New Feature: Dynamic Resource Toolbar

Ali Pope
Ali Pope Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,821
edited November 2024 in English Forum

We’re thrilled to announce the rollout of our sleek new resource toolbar design on app.logos.com

After gathering feedback and brainstorming ways to enhance user experience, we’re confident that this update will make navigating your books much easier than before. Our primary goal was to make the toolbar more intuitive, ensuring that every feature is easily accessible and understandable. 

Here’s what you can expect from our revamped toolbar:

  1. Simplicity at its Best: We’ve simplified the layout and removed any clutter, so you can focus on what matters most - reading your books efficiently.
  2. Clear Visual Cues: Each button is carefully designed to represent its function, making it easier than ever to find the tool you need.
  3. Streamlined Navigation: Say goodbye to endless menus and submenus! With our new toolbar, everything you need is just a click away.

We’re committed to continuously improving your experience with our app. We’re planning to bring this new toolbar to the desktop app in the near future, so we’d love to hear your thoughts of it on the web app. It’s available to anyone using the web app right now! 

Try out the new toolbar and let us know what you think in the Web App Forum. We can’t wait to hear your feedback! 

Note: If you are in Limited View, you will not see this toolbar. You can change this in Settings.


Ali Pope | Logos Desktop and Mobile Program Manager

Tagged:
«134

Comments

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,764

    APPLICATION TOOLBAR: You forgot to mention the other thing I'd expect -myopic design that ignores the majority of Christians - liturgical/semi-liturgical churches. Where do I find the quick action to open a lectionary, a prayer book, and the calendar of saints?

    In Verbum, I was surprised that the Daily Devotional pulled up a Saints book -not the calendar of saints. (Yes, I figured out why.)

    Note that handling of the Calendar of Saints (sanctoral cycle) is something Logos did well until the redesign that confused books of saints by date with calendars of saints.

    The bar lacks the shortcut bar I hope that is unintentional

    RESOURCE TOOLBAR:

    In the NRSV at least if I open to Mark 1:1-8 then press ^ to go up on article, I get to the Chapter 1 heading not the last pericope of Matthew as expected.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795

    Interesting. I can see why it is more intuitive and it's kind of a cool evolution of the UI. 

    Everything comes at a cost. If one uses the locator bar, you are going to tie up more screen space with this change, but I think that is a fair trade off.

    One small request, please do not lose the L4 links in the desktop app with this UI change. If you do this, you will break my ability to make links from Logos resources to my markdown notes.

  • Andrew Batishko
    Andrew Batishko Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 5,461

    f one uses the locator bar, you are going to tie up more screen space with this change

    FYI, you can click the category tab in order to collapse the bar below it in order to free up the space.

    Andrew Batishko | Logos software developer

  • Andrew Batishko
    Andrew Batishko Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 5,461

    MJ. Smith said:

    You forgot to mention the other thing I'd expect -myopic design that ignores the majority of Christians - liturgical/semi-liturgical churches. Where do I find the quick action to open a lectionary and a prayer book?

    Just to set the expectations, the goal here was to redesign access to existing functionality, not to add new functionality.

    Andrew Batishko | Logos software developer

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    Everything comes at a cost. If one uses the locator bar, you are going to tie up more screen space with this change, but I think that is a fair trade off.

    It is possible to temporarily minimize the second level of the toolbar.

    One small request, please do not lose the L4 links in the desktop app with this UI change. If you do this, you will break my ability to make links from Logos resources to my markdown notes.

    Understood. Although we're also working on a way in which it will be possible to link to Logos using a ref.ly link, without going to the browser. That might give us the best of both worlds.

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795

    FYI, you can click the category tab in order to collapse the bar below it in order to free up the space.

    Clever. I like it!

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,764

    not to add new functionality.

    I know - but I will continue to nag, carp, complain, grumble ... at the functionality that was lost/screwed up in the conversion of the ribbon to the home page cards.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,132

    This looks really interesting and will be really useful.

    Two questions (for now!):

    1) Under the Go menu - in a Bible - the up / down options are only for articles (a commentary also includes pages).

    Are there any plans to extend this to verse, paragraph or pericope?

    2) And I would have thoughts that Insights and Info would have more logically gone under the View menu. Was there a particular reason for putting them here?

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795

    Are there any plans to extend this to verse, paragraph or pericope?

    I wondered the same thing. 

    Also, the labeling of ‘go’ threw me at first. I think my first thought was from Series X!

  • Nick Mueller
    Nick Mueller Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 110

    This looks really interesting and will be really useful.

    Two questions (for now!):

    1) Under the Go menu - in a Bible - the up / down options are only for articles (a commentary also includes pages).

    Are there any plans to extend this to verse, paragraph or pericope?

    This functionality was moved directly from the locator bar. In the web app, most books don't support as many step units (e.g. article, verse, paragraph, etc.) as they do on desktop, and we don't currently have plans to change that, but always happy to hear the feedback.

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795

    Am I missing something or does this mean the end of parallel resources button?

    Also, the button to include another Bible in the same window? i.e. esv with na28

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,132

    Am I missing something or does this mean the end of parallel resources button?

    This is available from the Change book button

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member, MVP Posts: 2,795
    Ah, missed that!

    Ok, that leaves the ability to put more than one Bible in a window.
  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    And I would have thoughts that Insights and Info would have more logically gone under the View menu. Was there a particular reason for putting them here?

    We debated this quite a bit. Your comment has made one or two developers very happy because they've been advocating for the same thing! The reason it's currently here it because the Go tab is the first and, therefore, primary tab. It's intended to be the place where most of the commonly used actions belong.

    • Should Insights belong in Go, because it allows you to go to your study Bibles and commentaries?
    • Should it belong in View because the user is choosing whether to view Insights or not?
    • Should it belong in Tools because the sidebar is a tool that helps you find related information about the passage?

    I honestly don't know if there's a right answer to that question.

    But this is exactly the feedback we wanted and the sort of thing that we might change based on feedback. At the same time, this new design might take a bit of getting used to, and we want everyone to feel they've not just kicked the tires but properly taken it for a test drive before we make any big decisions.

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    Ah, missed that! Ok, that leaves the ability to put more than one Bible in a window.

    That feature has never been available on the web app. When we bring this toolbar to the desktop, there will be an option to add a parallel text on the View tab.

  • Aaron Sauer
    Aaron Sauer Member Posts: 433 ✭✭✭

    This is excellent. Great work! Looking forward to it being on the desktop.

  • Sam Shelton
    Sam Shelton Member Posts: 339 ✭✭

    The Your top Bible shortcut under Tools is very helpful indeed, as I regularly change my top Bible for different projects. Will this be a part of the desktop update as well?

    Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. - Colossians 3:14 

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,193 ✭✭✭✭

    The Your top Bible shortcut under Tools is very helpful indeed, as I regularly change my top Bible for different projects. Will this be a part of the desktop update as well?

    That's kind of as far as I could figure out... my top Bible was given a volume reference.  In any event, on an iPhone??

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Micah Gafford
    Micah Gafford Member Posts: 6 ✭✭

    This seems to have introduced a bug that messes up the view.

    If I just click "Go" it returns the text to the proper size and formatting but I have to do that every time I change to a different resource tab.

  • Lew Worthington
    Lew Worthington Member Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭

    I have noticed a similar formatting problem. If I have my NIV and NRSV open, and click from one to the next, I'm fine. But if I click to put, say, a commentary into focus (in the same tab as the Bible), then click the NRSV's tab to put it into focus, the fonts are very large and very pixelated.

    Here's the pixelated version:

    Here's the normal version. Note: I don't have to click "Go", but just go to another Bible and back to this one. Maybe that's not the significant action, but that's one that works.

  • Lew Worthington
    Lew Worthington Member Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭

    Additional playing with this reveals that it (the weird display) doesn't only happen to bibles. For me, it tends to behave a bit better in Edge than Chrome, although I can see in the former a quick flash to weird display for a fraction of a second, but then it returns to a normal display.

  • Lew Worthington
    Lew Worthington Member Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭

    I'm also curious what platforms this changes appears in. My Windows browsers see it, but my Android devices' browsers do not.

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,764

    I can do an inline search which I never use because of how it displays results - but I can't do a find which I use all the time. Is that a web limitation or should I be worried. Note the greyed hint says find not search.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Nick Mueller
    Nick Mueller Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 110

    This seems to have introduced a bug that messes up the view.

    If I just click "Go" it returns the text to the proper size and formatting but I have to do that every time I change to a different resource tab.

    Thanks for reporting this. It appears to be related to a separate change that happened to go out about the same time as the toolbar. We can reproduce it internally and are actively looking into it.

  • Nick Mueller
    Nick Mueller Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 110

    MJ. Smith said:

    I can do an inline search which I never use because of how it displays results - but I can't do a find which I use all the time. Is that a web limitation or should I be worried. Note the greyed hint says find not search.

    "Find in this panel" was not previously supported in web. Our plans for desktop include continued support for "Find in this panel" (i.e. Ctrl+f / Cmd+f).

  • Bill
    Bill Member Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    At first try I like much of the simplicity and I will continue to test.

    For right now, I have one question.

    I see I can turn notes on or off, but unlike the Notes and Highlights function in the Visual Filters Menu in the Desktop App, I can't select which notebooks to turn on or off. Will this be available in the Web App?

    If not, I hope we don't lose this ability if this toolbar goes to the Desktop App.

    Too soon old. Too late smart.

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,764
    1. I like the handling of parallel resources.
    2. The label "Go" confuses me as I don't see the rationale for the label 
    3. I prefer the old style of selecting the content of the sidebars but see the rationale for the new method.
    4. I HATE the word "find" as the prompt for the inline search
    5. I love the panel history visibility
    6. The integration of notes made me expect to be able to access highlights within the panel.
    7. Where are my visual filters beyond the reformatting?
    8. I like the "resource tab" that shows as the panel is building the tab.
    9. I like the view tab content ... much clearer
    10. I'm not fond of the new application tool bar. For quick actions open lectionary and open sanctoral cycle are standard for many of us. I would also expect a resume workflow and resume sermon option at least on the desktop.

    Overall, decently done. The improvements don't excite me either for myself or for teaching others but I'll get used to them quite quickly which to me is a critical measure. So kudos to all of you who worked through this.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    DMB said:

    That's kind of as far as I could figure out... my top Bible was given a volume reference.  In any event, on an iPhone??

    It looks like you've selected Request Desktop Site in Safari on your phone. That's likely to cause problems. To change this, click the AA icon in your address bar, and choose Request Mobile Site.

  • Nick Mueller
    Nick Mueller Member, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 110

    Bill said:

    At first try I like much of the simplicity and I will continue to test.

    For right now, I have one question.

    I see I can turn notes on or off, but unlike the Notes and Highlights function in the Visual Filters Menu in the Desktop App, I can't select which notebooks to turn on or off. Will this be available in the Web App?

    If not, I hope we don't lose this ability if this toolbar goes to the Desktop App.

    Our approach on this feature was to take the existing functionality in the web app and put it into a new toolbar. We tried to focus on building a new toolbar and limited the number of additional features that weren't present previously in the web app.

    Our approach for the desktop app will be similar and we do not intend to regress functionality that currently exists in the desktop app.

    Of course, we are always happy to hear the things that appear in that space that are valuable to you.

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    Bill said:

    I see I can turn notes on or off, but unlike the Notes and Highlights function in the Visual Filters Menu in the Desktop App, I can't select which notebooks to turn on or off. Will this be available in the Web App?

    If not, I hope we don't lose this ability if this toolbar goes to the Desktop App.

    Desktop will continue to allow you to select which notebooks you want to turn on or off. We don't have plans to bring that functionality to the web app.

  • Bill
    Bill Member Posts: 380 ✭✭✭
  • Bill
    Bill Member Posts: 380 ✭✭✭
  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    MJ. Smith said:

    The integration of notes made me expect to be able to access highlights within the panel.

    Do you mean the notes/highlights filter in the left sidebar. That will be an option in the Notes tab on desktop.

    MJ. Smith said:

    Where are my visual filters beyond the reformatting?

    It hasn't been implemented on the web yet. As Nick says, we've concentrated on moving existing functionality into the toolbar. We haven't added any extra functionality. Rest assured, all the normal visual filters will remain available on desktop.

    MJ. Smith said:

    I'm not fond of the new application tool bar.

    Quick Actions has been around on the web for about a year now and wasn't part of this latest work, but your point is well made. Right now, we don't have plans to bring Quick Actions to the desktop, but if we do, we'll consider making it more useful.

    Thanks for all the other feedback, too.

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,193 ✭✭✭✭

    DMB said:

    That's kind of as far as I could figure out... my top Bible was given a volume reference.  In any event, on an iPhone??

    It looks like you've selected Request Desktop Site in Safari on your phone. That's likely to cause problems. To change this, click the AA icon in your address bar, and choose Request Mobile Site.

    Oh.  And Mobile Site looks so much better.  I'm done.

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,132

    We debated this quite a bit. Your comment has made one or two developers very happy because they've been advocating for the same thing!

    Pleased to be of service[:)]

    The reason it's currently here it because the Go tab is the first and, therefore, primary tab. It's intended to be the place where most of the commonly used actions belong.

    That's good to know - I hadn't realised that nuance.

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,132

    I seem to have a problem with displaying notes / highlights

    EDIT: Please don't worry about this - notes display fine on the web app on another computer so must be something strange in my browser. I'll look into it further.

    This is what I see on desktop

    but nothing shows on web

    But notes do appear in ESV on web

  • Sam Shelton
    Sam Shelton Member Posts: 339 ✭✭

    This is just my opinion, but it seems that Link Set might fit better under Tools.

    Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. - Colossians 3:14 

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    DMB said:

    Oh.  And Mobile Site looks so much better.  I'm done.

    That's still the desktop site, but with the vertical toolbar instead of the horizontal one. Try that AA menu again?

    PS You can close the suggestion to download the Logos Mobile app by clicking the X to the left of the banner.

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,132

    This is just my opinion, but it seems that Link Set might fit better under Tools.

    Yes - I wasn’t sure it belonged in the Go menu

  • GaoLu
    GaoLu Member Posts: 3,510 ✭✭✭
  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,193 ✭✭✭✭

    DMB said:

    Oh.  And Mobile Site looks so much better.  I'm done.

    That's still the desktop site, but with the vertical toolbar instead of the horizontal one. Try that AA menu again?

    PS You can close the suggestion to download the Logos Mobile app by clicking the X to the left of the banner.

    You're right. I selected the wrong pic. Below is the mobile view.

    And I no longer click the huge advert away ... 1/5 of screen??

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • NichtnurBibelleser
    NichtnurBibelleser Member Posts: 502 ✭✭✭

    Nice!

    I'm missing an option to change to my personalized highlighter palette. For now I don't find it - or will it be implemented in the future?

  • NichtnurBibelleser
    NichtnurBibelleser Member Posts: 502 ✭✭✭

    Nice!

    I'm missing an option to change to my personalized highlighter palette. For now I don't find it - or will it be implemented in the future?

  • NichtnurBibelleser
    NichtnurBibelleser Member Posts: 502 ✭✭✭

    Nice!

    I'm missing an option to change to my personalized highlighter palette. For now I don't find it - or will it be implemented in the future?

  • Benjamin Allen
    Benjamin Allen Member Posts: 11 ✭✭

    I noticed I am still not able to look at the discourse breakdown on the web app like I can with the desktop app will that eventually move over to the web app functionality 

  • Ali Pope
    Ali Pope Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,821

    We don't currently have plans to add any additional functionality/features to the web app toolbar that didn't previously exist. Our goal with this new toolbar was to change the look of it to make the existing functionality/features more discoverable and intuitive.

    Ali Pope | Logos Desktop and Mobile Program Manager

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,764

    MJ. Smith said:

    The integration of notes made me expect to be able to access highlights within the panel.

    Do you mean the notes/highlights filter in the left sidebar.

    No, I meant I expected to see the Highlighter palattes for creating highlights.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Roy
    Roy Member Posts: 965 ✭✭

    We debated this quite a bit. Your comment has made one or two developers very happy because they've been advocating for the same thing! The reason it's currently here it because the Go tab is the first and, therefore, primary tab. It's intended to be the place where most of the commonly used actions belong.

    • Should Insights belong in Go, because it allows you to go to your study Bibles and commentaries?
    • Should it belong in View because the user is choosing whether to view Insights or not?
    • Should it belong in Tools because the sidebar is a tool that helps you find related information about the passage?

    I honestly don't know if there's a right answer to that question.

    My vote would be to keep that "Tool" grouped with the Translate and Summarize tools the way it was in the previous version of the Side Panel.
    Users will of course get used to its new location but keeping all of those together would in my mind help to keep confusion down to a minimum.

    Also, in my mind, the Text Compare should go under the View menu.

    Why?

    Because View allows me to change my Visual filters (change my view).
    I can view my RI (Reverse Interlinear).
    And I should, from the same menu, be able to view the Multiple Bible Versions (Text Compare) display.

    Just my two cents.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,088

    Ali Pope said:

    Here’s what you can expect from our revamped toolbar:

    1. Simplicity at its Best: We’ve simplified the layout and removed any clutter, so you can focus on what matters most - reading your books efficiently.
    2. Clear Visual Cues: Each button is carefully designed to represent its function, making it easier than ever to find the tool you need.
    3. Streamlined Navigation: Say goodbye to endless menus and submenus! With our new toolbar, everything you need is just a click away.

    As stated this is Marketing hype:

    • Not simple. What clutter?
    • What does reading "efficiently" mean  e.g. is it efficient when a Bible opens with Insights?
    • GO button does not represent its function as I was thinking about the reference box. It needs a different, more meaningful name.
    • No more "endless menus and sub-menus"  when the new toolbar has two levels and a More button!?
      • some buttons require two clicks  e.g. Interlinear and Reformat.

    Comments/Impressions

    • I have given it a decent Go[:)]
    • I don't like Bibles opening with Insights when I want to read them efficiently and immediately!
    • The "Change Book" icon should be outside the Reference Box for clarity as a toolbar item.
    • The Reformat "endless submenu" has other items. The label needs to reflect that.
      • the toggle button happily switches all items in the menu
    • Why have "Insights" with the Info button:
    • image
      Most View items have the caption "Show ..."??
    • You don't Go to a "Link Set"  ---> suggest it be under View/Show.
    • The Information "side bar" should be accessible from the top level toolbar so that it will be one click away:
      • currently two clicks are required plus another to remove the bottom toolbar (where Info is located)
      • I have the app toolbar "on top" and value the vertical space available to me.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Mark Barnes (Logos)
    Mark Barnes (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 1,993

    I'm missing an option to change to my personalized highlighter palette. For now I don't find it - or will it be implemented in the future?

    We show the most recently used styles, but custom highlighting palettes aren't yet available on the web app. They will work with this toolbar when it comes to the desktop app, though.