The Bible Browser presents Logos curated data in a new, easy to find manner. Whereas creating complicated search queries to answer specific questions is a huge advantage of Logos' search engine, some people either just don't know where to start or have difficulties constructing the appropriate search syntax.
The Bible Browser looks to solve this problem by providing users with an easy, faceted browsing experience for all the people, places, and things within the Old and New Testaments (you can also select the book of the Bible or standard pre set groupings of texts to limit your search).
To use the Bible Browser, navigate to the tools menu and select Bible Browser.
Please be aware that, because of the massive amount of data required to make this feature work, it is an online only feature.
Once the browser has opened, you will see two panes. The pane on the left loads with the faceting search options. The pane on the right loads with the search results.
With each selection in the left panel, the remaining faceting options are restricted. For example, once you choose “Abinadab (son of Saul)” from the person facet, “sheep” (and a whole host of other things) are no longer listed underneath the Things facet, because no sheep appear in any verses or pericopes where Abinadab also appears.
If you want to know where Jesus and water occur in the same verse but don't know the search syntax <Person Jesus> AND <Thing Water>, simply select the filters and get the results you're looking for.
Some other important things to note about functionality are below:
Great feature! This is a much better way to start a search if you don't know how to parse together the search syntax.
However, the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything when trying to send the results to the search window. Having that functional would help users like me learn how to do more complex searches.
Brian Crawford:the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything
Send to search should send the passages to the search panel where one can then perform a search on that collection of passages. For instance, you might use Bible Browser to narrow down your bible to pericopes in Genesis that refer to Oxen and then you want to do a search on those 22 passages as shown here:
While Bible Browser does operate in some situations where a user might have previously done a search, it is not a tool to generate a search query. I hope that helps if it was unclear before.
If you are seeing something different than I describe, please provide more details and I will investigate it as a potential bug.
Brian Crawford:However, the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything when trying to send the results to the search window. Having that functional would help users like me learn how to do more complex searches.
Hi, Brian. What "Send these results" does is sends over the set of passages that matched to the Search panel as the reference range to search through. So rather than sending your query to a Search panel, it sends the resulting passages over. Then you can search for anything else within those results. So it's more like a "Search within these results" feature than "transform this facet set into a search query" feature.
The reason we don't just send the query over to Search is that there isn't a 1:1 correspondence between the progressive filters you can create with the Bible Browser by selecting facets and queries you can run in Search. (They're very close, and may be exactly the same in some cases, but not in all cases). The Bible Brower can (or will be able to) do things that Search won't. For example, you can't search for a key participant in a biblical event in Search, but that is one of the available facets in Bible Browser.
I can see how the wording on the menu is misleading. We'll look into that.
Alan Palmer (Faithlife): Send to search should send the passages to the search panel where one can then perform a search on that collection of passages.
Send to search should send the passages to the search panel where one can then perform a search on that collection of passages.
Ok, I see that now. I didn't see it limiting my search range - I was looking for the search syntax.
Yes, Eli, a change in the wording would help! Thanks guys.
I was looking forward to this feature. But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
Bill Cook: But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
I'm not sure I've seen anything like this happen; can you provide a screenshot?
EDIT: I'm seeing this problem in the NRSV and have reported it to the team.
The Bible Browser looks like it will be a very useful. However, the King James Bible is not currently included in this feature. Given the importance of the King James Bible (it really is the only Bible in English that has any authority for many Bible believing Christians ) would it be fair to assume that its intended to include it in future? Keep well Paul
Hi Bradley,
I have the problem of word and verse truncation and misalignment of highlights using Bible Browser with NASB.
HP ENVY x360 Convertible Notebook PC; Windows 10 Home (64bit); I7-6500U@2.50GHz; 12GB of memorySamsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (SM-T580) tablet; Android v8.1; Wi-Fi only; 16GB of storage; 32GB SD card.
Paul: would it be fair to assume that its intended to include it in future? Keep well Paul
would it be fair to assume that its intended to include it in future? Keep well Paul
Yes. We are working on adding it right now and hope it to be ready this week. I'll reply here when it's available.
Tim Hensler: I have the problem of word and verse truncation and misalignment of highlights using Bible Browser with NASB.
Thanks for reporting this bug. It appears to be the result of different versions of the resource being used. Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
If I have a selection of verses up based on selecting a bible book, person, etc., and then I switch Bible translations, the right hand panel blanks and it looks as if it was going to refresh with the new translation, but it stays blank - and the choices I have made after "Start" are still there. It seems it should refresh with the new bible translation, or at a minimum reset back to start if it can't refresh - it has left things in an intermediate step. Does my explanation make sense?
Alan Palmer (Faithlife):Thanks for reporting this bug. It appears to be the result of different versions of the resource being used. Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
I have the same problem with the NASB95.
LLS:1.0.712016-08-02T14:47:42ZNASB95.logos4
RVI:NASBNT2016-08-02T14:36:08ZNASBNT.lbsrvi
RVI:NASBOT2016-08-02T14:36:08ZNASBOT.lbsrvi
Alan Palmer (Faithlife):Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
Hi Alan.
My support info for NASB is the same as Grahams. Thank you.
While looking for Verse level results in LEB, I tried the filter: Old Testament: Esther, People: Vashti, Participants: Esther in LEB (see LEB support info below)
I was surprised to see Mordecai as a filter option - I don't see him in this verse. I added him to the filter and the highlight results in the text did not change. (see image of results below).
I also don't see Susa or Hegai in this verse, but they too are filter options. When I add them to the filter they don't make a difference in the highlight results either.
HOWEVER, when I change to Pericope level view, they (Mordecai, Susa and Hegai) are all in the results. Apparently the Pericope results are included in the Verse filter options.
I can see some value in this approach, but it was confusing and my confidence in the tool diminished. My expectation was that while in verse level view the filter options and results should be related to the verse level, not the pericope level. If I change to pericopes, then the filter options and results should change accordingly.
Should filter options be related to the Pericope/Verse selector?
LEB Support Info:
LLS:LEB2015-12-03T19:02:42ZLEB.logos4
RVI:LEBNT2015-12-03T18:36:40ZLEBNT.lbsrvi
RVI:LEBOT2015-12-03T18:36:40ZLEBOT.lbsrvi
A question regarding this feature... Is the reference box, to the right of the Bible selection dropdown, supposed to provide any interactive functionality for the feature? Or is it merely to display the currently-displayed reference range? I ask because I tried entering a reference range into that field, and I expected the available facets on the left to shrink to just those which applied to the range I had entered. However, nothing changed with the facets at all, nor did anything appear to happen as a result of me entering the range. And as soon as I clicked something in the list of facets, the range I had entered was replaced with the result of what I had clicked.
I didn't try the feature out much further because I couldn't understand that behavior. But based on the description I see in this thread, it seems like that reference field is effectively for display purposes only. If that is the case, it might be helpful if you disabled the ability to type something into it.
Thanks,
Donnie
Tim Hensler: HOWEVER, when I change to Pericope level view, they (Mordecai, Susa and Hegai) are all in the results. Apparently the Pericope results are included in the Verse filter options.
Thank you for reporting this. I've created a case and will be looking into what's going on.
Thanks Alan - This is much appreciated and I look forward to this. Keep well Paul
Tim Hensler:I also don't see Susa or Hegai in this verse, but they too are filter options. When I add them to the filter they don't make a difference in the highlight results either.
You need to look carefully at the filter. Susa and Hegai are in the Events section, not the People or Places sections. That means Susa is the setting for the event being referenced, and Hegai is a participant in that event. Both those things are true. If you want to restrict it to verses/pericopes that directly reference those people/places, you shouldn't filter by Settings or Participants, but by Places or People.
Donnie Hale:A question regarding this feature... Is the reference box, to the right of the Bible selection dropdown, supposed to provide any interactive functionality for the feature? Or is it merely to display the currently-displayed reference range? I ask because I tried entering a reference range into that field, and I expected the available facets on the left to shrink to just those which applied to the range I had entered. However, nothing changed with the facets at all, nor did anything appear to happen as a result of me entering the range. And as soon as I clicked something in the list of facets, the range I had entered was replaced with the result of what I had clicked.
The reference box allows you to jump to another part of the Bible, just as it does in a normal Bible resource. So if I had Elijah as my filter, I could type in Mark 9, and the Bible Browser would scroll to the verses/pericopes in Mark 9 that mention Elijah.
If you want to restrict your search to just a certain part of the Bible, you need to use the Bible Books filter instead.