Collections

When creating a new collection with a long list, is there any way to:

1.) have the cursor return to the spot where the last item was dragged from? (Instead of returning to the top of the list each time)

2.) Is there a way to drag multiple items? (e.g. 3or 4 books that are next to each other in the list)

Greg

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Tom Geswein

I don't have an answer, but I share your concern on both counts. It gets very time consuming when creating a large collection...

Rosie Perera

When creating a new collection with a long list, is there any way to:

1.) have the cursor return to the spot where the last item was dragged from? (Instead of returning to the top of the list each time)

2.) Is there a way to drag multiple items? (e.g. 3or 4 books that are next to each other in the list)

Greg

The best way to create a collection is not to drag multiple items into it, but make up a rule that will catch all the items you want to have in your collection. This is much more flexible and is dynamic, in that if you add any more books to your library in the future that should be in that collection, you won't have to remember to drag them in. They will match the criteria of the rule, so they'll show up in the collection automatically.

Read more about collections here, and watch these excellent videos (created by an advanced Logos user, Pastor Mark Barnes) on prioritizing resources and making collections here and here and here and here.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60091#Comment_60091

The answer is 'no' on both counts. But remember that collections are normally supposed to be dynamic, so you shouldn't need to drop individual resources for most of your collections. There's a video tutorial linked in my signature that explains more if you're interested.

Donovan R. Palmer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60094#Comment_60094

Don't forget that you can use tagging to create an "ala carte" collection of books, such as favorites. Then just use the mytag:<tagname> in your collection criteria.

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60093#Comment_60093

When creating a new collection with a long list, is there any way to:

1.) have the cursor return to the spot where the last item was dragged from? (Instead of returning to the top of the list each time)

2.) Is there a way to drag multiple items? (e.g. 3or 4 books that are next to each other in the list)

Greg

The best way to create a collection is not to drag multiple items into it, but make up a rule that will catch all the items you want to have in your collection. This is much more flexible and is dynamic, in that if you add any more books to your library in the future that should be in that collection, you won't have to remember to drag them in. They will match the criteria of the rule, so they'll show up in the collection automatically.

Read more about collections here, and watch these excellent videos (created by an advanced Logos user, Pastor Mark Barnes) on prioritizing resources and making collections here and here and here and here.

Remember that your rule may catch more than you really want. If that happens you can drag them over to the "- these resources" side. This happened when I created a collection of my Anchor Bible Commentaries and had to remove the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60148#Comment_60148

Remember that your rule may catch more than you really want. If that happens you can drag them over to the "- these resources" side. This happened when I created a collection of my Anchor Bible Commentaries and had to remove the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

It's best to try an avoid this if you can because it's a sign that your string isn't accurate, and new resources could end up getting in there that shouldn't. You should be able to create Anchor Bible commentaries by just using series:"WhateverTheSeriesIs". (I don't have Anchor to test, sorry.)

J. Morris

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60167#Comment_60167

The syntax (if that's what they are called?) strings to define a collection are very confusing to me. On top of that, it is next to impossible (without a realllly long syntax string) to get ALL the book I want and to NOT include ANY that I do not want.

I have ended up having to manually add EVERY book one at a time. It takes "forever" especially because it ALWAYS defaults back to the top of the "list".

I agree it should just stay where I last added a book from and not default. This has caused me to spend a GREAT deal of time on creating my collections.

I know that the purpose of creating a "dynamic" collection is so that any new resources I might get will automatically be put in there, but as I mentioned before, it is just to complicated for me to use effectively and even if I get the "syntax string(s)" corrrect it still does NOT guarantee anything.

If (when) I get new resources, I'll know what they are and I'll just have to manually do it myself, for now. [:(]

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60190#Comment_60190

The syntax (if that's what they are called?) strings to define a collection are very confusing to me. On top of that, it is next to impossible (without a realllly long syntax string) to get ALL the book I want and to NOT include ANY that I do not want.

I have ended up having to manually add EVERY book one at a time. It takes "forever" especially because it ALWAYS defaults back to the top of the "list".

I agree it should just stay where I last added a book from and not default. This has caused me to spend a GREAT deal of time on creating my collections.

I know that the purpose of creating a "dynamic" collection is so that any new resources I might get will automatically be put in there, but as I mentioned before, it is just to complicated for me to use effectively and even if I get the "syntax string(s)" corrrect it still does NOT guarantee anything.

If (when) I get new resources, I'll know what they are and I'll just have to manually do it myself, for now.

Forgive me, but I think you're being a bit defeatist here. If I didn't know better I'd say you were stuck in the Logos 3 way of doing things and weren't willing to invest a little time in learning the better way of Logos 4 [:P] There are a few search strings which are tricky (Johannine and Petrine Epistles, for example), but most others are relatively straightforward. Have you watched my video (see my sig) or looked at the examples at the bottom of the wiki? Or tell us what you're trying to do, and we'll come up with something.

Having said all that, if you're adding/subtracting resources, drag them from the library. It's list doesn't reset back to the top every time you do it.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60190#Comment_60190

The syntax (if that's what they are called?) strings to define a collection are very confusing to me. On top of that, it is next to impossible (without a realllly long syntax string) to get ALL the book I want and to NOT include ANY that I do not want.

We have inherited some inconsistent/inaccurate resource metadata from L3 days and before, and this affects our attempts to define truly dynamic collections - the greater part of a definition tends to be negative (what not to include). The best way currently is set "My Tags" as this provides a concise "search" string like

mytag:lexicon lang:Greek

Logos is setting up a system to correct metadata and ensure it is easily maintained.

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60093#Comment_60093

When creating a new collection with a long list, is there any way to:

1.) have the cursor return to the spot where the last item was dragged from? (Instead of returning to the top of the list each time)

2.) Is there a way to drag multiple items? (e.g. 3or 4 books that are next to each other in the list)

Greg

The best way to create a collection is not to drag multiple items into it, but make up a rule that will catch all the items you want to have in your collection. This is much more flexible and is dynamic, in that if you add any more books to your library in the future that should be in that collection, you won't have to remember to drag them in. They will match the criteria of the rule, so they'll show up in the collection automatically.

Read more about collections here, and watch these excellent videos (created by an advanced Logos user, Pastor Mark Barnes) on prioritizing resources and making collections here and here and here and here.

Blah! I watch the videos, and it makes me want more books, and more books and more books!

[:O][:P][:D]

Great videos!

Too bad I don't have and can't afford and couldn't justify having all those lovely resources. Mere Sunday School teachers should not lust over books only pastors and professors would really use...

True confession over.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Esther

Valerie Pobog

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60359#Comment_60359

LOL! Awesome. You expressed my thoughts as well. I find that I am trying to add books and work the program and not actually reading the books! What's that about?! Wrong mindset. [*-)]

Dan Sheppard

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60359#Comment_60359

Too bad I don't have and can't afford and couldn't justify having all those lovely resources. Mere Sunday School teachers should not lust over books only pastors and professors would really use...

ON WHAT Esther, do you base that statement?

I checked and it says nothing about non-pastors and professors lusting over books for them. As a matter of fact, lusting after more and more and more books is one of my favorite pet sins!

And as I recall, when setting up rules for collections, can't you say author: MacArthur, title: concordia com, and it will pull all MacArthurs and Concordia commentaries but no dictionaries or whatever else?

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60367#Comment_60367

Too bad I don't have and can't afford and couldn't justify having all those lovely resources. Mere Sunday School teachers should not lust over books only pastors and professors would really use...

Would that more Sunday School teachers could have access to such resources and teach in more depth!

And as I recall, when setting up rules for collections, can't you say author: MacArthur, title: concordia com, and it will pull all MacArthurs and Concordia commentaries but no dictionaries or whatever else?

Don't include a space after the colon; otherwise that rule will not do what you expect. It will ignore the "author:" and "title:" tags and merely find all books that mention MacArthur and concordia and com. So the correct syntax would be author:MacArthur, title:concordia com

Peter Jonas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60094#Comment_60094

Mark

Your video is excellent and really helps the viewer understand the rationale of dynamic collections. But Some of the long strings of rules and commands fly by a little fast. Is it possible for you to post somewhere some of your basic rule sequences for bible dictionaries, lexicons, etc. ?

Thanks

Peter Jonas

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60375#Comment_60375

Is it possible for you to post somewhere some of your basic rule sequences for bible dictionaries, lexicons, etc. ?

Peter, there's a whole bunch of example collection rules on the Logos Wiki at the bottom of the Collections page.

J. Morris

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60215#Comment_60215

Forgive me, but I think you're being a bit defeatist here. If I didn't know better I'd say you were stuck in the Logos 3 way of doing things and weren't willing to invest a little time in learning the better way of Logos 4 There are a few search strings which are tricky (Johannine and Petrine Epistles, for example), but most others are relatively straightforward. Have you watched my video (see my sig) or looked at the examples at the bottom of the wiki? Or tell us what you're trying to do, and we'll come up with something.

Having said all that, if you're adding/subtracting resources, drag them from the library. It's list doesn't reset back to the top every time you do it.

Of course I have seen ALL (unless you have added one recently to your "preparing a sermon" series) of your WONDERFUL videos!

I should probably go back and look at your video concerning collections again. I had seen it and tried, but was not having satisfactory results (due to the long complicated syntax strings). At this point, I have pretty much completed most of my important collections, so I do not want to go back and do it all over.

Thank you for your candid response (seriously appreciated, something I need to be reminded of often), I naturally lean towards being a pessimist (working on it, my personal Grace allotment is over for the year [:|] )

As suggested by another, I should prob. look into using the "mytag:" feature also.

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60538#Comment_60538

my personal Grace allotment is over for the year

Cheer up and hang in there -- only 11 more days to go ! [:)]

Ted Hans

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60215#Comment_60215

Is there a way one can simply download all the collection Mark Barns has created for himself or other users as in V3. Really with a large Library, this creating collection is becoming a pain.

Mark if you are reading this, PLEASE can you also post your various command entries you use to create collections? Like the "type:journal" to create journal entries. Thanks

Ted

Tom Geswein

Another suggestion about collections (Logos is thinking...here we go again - they're never happy). Whenever I click on Tools-->Collections, it always opens up to the first Collection in my list aphabetically. It would be nice if it would remember the last collection you had selected, so you don't have to reselect it if you are accessing that collection a lot.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60559#Comment_60559

Most of my collections are available at http://wiki.logos.com/Collections#Examples

The first four someone else posted, the rest are mine. I only create collections as I need them, which obviously cuts down on the amount of work that needs to be done at one time.

Chad Laughrey

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60569#Comment_60569

I am kinda having the same struggle as the original poster here. For instance, I wanted to create a collection of all my Theological Journals. However, I cannot remember all the individual names to create the exact syntax string, and if I put in "theological journals" I get dozens of additional theological books that I do not want in my collection. I just had to drag them all individually because it was going to take longer to figue out an exact string than just doing it by hand. Thoughts?

Donovan R. Palmer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60576#Comment_60576

How about making your collection criteria "type:journals" (without the quotes) I can't confirm if this snags all of them, but it doesn't appear to get any false hits.

Also, check out this page: http://wiki.logos.com/Collections Particularly at the bottom there are suggestions about how to configure for different collections. Nothing on there for Theology journals though!

Ted Hans

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60569#Comment_60569

Most of my collections are available at http://wiki.logos.com/Collections#Examples

The first four someone else posted, the rest are mine. I only create collections as I need them, which obviously cuts down on the amount of work that needs to be done at one time.

Thanks Mark, a time saver. For those interested see Mark's entries below. Ted

Greek Lexicons - type:dictionary AND (lang:greek OR title:greek OR subject:greek)

Hebrew Lexicons - type:dictionary AND (lang:hebrew OR title:hebrew OR subject:hebrew)

Commentary on Hebrews - type:"bible commentary" AND (title:hebrews OR subject:hebrews)

Ethics - title:ethics OR subject:ethics

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60576#Comment_60576

I would hate to think how long it would take to drag 600 journals into that box! It must be quicker to read the help or the Wiki or watch the videos. Here's the code:

type:journal OR title:Semeia

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60367#Comment_60367

Too bad I don't have and can't afford and couldn't justify having all those lovely resources. Mere Sunday School teachers should not lust over books only pastors and professors would really use...

ON WHAT Esther, do you base that statement?

I checked and it says nothing about non-pastors and professors lusting over books for them. As a matter of fact, lusting after more and more and more books is one of my favorite pet sins!

And as I recall, when setting up rules for collections, can't you say author: MacArthur, title: concordia com, and it will pull all MacArthurs and Concordia commentaries but no dictionaries or whatever else?

Lol! On the following:

LOL! Awesome. You expressed my thoughts as well. I find that I am
trying to add books and work the program and not actually reading the
books! What's that about?! Wrong mindset.

Having books just to have books is a bad plan. Especially if I will never be able to read them all since I have a Blackberry and Logos only wrote an iPhone app.

Would that more Sunday School teachers could have access to such resources and teach in more depth!

Yes, and I agree...I teach Sunday
School because I can't stand listening to the inane Sunday School lessons
taught by others, and can't stand having my daughter taught inane Sunday School
lessons at age 12, either. However, it does not require the BDAG or TDNT
to teach 12 year olds, Lol!

Obviously, though, I'll have to
make a budget item for some of this stuff, just so I can make awesome
collections like Mark...

[<:o)]

Esther

David Gullick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60663#Comment_60663

What is the point of the brackets in the command line? Is it essential or does it make the command work differently?

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60943#Comment_60943

What is the point of the brackets in the command line? Is it essential or does it make the command work differently?

See my explanation here: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/3909/58773.aspx#58773

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60663#Comment_60663

Another suggestion about collections (Logos is thinking...here we go again - they're never happy). Whenever I click on Tools-->Collections, it always opens up to the first Collection in my list aphabetically. It would be nice if it would remember the last collection you had selected, so you don't have to reselect it if you are accessing that collection a lot.

Good idea! I've noticed that and been annoyed by it as well. +1 [Y]

Would that more Sunday School teachers could have access to such resources and teach in more depth!

Yes, and I agree...I teach Sunday School because I can't stand listening to the inane Sunday School lessons taught by others, and can't stand having my daughter taught inane Sunday School lessons at age 12, either. However, it does not require the BDAG or TDNT to teach 12 year olds, Lol!

No, but the kind of person who is interested in looking things up in BDAG or TDNT is likely to be the kind of person who won't teach inane things to Sunday School classes. I know so many Christian adults who had to overcome or unlearn some of the bad Sunday School teaching they received as kids in order to be able to stomach staying believers once they grew up. We like to joke about the flannel-graphs and Sword Drills from our childhood (have you seen this fun book: "Growing Up Born Again"?). But really, there are such good ways of teaching these things that young people will understand and yet that are substantial enough to bear up to more mature questions later on. Why do so many Sunday School curricula opt for cheesy, dumbed-down schlock? I guess it's part of the rite of passage of growing up evangelical. But I think it's also part of the reason why there are so many "post-evangelicals" today seeking a better way to be faithful followers of Jesus without having to check their brains at the church door.

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60957#Comment_60957

Would that more Sunday School teachers could have access to such resources and teach in more depth!

Yes, and I agree...I teach Sunday School because I can't stand listening to the inane Sunday School lessons taught by others, and can't stand having my daughter taught inane Sunday School lessons at age 12, either. However, it does not require the BDAG or TDNT to teach 12 year olds, Lol!

No, but the kind of person who is interested in looking things up in BDAG or TDNT is likely to be the kind of person who won't teach inane things to Sunday School classes. I know so many Christian adults who had to overcome or unlearn some of the bad Sunday School teaching they received as kids in order to be able to stomach staying believers once they grew up. We like to joke about the flannel-graphs and Sword Drills from our childhood (have you seen this fun book: "Growing Up Born Again"?). But really, there are such good ways of teaching these things that young people will understand and yet that are substantial enough to bear up to more mature questions later on. Why do so many Sunday School curricula opt for cheesy, dumbed-down schlock? I guess it's part of the rite of passage of growing up evangelical. But I think it's also part of the reason why there are so many "post-evangelicals" today seeking a better way to be faithful followers of Jesus without having to check their brains at the church door.

I took a look at the book...it sounds fun! Too bad it's out of print.

And Hear Hear on all the rest of what you said. The curriculum I am required to teach really tries to get the students to have a spiritual experience. But I assure you, the last thing 12 year olds are interested in is a spiritual experience, lol! Instead, I take what is there and rewrite it in such a way that the students actually have to interact with the passage, reading it several times for clues and answers. I have discovered at least part of the reason for the cheesy, dumbed-down schlock: kids can't read. I've taken to keeping several English dictionaries on the table...I'll be requesting Bible dictionaries and concordances soon.

No wonder these kids don't understand why they have to read the bible. It doesn't make any sense to them. Something tells me that when schools gave up teaching students to read because of the need to be able to read the Bible, we lost something very precious...

So...anyone want to contribute to the cause? Donations for the purchase of BDAG and TDNT to download to my copy of Logos 4 for the purpose of teaching the next generation of Spurgeons and Pipers gratefully accepted. Use your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, no checks please. Or send cash. American currency only.

(Like...it was worth a try, wasn't it?)

[H]

Esther

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60985#Comment_60985

(have you seen this fun book: "Growing Up Born Again"?)

I took a look at the book...it sounds fun! Too bad it's out of print.

Looks like Amazon.com has links to a lot of used copies available for $0.01 each (plus shipping).

Or find it in the nearest library to where you live using worldcat.org (US & Canada only so far).

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61043#Comment_61043

Next time I order something from Amazon, I'll see about picking up a copy.

I'd like to ask a "dumb" question. What are collections for? I have searched the forums and the training, but I can't really understand what they do? ( I currently have no Help files due to the bug...Hoping 4.0a officially upgrades soon). Can someone give me a scenario in which they use a collection to good purpose?

I need motivation for forming some even with my little library.

Esther

J.R. Miller

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61336#Comment_61336

What are collections for?

Logos has some good training videos up at http://www.Logos.com/videos. They have one on collections that you can also find on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK1X2s-yeD0&feature=player_embedded

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61336#Comment_61336

Follow the link in my signature to two more videos on collections.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61346#Comment_61346

Sorry, clicked 'Post' too early. You use collections when you want to search a subset of your library. So, for example, often I'll only want to search Bible Dictionaries, or Commentaries on John, or Systematic Theologies. That's what collections are for. Also amongst my videos are ones that show how I prepare a sermon using Logos. If you have time you could watch these, and you'll see how I use collections fairly frequently in that process.

Clayton Fenton Rutledge

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60541#Comment_60541

Thankfully Grace does not go by a calendar year to determine its "amount", but rather is dependent on the Source of Grace, and that is Infinite. Please do not forget to enjoy the Grace that is bestowed upon you every day in spite of the enemy trying to get you to believe Romans 8:1 is not true. My guess is that you really already knew this, but some how my OCD kicked in, and I just had to get it out!!![:S] Have a great day!

Tes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60094#Comment_60094

I have been asking to Logos to include the Amharic bible in their Format,(the Haileselassie 1) for about two years ,I still keep on reminding.

I have sent them as sugestion too.

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61348#Comment_61348

Sorry, clicked 'Post' too early. You use collections when you want to search a subset of your library. So, for example, often I'll only want to search Bible Dictionaries, or Commentaries on John, or Systematic Theologies. That's what collections are for. Also amongst my videos are ones that show how I prepare a sermon using Logos. If you have time you could watch these, and you'll see how I use collections fairly frequently in that process.

Thanks, Mark; that's the information I was looking for. I have watched the "how to create collections" videos, but couldn't figure out how to use them once they were created.

It is a pleasure watching your videos, they are not only well done and informative, but I'm enthralled with accents, and yours is prime stuff. I'll head off over there in my free moments and view more of them.

Thanks!

Anyone else who wants to post a scenario of how you have used collections would be appreciated, too. Something along the lines of "I wanted to know (fill in the blank), so I created a collection called (fill in the blank) and then searched it and found out (fill in the blank)".

Esther

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61469#Comment_61469

Here's an example from my last video (preparing a sermon #4). I wanted to know the relationship between angels and dreams. Here's the same search in my entire library and in a small collection. You'll the collection is much better at giving me exactly the information I needed. The entire library fills up with Bible references which I already know about, and even after several screen scrolls down still hasn't come up with anything terribly useful. The Bible Dictionaries search, on the other hand, has far more relevant articles.

Esther Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61579#Comment_61579

Awesome, Mark. Thanks very much. Yes, I can see where that would be helpful. And I can also see that making collections is a very personal thing...it depends directly on how YOU study, not on how others study. Although I do think it would be helpful if the product shipped with a few generic collections, such as Bible Dictionary...that would help get us started.

Esther

Steven L. Spencer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/60094#Comment_60094

Hey Mark, You are providing such a great service to all of use who use Logos4. I SO appreciate your willingness to invest your time to helping the vast majority of us that are struggling to find the best way to make Logos4 to work for us. Thank you, so much, for your help. It is appreciated not only by me, but probably by thousands of Logos users. For me, your input and videos have proven to be the most useful and informative posts/videos that I have encountered. May the Lord bless you life and your ministry. Very Sincerely, Steve Spencer

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/61612#Comment_61612

Although I do think it would be helpful if the product shipped with a few generic collections, such as Bible Dictionary...that would help get us started.

I think you're right about this. It would at least give people an example of what can be done. Having said that, there are some collections built into Logos, but these cannot be edited, and they're only for series of resources. (For example, I have a collection of Calvin's Commentary.) You can see these series whenever you do a basic search, and select from the drop down which part of your library you want to search.

And Steven - thank you for your kind words.