Sermon Builder (Logos) Woes

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Simon Smailus | Forum Activity | Posted: Sun, Oct 1 2017 12:22 AM

I've been trying to use the sermon builder, but to be honest it is far from being prime time. Here are some of my frustrations:

1. It is impossible to create uniformity with slide creation. You can apply the slide to all other slides, but this does not include the positioning of the text. You also cannot move the text using your keyboard which is completely unintuitive.
2. You cannot export slides as images, only as pptx (or their proclaim format). I don't use pptx nor proclaim. I just want the images for propresenter.
3. Splitting text to new slides it way to fiddly. Bible references should be one or two verses at most per slide and I cannot find a global setting for this.
4. Opening the sermon builder often crashes the app. The beachball whirrs until the app is force closed.
5. Slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow is Logos. This has to be the slowest app in the history of all apps. Everything beachballs and I'm on a powerful imac. In fact it is quicker editing videos than opening anything in Logos. This is the main reason I dislike using it. It's text. If I can use a 30 year old application like Emacs which can search through 100K plus documents with millions of lines of text and show me every reference with the line it is on in 2s, why cannot Logos get a Bible to open instantly? I could understand if I had 20 resources open, but I don't. I'm not using maps or media. I can open Accordance, search for the information I need, read the text, copy and paste it and close the app in the same space of time it takes Logos to open an initialise. From there everything shows the beachball, everything lakes, nothing is instant. I dread to think what it will be like when my imac is more than three years old.
6. Scripture references automatically expand. But what if I don't want them to expand and just want the reference? This is the craziest one so far. If I type a scripture and hit return the whole text is pasted and the scripture ref becomes a link that opens a bible and takes you to the reference. If I type a scripture and don't hit return the scripture text is not expanded, but the scripture ref also does not become a link. Where is the logic in this? If I have the full text in the sermon, I do not need it to be a clickable scripture reference. If I only have the scripture reference I do need it to be clickable? Go figure?!!

None of the above is helpful when preparing a sermon. If I had not invested so much money in resources, this app would have been deleted long ago. Bring back Libronix.

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Simon Smailus | Forum Activity | Replied: Sun, Oct 1 2017 8:38 AM

Mike Tourangeau:

It sounds like you do not have an SSD (?). This by far would be the best hardware upgrade for you. 

Mike, I have an iMac 4Ghz i7 with 24GB RAM and a 3TB disk. This is way more than should be needed. The problem is in how Logos is coded and handles resources. It has always had a reputation for running poorly on the mac. Sadly it is getting worse. As much as I like the content, the programme itself is extremely poor. I am a NOW subscriber, but will cease this when it runs out as Logos is to unpleasant to work in. I mainly use it for reading now.

I also have Olive Tree and Accordance with quite a number of resources. Neither of those give the same lag. Accordance is phenomenal, it's speed is unparalleled. Logos comes across as a java app (standard keyboard shortcuts are sometimes missing), but I'm not sure, although this would explain the slowness. I create websites, video, process sermon audio and video as well as create graphic design media. I rarely see a beachball in all those apps, but with Logos it's a permanent feature.

Mike Tourangeau:

As for the auto expanding text. If you keep the reference in a sentence it will not expand. So you could do it like this. John 1:1..... (then his enter) this should stop the auto expanding.

I'm afraid this does not work. Unless you expand the scripture you cannot link to the Bible app on iOS. The idea is to split the screen and click on the Bible reference and read it from the Bible rather than pasting it into the notes.

My search continues for a preaching prep workflow on the mac.