Feature question/request: Display multiple Bible versions in single panel
I don't believe this capability exists in Logos. I'll try to explain what I'd like to see, with a screenshot from Accordance below. I'm asking for this feature for two reasons: 1) Because I could really use it when in an instructional scenario (versus preaching); 2) Because Accordance and BibleWorks both have it, and from every indication I've seen of people using those programs, this is the main way Bibles are displayed / used in those programs (screencasts where its use was incidental to the purpose of the screencast, i.e. not an ad for the product; in-class or in-person study scenarios).
In case someone is already thinking "Text Comparison," I'll address why I think it's insufficient below.
Here's a screenshot from Accordance:
Note two things that I'd like to see in Logos:
1) Multiple Bible versions in a single tab / panel. It's three different languages here, but it should work for any Bible. There is minimal display clutter between the different versions. There's a single reference that controls where each version is, so they navigate together.
2) The mouse is hovering over a word, highlighting that word, and the other Bibles will also highlight that same word automatically. I'm guessing the Bible has to be morph-tagged for this to work, but that's really another ought-to-have feature.
I know Logos has Text Comparison, but I don't think it fully meets what I'm looking for. a) It's not great at large passages. This should work for general purpose Bible display, just like a single Bible panel does today. b) I can't click Bible reference links in some other tool (search, a commentary, etc.) and have Text Comparison be the panel in which the referenced verse is opened. I could set the Text Comparison link set to a panel with my primary Bible and get it to the right place by side effect when I click a link. But that's clunky, and Text Comparison only displays a single verse at that point. c) It doesn't meet requirement #2 above.
If someone can enlighten me on how to achieve this in Logos, I'd be grateful. If I need to explain further, let me know. Otherwise, I'd love to see Faithlife implement this in, say, 6.2. 
Thanks,
Donnie
Comments
-
Why not 3 Bible panes side by side as a linked set with sympathetic highlighting set? Or am I missing something?
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."
0 -
Then it's up to me to arrange the windows. And to adjust position and set up the link when I add a 4th and 5th version. Plus the window / panel borders come between the versions, "interrupting" the visual display. Lastly, the "hover" feature.
Donnie
0 -
Okay I'm dense ... I agree no work to set up is preferable but a layout in a floating window wouldn't be bad.
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."
0 -
That's using sympathetic highlighting, right? So it happens on click, not hover, right?
It's probably best we can do right now, but it's a lot of manual setup at first and to expand # versions, etc.
Thanks for the feedback. Looking for an answer from Faithlife.
Donnie
0 -
Yes it is on select. You asked "how to achieve this in Logos" and this is as close as Logos easily gets. Put your suggestion on uservoice and see what level of support it gets My personal opinion is that it is a nice feature for which I would have some use but I have higher priority features I can't currently get close to.
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."
0 -
My initial reaction was similar to MJ's.
Although Donnie 'casts off' the Text Comparision tool, I suspect that's the solution. Improving it. My guess is that Logos would want to keep 'resources' as 'resources' (in the other thread this AM, they make that distinction).
I was playing around with Text Comparison. It would be nice if they'd smarten it up, to include Donnie's functionalities. I'd like a smarter text difference algorythm too. Even slight differences causes a 99% difference. Plus, as Logos moves into the Noet world, text comparison needs becomes more sophisticated (requirements). Right now for example, Qumran is often a problem.
Regarding issues with Text Comparison and passages, I got whacked just now on that. It went into a non-stoppable cycle of re-draws using up 40% of the CPU until I finally killed it. Hasn't this been an issue now for 5 or so years?
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
0 -
We've drawn up designs for this type of functionality a number of times. It's definitely appealing at first glance, and we have a number of users who are familiar with Accordance who prefer this style of window management.
IIRC, the idea didn't get traction mainly because it didn't fit well with the open-ended single-resource flexible layout system that is the main mode of interaction for Logos. There would be two ways to link panels: Like now, or by docking them together in a panel group. The main benefit is that it makes fewer panels to drag around (if you're doing that a lot) but it complicates panel dropping -- if I drop a tab on another tab, does that mean I want to add it into a group, or lay another tab on top (like now)? It's actually more chrome, too, because there's one big toolbar for the group and then a second panel-specific toolbar for things like view settings. When you print, which panel are you printing? Can you set the zoom individually, or only for the whole group? None of those problems is insurmountable, but each design decision that makes the group panel unlike a non-grouped resource panel puts a little weight on the cost side of the cost/benefit analysis.
Bottom line: No specific plans right now. Maybe someday?
We have some specs drawn up for Text Comparison that turns it into an infinitely scrolling panel instead of the "update reference and regenerate" model that it has now. There are a couple of things that would have to happen first to make it feasible/performant. Call that idea "waiting in the wings" for now.
(As always, ideas are just ideas, and plans are always subject to change.)
Hope that helps!
0 -
Eli Evans said:
We've drawn up designs for this type of functionality a number of times. It's definitely appealing at first glance, and we have a number of users who are familiar with Accordance who prefer this style of window management.
Thank you very much for replying. I won't reply to all the questions you raised on how things should work, but from my experience seeing (not using) Accordance and Bibleworks, they seem to have solved them (e.g. individual zoom).
A compromise possibility, following MJ's suggestion, would be to allow a way for a resource to be opened in a window such that all existing panels in that window are resized to equal size. So if I have a floating window with 1 bible open, the panel takes 100% of the width of that window. Then I hit the "+" icon which lets me pick another bible to open in that window - allow me to open that such that each bible now takes 50% of the width. (Current functionality has the panels overlapping, only 1 visible.) Then I set those bibles to the same link set and enable sympathetic highlighting. When I hit "+" the next time and pick a 3rd bible, each panel takes 1/3 of the window width. Bonus points if that bible automatically is part of that link set with sympathetic highlighting enabled.
That would provide probably 90% or more of the functionality without any fundamental architectural or display feature changes.
Thoughts? Thanks again,
Donnie
0
