5 Simple Logos Bible Software Tips - Christian Computing Magazine

higher power with kevin
5 Simple Logos
Bible Software Tips
Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org
We’re going to begin looking at some of the best tips for the major
Bible software tools we often cover here at High Power with
Kevin. We start with Logos 5 and will also look at BibleWorks,
WORDsearch, e-Sword, OliveTree Bible Study and more. If you want to
share a tip with our readers for one of these applications or another not listed
here, please send it to me using my contact info at the bottom.
Power users of the Logos will likely say that our first
5 tips it in a beginner’s class. As someone once said,
“It’s only easy if you know how to do it.”
Logos Tip #1 - Organize the Home Page or Dump it
Altogether
When someone opens Logos version 4 and 5 for the
first time, or every time if they’ve never followed this
tip, the contents will look much like a newspaper or
even like Pinterest. It may seem like a hodgepodge of
junk, but users can organize the content to view only
what they want to see.
In the lower left corner of Logos 5, find the settings
icon next to the user name. Click it and a list pops up to
review all the categories of content on the Home page.
In Logos 4 click on customize to see the menu.
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Here’s the list of what we see
in Logos 5. The first section covers
what’s seen in the left hand column
in Logos 5 or top row in Logos 4:
• Your devotions
• Choose preferred Bible
• Lectionary
• Library preview
• Recent reading lists
Below the first section users
will find a list of content seen in the
newspaper/Pinterest-style layout area
of the home page. This area lets users
discover what content they own,
can buy or tips on how to use the
program.
• Devotionals
• Excerpts
• Faithlife Blog
• Faithlife Women
• Logos Blog
• Logos Community Pricing
• Logos Pre-Pubs
• My Logos Messages
• Proclaim Blog
• Release Notes
• Updated Resources
• Vyrso Voice
Uncheck the things that you
don’t want to see. This removes clutter
and speeds up the loading of the
page since the content comes from
the Internet.
Some people, after using Logos
awhile, realize that the Home Page
is little more than a catalog of Logos
content with a little of my stuff
thrown in. Users who also use a
mobile device to do their devotional
readings, don’t care about seeing
these reading plans on the Home
Page. Turn the thing off to get to the
Bible study tools faster. Get rid of
the Home Page for good by doing
the following:
1.
2.
Click Tools from top menu
Click Program Settings
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3.
Change the option labeled “At Startup Open
to” from Home to one of the other options. I
choose Most Recent Layout – any so that it
opens to the layout I’ve last used on any of
my machines.
Now, when I open Logos,
it will open to the last layout I
used with Logos instead of the
cluttered Home Page. Users can
also select a blank layout for
fast loading or one of their favorite
layouts they always use.
Logos Tip #2 – Learn to Create
Layouts from Logos Wiki
A layout consists of books
and resources opened in a
certain organization for quick
access of tools. Use layouts
to quickly open a selection of
tools and resources for certain
tasks. For example, set a layout
for Bible reading, for language
Christian Computing® Magazine
study or for commentary reading. Set a blank layout
for quick opening of Logos.
Go to the Logos Wiki, an online user-maintained
help page. It contains tons of great content, including
a page on how to set up layouts. Find it here:
http://wiki.logos.com/Layouts__.
Logos Tip #3 – Access
Account Page form
Home Page
Going back to the
Home Page, click on
the user name and it
takes you to your account
page at http://
www.Logos.com. Here
a user can check things
like their credit balance,
if they have one,
recommended resource,
mobile devices, description
of the user, orders,
subscriptions, wish lists
and more.
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Logos Tip #4 – Change Settings for Better Performance
Getting back to the Program Settings from the
Tools menu, changing a few of these makes the
program work better for you. For example, maybe
you go to a school that uses APA Style for citations in
papers. Select it in settings. They also offer Chicago,
MLA and more. It’s under Citation Style.
Look through the list to change any of the other
settings. For example, I turn off the Play Sounds item
because I don’t want Logos starting up with the annoying
little tune that distracts people around me at
the coffee shop. Maybe you like
it, so keep it on or turn it back on.
Other people like to turn off
the Use Internet for faster performance
when connected to a
dial-up network. This might also
be a good reason to set when
the program can automatically
download updates. Schedule this
under Automatically Download
Updates. Pick the times using the
drop down boxes.
Some don’t like the community
features where they can see
community notes, so they turn
them off under Show Community
Ratings and Show Community
Tags.
Logos Tip #5 – Customize the
Toolbar
The Logos 4 and 5 toolbars
can use some customization. For
example, I dragged my favorite
Bibles to the toolbar just right of
the Command box. I also will put
a book on the toolbar if I’m in the
middle of reading it. That way I
can go back to it quickly.
Features that you use often
can find a place there. Open Documents
and drag a category of
new document to the toolbar and
instead of clicking the menu and
then the kind of document, just
click that button. I put a Sentence
Diagram button on mine because
that’s one of the first things I do
with wisdom or didactic passages.
I also use the Exegetical and Passage Guides a
lot, so I put buttons for those on the toolbar.
If you learn from this series of articles, then let
me know on Twitter (@kapurcell) or Google+ (http://
gplus.to/kevinpurcell) and share these with others using.
Just a note about Google+. I’ve directed many to
my old G+ account with kapurcell instead of kevinpurcell.
Please stop using the link above from now
on. Here’s our first set of Bible software tips focusing
on Logos.
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