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Function 4: Library

Function ?:

Ok, so this particular blog of mine has not really taken off, now when I say taken off what I really mean has nothing to do with fanfare in actuality I don’t care if no one sees or looks at this blog this is something that I simply want to do, and the reason is to understand the software better. Part of the problem I have been having with Logos is two fold, for one I am a heavy BibleWorks user and rarely use Logos outside of looking up commentaries and the like, the second is that they do not have a good and comprehensive help file, instead they expect you to use the MP seminars which are fine and dandy except for the whole funding thing. This has kind of placed me in a bind as I would like to better use the software but don’t necessarily know how, so I am now continuing the search to better understand the possibilities with the software before BBW 9 reaches my door, because when that happens, if I do not yet fully understand Logos I may end up placing on the side. In order to make sure I have at least one if not several more post, I have decided to dedicate some of my time to better understanding Logos. In the past I have tried reading the Help files to no avail (but they will come in handy when I get to Morphological searches). However for the basics I found them more confusing than helpful. I have watched several videos and continue to watch some of the ones created by users and have found them to be very helpful, so without further ado I continue with my functions with function 4 which is really function one but not really. Lol 
The Library: At the very top of your home page, you will see a blue strip (v. 4) this is called the ribbon and on it you can find all kinds of things from Reading schedules to selected books. On the left hand side you will see three options right above the ribbon, the options are all pictures, but the pictures stand for things. The first picture is of a house, and this shows you the home page (which we will get to later) after this you see a picture which is presumably a book that is open (this is the library) and then after that we see a picture of a magnified glass, which stands for search. What we will be focusing on for today is the book or the library. The library seems at first to be very mundane yet can be helpful especially in a program as large as Logos.
If you click on the book image you immediately see a drop down list with all the covers of the books you own along with the title next to it. On top of this you will see a search engine box. This is helpful to search through out books with keywords to find the book that you are looking for. Next to that you will see a button for change of view, and which will toggle from a view with heavier emphasis on the covers vs. the emphasis on the amount of books. However, next to that is the button for resource information. Now this button looks like a circle with a lowercase “I” in it. To click on this does give more options. Now you can add tags as well as rate the text. Now at first this may seem somewhat unimportant, however, this can be very important to rate texts. “why” you may ask, and the truth is in the numbers. There are just too many text and if you do not rate them or tag them in any way who knows what will pop up when you do a search possibly something that you do not like or do not agree with theologically. This is something that can help you to get to the information that you want the most at the forefront of your searches. The tag option allows you to tag the text for what it is. This is beneficial when you are doing the general searches within the text for certain topics as well as just trying to look through your text on your own. Both of these are huge features and I hope that you use them as they will make using Logos better as it gets to know more of what you prefer.

Function 3: General Set Up

In terms of Logos, it does not really have a supposed "help" file, this has made it difficult to go down the list of items as I do in the BibleWorks Blog. So in turn I have decided to change this blog in style to fit more of what I do with the software, and as I talk about it, hopefully I will learn more about how it operates. However the first thing that I need to talk about is how to set up the software. This is something that is very different from other software, most just have a general set up that you can use with limited movement. Not so with Logos, you can tell it what books to display how you want them displayed and where. Once you are done you can save this display to use again at a different time. What makes this even better is that this, the general set up really couldn't be easier. I will explain how I do my set up. Start by opening Logos at the home page go to go to the search box (not the command line at the very top) type in a passage any passage will do. Once there, you will see the passage guide and the exegetical guide on the top left of a long skinny window in Logos. There will be all kinds of things searching like crazy though all of your books in the passage guide. It will also have four boxes open up each with a book of some sort depending on what you have in your package or collection. From here you have the general layout, however, you can open other books by clicking on the library icon on top, and searching through your books, you will be able to double click on the icon by the book you would like to open. It will automatically place the window with one of the four that is already open. The nice feature here is that you can click on the tab of the book and drag it to the area you would like and make it larger or smaller and basically adjust how you want things displayed. Well, it is late so I best stop here, I will pick up from this point on the next post.

Function 2: Gestures

This is a somewhat new age feature, I think it would work best if you have a touch screen computer (or if it works or will at sometime work with smart-phones) basically it worked by making motions with your mouse while holding down the right button. Now there are several motions which you can make, a full list is in the help files of Logos. I have done some experimenting with a few. Such as the right and left, up and down motions. I found the motions for me to be somewhat difficult to maneuver, however I am using a computer with a mouse on a TV tray in my living room. Even with all these things stacked against me, I did get it to work, which was fun. I think that if I spent more time working with these I could get all of them to work and minimize my time with scrolling and focus on more of what I want to do instead and the like with the mouse. However, I already do not use and move things as much as perhaps others would and so this function while neat, seems a little unneeded to me. However I do know that touch screens and the like are growing in popularity, and could honestly say that if I had a touch screen window, that this feature would be one of the highlights of Logos. I do not think that these capabilities are on the smart-phone portions of Logos yet, they may be integrated into the phone already so they would be unnecessary. So basically, it is fun to look at these and if you would benefit from them, definitely something to spend time with learning, but for me it is not very useful at this time.

Function 1: Command Box

Unlike BibleWorks, the help files in Logos are not separated and indexed in the same manner, although I am sure for many this is actually more beneficial, I find it harder to maneuver. The first true function which they cover is the command box. This is not the box that appears with the passage guide, but it is the one that appears at the very top of your screen on the toolbar. It is most useful when you are looking for something very specific. This is not really to be used when looking for a passage.
When you type into this box, it will do a search of all your book and display to you the result. If you type in a passage it will not give you a passage guide instead it will find every time and every book that references those particular verses. This at times can be helpful but I find the guides to be much more helpful in these cases.
What is helpful about this command box is some of the things that you can do with it. If you look in the help file there is a list of commands that you can type in and get certain results. Some of my favorites include the Biblical Places and Biblical people. However you can ask it to go to, create, look up and even load new when you create something and need it to load into your program (hopefully we will get to this later).