not been successful in convincing everyone (anyone?) else.
Perhaps all people need to know in order to be convinced is that there are performance implications when using "series".
In order to power the feature that provides the reference box the ability to jump to the right resource in your series when you enter a passage not in the current book, we must open every resource in your series anytime you open a single one! This is likely not a big deal with small series and fast hard drives but one could quickly create a serious problem if you were opening a layout with several resources each a part of a separate, large series.
TL;DR - Overuse/misuse of "series" can lead to poor application performance.
IMO, an arbitrary collection of books (that don't form a serial association), e.g., "101 Questions and Answers Series" (https://www.logos.com/product/42395/101-questions-and-answers-series) is better managed with a collection, rather than "Series" metadata.
As Alan said, overusing "Series" may slow down your system.
From the end-users perspective, it is very nice to have the Series like the 101 questions series you mentioned marked as such in the Metadata that ships with the product. This makes exploring your Library much easier and faster. That is too bad about it opening up all of them together. I wonder how that could be fixed, so we could have the best of both worlds... maybe having two rows, one for "series name", and the other for "series functionality" (obviously with better names).
I consider the use of this field for "book series" to be a metadata error
Are you saying that the fact that a "Series" value is set for groups of resources which don't logically give you any serial association functionality is something that Faithlife's content team is responsible for and, in your opinion, they should not do? And that in so doing they may be inadvertently impacting application performance (per Alan)? I'm thinking of new resource groups / bundles / "series" which have "Series" pre-populated when they are originally downloaded.
If so, I think there are a couple of things that should follow:
a) You need to try harder to convince the right people.
b) Users should delete any "Series" settings for groups of resources which wouldn't yield logical serial association functionality.
Donnie
IMO, an arbitrary collection of books (that don't form a serial association), e.g., "101 Questions and Answers Series" (https://www.logos.com/product/42395/101-questions-and-answers-series) is better managed with a collection, rather than "Series" metadata. As Alan said, overusing "Series" may slow down your system.
Having too many collections also slows down Logos especially in the already slow initial build of drop down menus. This is a classic case of using a single field to mean 2 different things.
Eli Evans is your google-thingy working to pick up this post? It is reasonable that when a user sees a field in the library panel that is titled "series" they would expect it to hold the publication information in library catalogues that is titled "series". Users need both series associations and named series - as separate functions/elements.
If so, I think there are a couple of things that should follow: a) You need to try harder to convince the right people. b) Users should delete any "Series" settings for groups of resources which wouldn't yield logical serial association functionality.
Donnie, I strongly disagree as you are implying that I should give up much of my sort and temporary collection functions to change what slows my system from too many series to too many collections. The solution is that Faithlife should correct the underlying data problem by giving serial association its own field (or other designation mechanism) and let the library metadata be what the user expects - library metadata paralleling a library catalogue.
Yep, I'm listening in. And arguing discussing with Bradley at the same time. [:)]
It's definitely a classic case of throwing one rock at two birds. It's also a case of some really old code (that makes some out of date assumptions about what "Series" metadata is used for) that performed much better when it was first written, but now ... not so much.
Eli Evans is your google-thingy working to pick up this post?
No, Google alerts isn't working as well as I had hoped. I might get alerted to this thread sometime next week. [^o)]
Eli - there are some related library issue to consider when something is really going to happen:
There are a number of resources that are single books in print but have been split into multiple resources for language/type reasons. It would be useful to have metadata show the user that the parts are related. (You should have seen the mess trying to get it sorted out when one part wasn't released). While it is primarily a Catholic problem (church documents in Latin/English/Spanish) or the Lutheran Triglotta (Latin/German/English) there is a large and growing number of cases where one wishes to toggle between various versions of the same resource. It is tedious setting these up as parallel resource collections - not to mention the hit on performance. It would be nice to have a translation relationship that ran off the metadata.
Can't disagree.
We're going to push a small fix in 6.3 Beta 3 that should address part of this performance problem (and make it much less of an issue to use "Series" metadata to indicate "book series").
If you use Series heavily for "serial resource associations", please give this a test when Beta 3 ships.
From the end-users perspective, it is very nice to have the Series like the 101 questions series you mentioned marked as such in the Metadata that ships with the product. This makes exploring your Library much easier and faster. That is too bad about it opening up all of them together. I wonder how that could be fixed, so we could have the best of both worlds
6.3 Beta 3 will contain a small fix to stop all the "101 Questions" resources being opened when you open one of them.
This is a standard engineers vs UI "argument" that happens all the time in software development. Logos 3 had separate series fields, and most users found them confusing. Having one field with a simple rule has worked well since Logos 4 was introduced, so I'm on the side of the UI guys. It shouldn't matter that the metadata people are using the series field for publisher series (like the Anchor Bible Reference library). most of the time that's useful (like commentary series, for example). If the code needs to be optimised (e.g. Only opening resources that shares a data type with the current resource), then I'm sure the engineers can rise to the challenge.
Will do - thank you.
This is a standard engineers vs UI "argument" that happens all the time in software development.
I see it more as a data design issue ... trying to attach two separate meanings to a single piece of data because they match some/most of the time.
As Alan said, overusing "Series" may slow down your system. We're going to push a small fix in 6.3 Beta 3 that should address part of this performance problem (and make it much less of an issue to use "Series" metadata to indicate "book series"). If you use Series heavily for "serial resource associations", please give this a test when Beta 3 ships.
This is in 6.3 Beta 3.
