Best practices for highlights and notes
Are there any seasoned veterans that can give me some "what you wish you had known when you started using Logos" kind of advice?
I asked some questions previously on the forums about highlights and how to organize them in notes. From what I understand when a highlight is stored as a note it cannot later be reassigned to another note, nor can it be copied into more than one note file. I believe it was Graham or maybe Alabama24 that advised me to make a note file for each book I have and then store the highlights from that book in that file. (I may have misunderstood).
So for the past few weeks, I have been making a new note file everytime I open a new book and then storing the highlights there. The advantage to this method is that you can open a note and see every highlight listed for a particular resource. The disadvantage is that you end up with thousands of note files in which the notes have not connection other than they came from the same book.
Before I was making topical note files and dropping my highlights where they seemed to logically fit. So I had highlights from the same resource in multiple files.
Anyone care to advise? I want to get organized the best way from the beginning so I don't have to go back later and redo a mess in order to get everything correctly organized.
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Yes, that's correct. That's what I will do too. As I've understood it, the equivalent thing can be done with highlightings and I don't know how to but would like to know:
Kevin Maples said:I believe it was Graham or maybe Alabama24 that advised me to make a note file for each book I have and then store the highlights from that book in that file. (I may have misunderstood).
It will proove valuable if You at some point decide to give away or sell books. Then You can share the files on Faithlife with that user:Kevin Maples said:Anyone care to advise? I want to get organized the best way from the beginning so I don't have to go back later and redo a mess in order to get everything correctly organized.
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Kevin, I try to keep my highlighting files separated by book as well. One reason I like this approach is that it lets me turn on or off all highlighting in a book.
You can re-highlight a selection that is already highlighted and add it to a topical note file should you choose. The only issue there is assigning a highlight color, which could be no highlight at all. This would enable you to keep your topical references together, but requires a second step and opening a second note file.
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That's a really good suggestion. I think it might be worth the second step in some instances.Mark Smith said:You can re-highlight a selection that is already highlighted and add it to a topical note file should you choose. The only issue there is assigning a highlight color, which could be no highlight at all.
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I'm taking my books with me when I die! [:D]Unix said:if You at some point decide to give away or sell books.
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Kevin Maples said:
So for the past few weeks, I have been making a new note file everytime I open a new book and then storing the highlights there. The advantage to this method is that you can open a note and see every highlight listed for a particular resource. The disadvantage is that you end up with thousands of note files in which the notes have not connection other than they came from the same book.
My preferred method of highlighting notes is indeed the "resource specific" note file. The only connection that is ever needed is that the highlights came from the same book! With that said, I can see benefits to thematic note files as well… but compared to my "resource specific" note files, there won't be many of those.
The biggest question to ask: What do you accomplish when you highlight? I ALWAYS highlight my resources, and have done so since before I had ever heard of an e-Book. One reason is for comprehension. As I am reading, I highlight the main points… or at least the things that stick out to me. If I am reading for study or for a class, I can review the book quickly by reading through my highlights.
One more thing to remember: You can search via highlighting styles. So even with my system of "resource specific" note files, I can also search for things highlighted in ORANGE, for example. While I don't follow my rules religiously, I tend to highlight things related to family in Orange. Therefore, I can kill two birds with one stone by using this method.
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Since that is the only suggestion so far, that must be the way to go.alabama24 said:My preferred method of highlighting notes is indeed the "resource specific" note file.
Me too.alabama24 said:I ALWAYS highlight my resources, and have done so since before I had ever heard of an e-Book. One reason is for comprehension. As I am reading, I highlight the main points… or at least the things that stick out to me. If I am reading for study or for a class, I can review the book quickly by reading through my highlights.
alabama24 said:What do you accomplish when you highlight?
First, I want to accomplish all the things that you just listed. Second, I want to keep notes for projects like sermon preparation and research papers. That is where I get frustrated with the highlights. I would like to create a note file for the sermon I am working on today and put highlights from several books into that file so that at the end of the day I have highlights from everything I have read in preparation for that sermon in one place. However, when I am done with that sermon, I would like to "move" (or something do something else, copy maybe) those notes into either a topical file or resource specific file.
Also, I really don't understand how to use clippings. Maybe I need some combination of highlights and clippings. Is it possible to make a highlight and a clipping of something at the same time.
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So here is the practice I am testing out today:
I have been persuaded by Unix, Mark, and Alabama24 to stay with resource specific note files for my highlights.
When I do sermon prep, I enter my passage on the homepage and it opens the default tabs (I haven't changed anything). So I begin reading the commentaries pulled up in the passage guide. I read them one at a time. So what I am doing is reading them adding highlights that are being stored as notes in a resource specific file. When I finish reading that resource, I make a clipping file named by the sermon passage. I then navigate to the first highlight I made. I select the highlighted text and add the text as a clipping to the sermon clipping file. I then click the arrow down to go to the next highlight and do the same. I tested this out on the sermon I am working on today and I discovered I could add these clippings in just a few minutes. So based upon what I know now, I believe long term this is the best practice for me.
Maybe this discussion has helped someone else think through how to be organized as well.
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice.
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I read this thread earlier and have now found the time to try it out myself. I have one clarifying question. How exactly are you adding these highlights to a resource specific file? I know how to create a note file for each book. I also know how to redirect a highlighting palette to save in a specific note file. However, it seems a bit cumbersome to redirect my user created highlighting palette to a different note file every time I want to highlight, especially if I have multiple books I am working with at one time. I could see how it might get even more challenging when highlighting within the Logos Android app and syncing it all up.
Thanks!
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Triskal said:
However, it seems a bit cumbersome to redirect my user created highlighting palette to a different note file every time I want to highlight, especially if I have multiple books I am working with at one time.
Yep. Whenever I get the chance, I try to advocate the addition of this capability to the software...
One question: Are you sending your highlight notes to the note files by using the "last used note file" method? This is the "sticky" method… It works well in the following situation:
- You are only using one book at a time.
- You open the correct resource specific note file at the beginning of your note taking session.
- All highlight notes automatically go into the resource specific note file.
As you suggested, if you are using multiple resources at a time, this is tricky. Another possibility is to create a "delete me" note file when you are using a bunch of resources at once. When you are done taking notes, you could manually move the note files to the right document. This method isn't ideal, but would help prevent you from getting highlights into the wrong file… You would really need to keep up with migrating the highlights to the proper note file, however. Very quickly it could become unwieldy.
As for mobile… I have no idea how the Android app works. On the iOS apps, you can also change the behavior to "last used" note file… So you just open a resource, add a highlight, change the note file the FIRST time you take a note. From that point on you will be in the right note file as long as you stay in the same resource.
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alabama24 said:
As for mobile… I have no idea how the Android app works. On the iOS apps, you can also change the behavior to "last used" note file… So you just open a resource, add a highlight, change the note file the FIRST time you take a note. From that point on you will be in the right note file as long as you stay in the same resource.
I don't believe this is currently available on Android
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I think it is worth it in the long run to have the notes organized, but every person has to decide what works best for them.Triskal said:it seems a bit cumbersome to redirect my user created highlighting palette to a different note file every time I want to highlight
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Triskal said:
I read this thread earlier and have now found the time to try it out myself. I have one clarifying question. How exactly are you adding these highlights to a resource specific file? I know how to create a note file for each book. I also know how to redirect a highlighting palette to save in a specific note file. However, it seems a bit cumbersome to redirect my user created highlighting palette to a different note file every time I want to highlight, especially if I have multiple books I am working with at one time. I could see how it might get even more challenging when highlighting within the Logos Android app and syncing it all up.
Thanks!
I had toyed with the idea of creating a custom set of palettes for specific note files, but that was before seeing this thread where people were suggesting a note file per resource. That would clearly be too many palettes. The key seems to be to set the option to direct highlights to "Save in: Most recent note file". However, I would like someone to definitively state what causes a note file to become "Most recent" in the Logos program version. Several questions are in order:
(1) Does it have to be open?
(2) Is it sufficient to bring the note file tab into focus by "touching" it or does one need to post a note to it? The second would seem to be onerous.
(3) Is "most recent" remembered in the layout and/or across Logos restarts?
The iPad and Android Logos applications allows you to choose the document to receive the highlighting "note" at the time the highlight is placed. However, in the iPad, at least, the choice of document was not "sticky"; i.e., it reverted to its first suggestion. When I chose a different palette, called "style" on the tablet, it did not change the document setting to the preferred document of the selected palette. Thus, the implementation seems to not be consistent with the desktop/laptop version. Unfortunately, the behavior, by not being consistent, is even complicated to describe.
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David A Egolf said:
I would like someone to definitively state what causes a note file to become "Most recent" in the Logos program version.
It is most recently created.
noDavid A Egolf said:Does it have to be open?
yesDavid A Egolf said:Is "most recent" remembered in the layout and/or across Logos restarts?
You can go to settings on the iPad app and choose the file and it will "stick"David A Egolf said:The iPad and Android Logos applications allows you to choose the document to receive the highlighting "note" at the time the highlight is placed. However, in the iPad, at least, the choice of document was not "sticky"; i.e., it reverted to its first suggestion.
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Most recent does not mean most recently created... It means the most recently used. This COULD mean:
- A "just created" note file
- The last opened note file
- The last note file tab to be selected.
In each of these cases, the note document was the last used note document. I am not near my computer, but I don't think the note file has to be opened.... But opening the note file in a different pane and having it active is the easiest way to ensure that you are using the "last used" note file.
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alabama24, I concede that you have probably forgotten more about Logos than I will ever learn and you have taught me much of what I know, but I'm not able to follow you here. I don't know if I am doing something differently or if I am misunderstanding, but I cannot get the notes to go to the last note used. This is only working for me when I create a new note file.alabama24 said:Most recent does not mean most recently created
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Kevin - I'm on vacation and don't have my computer with me... But either you have discovered a bug, or are not doing something right. The behavior I described is how it has always worked for me... but I honestly don't use L5 to highlight often... (I highlight daily on the mobile app).
If "most recent" were intended to be only the most recently created note file, it would be a fairly useless preference since you would never be able to reuse any note file once you created a new one. [:s]
It might be helpful for you to tell us version numbers and post screen shots.
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The last post has two screen shots (cropped) which show my setting on my iPhone. The "last used" note file is my devotional note file. When I open a new resource, I change the note file ONCE, and that preference "sticks". NOTE: How I described L5 "last used" is different than on mobile.
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I'm very busy today trying to finish a sermon before leaving town this afternoon. I'll try to post some screen shots and give a detailed description of what I am doing early next week. Have a great vacation.alabama24 said:It might be helpful for you to tell us version numbers and post screen shots.
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Sounds good.
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I wouldn't know about the mobile apps, but in the desktop app there are two easy ways to see what note file is the 'most recent':
- Click Documents, make sure it's sorted by Date, and look under Notes.
- Right-click in a resource and see what it says in the bottom right corner under Add a note to.
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Kevin Maples said:
I'm taking my books with me when I die!Unix said:if You at some point decide to give away or sell books.
You won't need to. The entire catalog of Logos books will be freely available to all in the after-life. [:)]
alabama24 said:One more thing to remember: You can search via highlighting styles. So even with my system of "resource specific" note files, I can also search for things highlighted in ORANGE, for example.
I wish there were a way to tag highlights and notes with keywords. Different colors are one way of keeping separate types of highlights straight, but (a) I can never remember color schemes I've set up for myself and (b) it might be nice to be able to search for highlights that match two or more keywords; for example all my Notes that are related to SERMON prep and also related to FAITH-DOUBT issues. I'm thinking of a kind of tagging system like we have for Clippings. If only that could be added to Notes/Highlighting documents that would be cool.
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