Logos 7 - What should it offer?

Johannes Hendrink Menkveld said:

Bob, I am very happy you are so willing to pay attention to uservoice, but my feeling is that a very small percentage of users is actually using the tool. It might be an idea to have some action or promotion to motivate people to use uservoice. That would give more accurate information on what users want and it would give many users a place to voice their ideas.

You are probably right ... but I'm not feeling terribly generous at the moment. If a user doesn't care enough to use uservoice, should their voice count for much? I say that as someone who encouraged uservoice because I saw it used well with a different company. I use it when I care intensely about a feature; I ignore it when I don't have an axe to grind. At the moment not all my votes are used because I am deliberately thinking I have no particular vested interests and my votes would be split among several worthy suggestions based upon my whim of the day ... I'd rather not vote.

Bob Pritchett said:

And after you've helped us prioritize the Logos 6.x path, post your crazy / wild / big idea for Logos 7 here. Should we have a new data set? A completely new feature area? More videos? More teaching material? A cuneiform word processor? Scanned images of original manuscripts? Manual categorization of theologians? Bible words tagged by emotive impact?

Here are some ideas.

Information Pane

I would like to see a pretty major overhaul of the information pane. Here are the more important ones:

1. The “definition” feature should have the option to show the glosses from the “Lemma” section of the Bible Word Study Guide of the dictionary you have chosen defines the terms. Currently it just shows the beginning of the definition as it appears in the dictionary, which in most cases is useless, as you can’t actually see the definition. This is especially the case with Hebrew lexicons, which tend to begin each definition with information etymology and related ANE words. Note that this is different from the already present option to show a "Gloss", as that Gloss is not taken from your highest prioritized lexicon.
2. For Hebrew verbs summary information (again, according to the dictionary you chose) should include brief definitions for the Qal, Piel, Hiphil, etc. forms, indicating QAL: definition; PIEL: definition, etc. For a great example of what I'm talking about, cf. BibleWorks.
3. I would like to choose the order of elements in the information pane. For example, I like having the “Translated” section, but don’t want it to be on top.
4. Let me turn off the “Clause” database information in the Information pane.
5. I would like to see “root” information in the information pane (i.e., a brief summary of the root(s), with the words from that root and their glosses). 
6. Please give an option in Hebrew to stop looking up attached definite articles, prepositions, pronouns, etc. Logos already knows which word is the primary word, because when you double click on a word with attached articles, prepositions or pronouns it always looks up the main word. I don’t EVER want to see attached definite articles, prepositions, or pronouns in the information pane, they just make it so that you can’t actually see the definition and information you are interested in.
7. Add Syriac as a supported language for the Info pane!

Flash Cards

1. Each Lemma should have a column which says how many times that Lemma appears in the OT / NT respectively. If you want to, make it personalized for every version (e.g. NA27, NA28, , or just pick one version and go with it (such as the NA28 and BHS), but this information has to be there for this option to be useful.
2. It should be easy to filter by how many times the Lemma appears (for example, if I know that I have memorized all the words in the NT that appear 25x or more, and now I am studying Luke chapter 10, I should easily be able to filter the vocabulary of Luke 10 by words that appear in the NT 24x or fewer).
3. Each lemma should include the form that is actually studied in universities. For example, the form that is learned of the word λογος is λογος, ου (well… with the accents added in), with the nominative and genitive forms both included, the genitive form being shortened. Similarly, adjectives are learned with the nominative masculine, feminine, and neuter form. Verbs in Hebrew are learned (at least optionally) with the more common of the QAL, PIEL, HIPHIL, etc. definitions, while verbs in Greek (at least optionally for the more common irregular verbs) should include the 6 principle parts.

Search

1. Most importantly, create an advanced search builder. I would imagine this working with "columns" that are connected by search operators like AND / OR / WITHIN, etc. Each column could begin with a dropdown that lets you choose the type of info (text, Milestone, PassageList, Morph, Clause, greek word, hebrew word, etc.). After choosing from the dropdown, depending on the option chosen, other boxes would appear to the right that would correspond to the options of that particular option / search extension.
2. Create search extensions for Morph and Clause to make this possible.
3. New search operator, “IGNORE” – Recently I wrote a 250+ page index of the Liturgy of the Hours, Roman Missal, etc., using Logos to run searches. I oftentimes found that I wanted to exclude certain phrases from my search… phrases that included words that I was searching for! For example, I am searching for the term “Christ” but I want to exclude the common phrase “Christ Our Lord”. If I run the search for Christ ANDNOT “Christ Our Lord” it would ruin my search results. I might have 100 hits for “Christ” in an article, but with just 1 “Christ our Lord” hit that entire article would disappear, along with the 100 true hits that I was interested in. What I would like to see is an operator that allows me to “IGNORE” the hits for “Christ Our Lord”, without disqualifying an article that has those hits. Note that this problem does not normally arise when searching the Bible, as the biblical verse are so short that ANDNOT almost never is problematic. But once Logos is used to start systematically searching resources with longer articles this “IGNORE” feature becomes important.
4. An easier way to include accents in searching (could be taken care of in an advanced search builder).
5. After running a search, you can navigate through the search results by pressing Alt+Down or by clicking the up and down arrows, having selected “Search Result” from the dropdown on the locator bar. When you navigate to the next search hit, Logos scrolls the resource so that the search hit is on the top line of the screen. This does not allow you to see any context of the search result. I would like Logos to navigate instead to the hit result, but with about 2 lines of text above it. (Note: as I have been creating the book “Fulfilled in Christ” I have gone through literally 100s of thousands of search results using this method. I can’t tell you how many thousands of times I have had to scroll up just to see a line or two of text about the search hit and see what it was saying)

Universal Passage Guide

The Passage Guide is limited to just the Bible. We need a universal Passage Guide, that doesn't care if you are searching in the Bible or elsewhere. Think Noet, just make sure the new features for Noet make it into Logos and Verbum!

Cited By Tool

This is already a mini-universal Passage Guide. Hopefully this will be done before Logos 7, but this tool needs a major overhall. This has already been discussed so much on here I don't think I need to go into details.

Bible Words Study Guide

1. Link Set – I want to be able to add the Bible Word Study Guide to a link set. The reason is very simple. I find the “root” report of the BWS to be extremely useful for understanding the semantic range of a word. I have created a custom BWS with only the root report. I would like to add that BWS to a link set together with my Hebrew / Greek dictionaries. When I double click on a word, the dictionary navigates to it, and so would the BWS root report if it could be linked to the dictionary.
2. Send Hyperlinks Here – When I right click on a word and generate a BWS, normally I want it to generate in the same BWS window I already have open. I want to be able to indicate that with the “Send hyperlinks here” option on the BWS, so as to avoid having to close every BWS window I open.

Scientific Commentaries and Link Sets

Anyone who tries to use scientific commentaries such as Word or Anchor or Hermeneia together with a “Link Set” in Logos quickly gets quite frustrated. There are numerous comments about this all over the forums. The reason is that the scientific commentaries comment the same passage in three or four different places – first they present a translation, then they comment the textual criticism problems, then they comment on the structure, then they comment on the meaning, etc. The “Link Set” tends to navigate to the first of these, which is oftentimes (maybe even normally) not what you are interested in…

I suggest that you create a dataset that marks up the different types of sections in the Commentary, and then, when multiple types of sections are available, allow us to prioritize those sections, so that the Link Set will go to the "Notes" section by default, or the "Textual Criticism" section, or whatever section we prefer.

Print / Export

When selecting the options to export to Word, include footnotes when they are displayed in Logos.

Copy and Paste

Add the “Setting” to “Copy Abbreviations” (or simply stop copying them when copying and pasting with the setting “Copy Footnotes”) – It is extremely irritating when copying scientific words that you copy into Word and you have, in addition to the footnotes which you wanted to copy, a repeating list of about 20 abbreviations per page, each one taking up one line as if they were footnotes!!

Address bar of Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries

When typing in the address bar of Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries, it should transliterate by default for you into the respective language. Ideally it would search for both the transliterated and the non-transliterated results, so that you could type in something like “Introduction” and it would find it, but you could also type in something like “dbr” and it would find דבר. Note that currently not even typing h: or g: works!! You have to actually change your keyboard layout to type in a word in the address bar of a Hebrew or Greek dictionary!

New Tab

The improvements in 5.2 of the New Tab are nice. I suggest that above the icons which display your favorite resources, or above the list of similar resources, there by a little text box. When you begin typing it in, it begins filtering your Library + all other things you might want to open (like search pane, information pane, etc.). 

Library Columns

I would like to see the original date of publication of every work, and be able to easily filter, create collections by it, etc. Useful for creating collections of Church Fathers, Medieval Writings, Commentaries from 1900-1950, Commentaries from 1950-Present Day, etc. I am particularly interested in the date the original work was originally published, but it would be nice to also see the date that the particular edition was also published (current publishing date indicates the date the reprint was published).

Free Books inside of Books and Articles inside of Journals

I would like to see books which are inside of books (such as the books which are inside of Schaff's Church Father Series) treated as books. Logos should know that such and such a book is inside of a larger book, and that info should be available for citation purposes, but for things like creating collections, search results, etc., it would be MUCH more useful to normally just see the book. For example, if I want to create a collection of books by "Justin Martyr" that is impossible currently, because his works are included in Schaff's volumes together with other works. 

Similarly, for articles normally what one is interested in is the article, the author, etc. Treating the article as a seperate book (with the info about the journal of course also available, even for the purpose of creating collections, etc.), would allow one to create a collection of articles by a certain author, etc.

Search results would also become much more relevant. Try running searches on Schaff's Church Father series. The results are something like "Chapter 3 from NPNFFE2". Totally irrelevant and not helpful. If the books were treated as real books, you would get results like "Chapter 2 of City of God by Augustine" etc.

Better Syriac Support

1. Information pane support
2. Morphologically tagged Leiden Peshitta

Glosses on all Greek / Hebrew / Syriac / Aramaic Morphologically Tagged Bibles

So many Bibles in these languages are morphologically tagged, but for whatever reason don't have the Glosses included, so you have to have the Info pane open. Add Glosses to all morph tagged Bibles.

Redesigned Guides and Files Menu

The "New" document or Guide should ideally just filter the right hand pane, which could include folders. Then, the right hand pane would offer contextually relevant options, based on the type of document or guide selected. So, a Passage List selection would offer the possibility to select a passage list in the right hand pane, and then run a search for it - allowing Logos to show off all these fancy new features.

Morphology Charts

These are a great idea, that I have long hoped for, but which I think were poorly implemented. They should display the Morph chart according to the standard textbook format (which would put, for example, the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, and Vocative in a single column, and not in a single row). As well, they should indicate the "type" of morphological "pattern" that such and such a word follows, with a link to seeing that pattern with a word that is typically used by textbooks to illustrate the pattern.

Maps

Add data layers, such as altitude, cities, etc. that can be turned on or off.

Ideally include a 3D view.

Allow exporting custom maps

Online Media

All online media should have local resources with the thumbnails and metadata, to allow for integrated and quick searching and browsing. They should be placeholders for the downloadable media. When feasible, they should include low res versions for offline use. From a user interface point of view, it should be transparent to the user whether the image they are interacting with is online or offline, even if that difference is somehow indicated visually, or with different options, etc.

Documentation of Academic Resources

The sources, authors, and methodology used in the creation of all inhouse resources should be clearly marked, and easily available. This has generally been well done in the new stuff you have been producing, but older resources need to have the same treatment. Here I am thinking of things like the Morph databases, and other older resources that have little or no documentation.