Logos 5 Unleashed With Streamlined Tools and Community Built In

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Nov 1, 2012 in Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software | 0 comments

Logos 5 showed up this week with a refined user interface, some new ways to use what was already present and a few new tricks to make it worth the upgrade. In a word, it’s impressive.

This isn’t my complete review. I’ll do that later at a couple of places. However, let me share a few things I like and some of the new tools I’m not that excited about, but you might like.

What’s New in Logos 5

The new Sermon Starter Guide might help lazy or busy preachers access resources in their library focused on a certain passage. Open it up and type in your passage and watch Logos go find some tools. This is different that the Passage Guide because it offers some study content, but is heavier on preaching content like illustrations, sermon outlines and sermon visuals if you subscribe to the included visuals library which costs an extra $400/year.

Above, notice the ability to take notes about passages preached. (1) I put my sermon title and a note about when and where I preached this passage. (2) The list of items included by default shows things most preachers would like to use when preparing a sermon. (3) Click the Add button to include more in the Sermon Starter Guide.

Some other cool new fathers include the following:

• Universal Timeline – shows a timeline of Biblcial and historical events
• Topic Guide – searches library for content related to a topic
• Searching library or Bible by phrase, clause and theme
• Feature parity between Windows and Mac versions
• Deeper Faithlife Community integration
• Better Proclaim Presentation integration

Most users won’t see but will enjoy the faster and more reliable platform. Logos 4 used a technology that slowed things down, but Logos 5 uses updated coding technology that makes the software run better, faster and more reliably.

How Much is Logos 5?

For a limited time Logos costs 15% less than it will after they end their launch sale. They offer 7 base packages that include the following in the chart below from Logos or at Logos’ website.

For owners of Logos 4 or earlier, there’s a nice discount for upgrades. Contact Logos to see how much you can save over the above prices. Logos also takes into account purchases made since buying a base package. For example, if a user buys the Logos Silver package and then adds a ffew books that come with the Gold edition, they can upgrade to the Gold package for a slightly lower price than others would pay.

Get Logos 5 today. People who already own Logos 4 should not hesitate to get the update. At the very least, users of other Bible software should consider Logos 5 of the huge library and breadth of excellent tools they offer as part of the basic installation.

Users of both Windows and Mac will get a version that runs natively on each platform. Logos doesn’t use WINE or emulation software to make the Windows version run on Mac or vice versa. For the first time, the two platforms seem to enjoy feature parity.

Bible! from Logos Version 3.0 Demo on Video

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Aug 31, 2012 in Digital Bible Study | 0 comments

Earlier this week I showed you the new Bible! 3.0 from Logos that comes with a name change, a new home screen and some other nice features., I decided to demonstrate this on video so you can see for yourself some of the new features.

Here’s the video demo:

You can get Bible! from Logos in the iTunes App Store or find out more at the Logos site.

Accordance 10 is Here

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Aug 20, 2012 in Digital Bible Study | 2 comments

Accordance Bible Software updated their excellent OS X Bible Study software program to Accordance 10 bringing some really great new features, including a single window interface, an updated and more modern looking toolbar, better library access, flexible searching features and much more. The basic package of Accordance 10 will cost $49 for the Starter pack that includes the basic tools for simple Bible study. More advanced packages come at a higher cost ranging up to $2000 for the “Ultimate Collection” which has just about everything but the kitchen sink. I think you can get that for an extra fee.

Single Integrated Window

Lets look at some the basic new features in Accordance 10 starting with the single unified window interface. I love that I don’t have to move a bunch of separate windows around anymore. I came up on Windows machines that always offer one window for most programs. Working with three or four separate windows got old on the previous versions. This one features makes it worth the upgrade fee for me.Full disclosure I was given a review copy for free, but I’d have paid if they hadn’t.

Library

For users of the previous versions, the integrated library list along the left will surprise you. Also the the toolbar looks more modern with a customizable set of buttons to add or remove. Make Accordance work your way.

At the bottom of the left hand library pane notice the filter buttons. This lets the user show various sets of books based on their usage.

Searching

Flex Search adds are more powerful search features. Instead of trying to explain it, I’ll let Accordance speak for itself (from their site):

Flex Search is a new feature of Accordance 10 that finds variations of the words and phrases you search for. Specifically, Flex Search will find all inflected forms of verbs and all singular and plural forms of nouns. This mode also allows words to occur out of order or to have other words in between them. For example, a flex search for the phrase “build houses” will yield results for “build houses,” “building a house,” and “the house that King Solomon built.”

That’s great. Other software had this kind of “fuzzy search” capability, but Accordance 10 does a good job of it.

Accordance also offers the following new or improved search modes:

• Exact Search: very precise searching based on your specific criteria
• Search All: finds content in every module or groups you specify
• Amplify: select a word in the text and click Amplify to open things like Dictionaries (also works via triple click)
• Search Analytics: the visual search results using bar graphs and charts saw some great improvements

Full-screen Reading Mode

The new Reading Mode turns the program into a distraction free, full screen mode that lets you focus on the text of the book or translation.

Various Packages

As I said above, the various packages offers something useful for multiple budgets and uses. To determine which package best fits your needs, see their comparison chart.

Minor Annoyances

Is Accordance 10 perfect? No. I like the new Reading Mode, but wish it offered a OS X full screen mode using the regular interface as well. Most modern OS X apps work with the new form of display Apple added to Lion and Mountain Lion. There’s good news. Accordance knows users want this and so maybe we’ll see it in a future version.

Like previous versions, there’s a steep learning curve with Accordance. It takes some getting used to and things are not as intuitive as other Bible programs. Because of this, users should check out the Accordance Podcast entitled Lighting the Lamp. I’m hoping they will go back and update some of the older videos with the new interface because I’m still learning how to work with this powerful tool.

Finally, I’d like to see better synchronization between multiple computers and the iOS app. Right now I sync my user tools like notes and workspaces using SugarSync, but I wish Accordance offered an automatic built-in syncing feature like Logos. Also, I’d love for the content to sync with their iOS app. Right now I have to do this manually. I’d like it to happen seamlessly over the Internet.

Windows Version in 2013

That said, version 10 is a great improvement and Accordance is still one of the most powerful and efficient Mac Bible Study programs you can buy. What’s more a new Windows version will be coming in 2013. Here’s how they describe it:

For over 10 years, Accordance has been available to PC users on the free Basilisk II emulator. While the emulator version of Accordance includes almost every feature available in Accordance for Mac, we have long desired to offer PC users a better solution. And so, we are pleased to announce that we are in the process of developing a native version of Accordance 10 for Windows. In fact, we have been working on this project for well over a year, and we are excited to announce that Accordance 10 for Windows will be available in 2013.

In the meantime, PC users can still buy Accordance 9 for use with the free Basilisk II emulator. Those who purchase Accordance between May 1, 2012 and the official release date will receive a free upgrade to the native Windows version. Those who purchased Accordance before May 1, 2012 can upgrade to the Windows version for just $49.99 once it is released.

The great thing about the new version for Mac users? It will be free. So those of us who run both Windows and Mac can use the new Windows version without paying again! And it won’t run on an emulator! That’s exciting for anyone who wanted the power of Accordance on Windows.

Logos iOS App Finally Has Notes and Highlights

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps, Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software | 0 comments

A flurry of updates came out of Bellingham, Washington as Logos updated, not only their desktop Bible software application, but their iOS app as well. The big news: Highlighting and Notes! Finally! See the demo of the new app from Logos below:

After a more than two years, two of the most important mobile Bible software tools finally found their way into the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch Logos app. As you can see from the image below, a screenshot from my iPad, that I’ve highlighted Philippians 2:21.

You can use multiple highlight styles by selecting some text and then choosing Highlight from the menu that appears.

Once you select the Highlight option, a menu pops up offering a number of highlighting tools.

The top section offers recent highlighting styles used. The second section lists all the styles you can use to highlight text. Tap one of those items to see the options under that style. Below you will see the various options.

Above you see the Emphasis Markup and Highlighter Pens list. Below you see the Solid Colors and Inductive options.

Finally, the update also brings Notes to the app. I’ve looked forward to this update more than any other. I take a lot of notes when I study the Bible. I love to record all of my observations from various commentaries, language study, etc. in a notes file attached to my Bible software. The Logos notes feature was useless till the updates of this week. We get great notes tools in both he desktop and the mobile app all in one week. Feels like Christmas came again!

To add a note do the same as you would with a highlight. Select some text and a menu pops up. Choose Note and then start typing. Notes and Highlights work the same way. Highlights are blank notes with special markings associated with them. They will sync with your desktop app almost immediately thanks to the more robust Sync 2.0 infrastructure added to the Logos app and the desktop software.

Below you will see some notes and highlighting (I added underlining the same way) that came over to the app from my desktop application via sync.

To open a note, just tap the icon next to the verse and you get your note window superimposed over the text.

It feels greedy to ask for more when we just received this long-awaited update. I’ll do it anyway. I’d rather have my notes in a parallel window so that I don’t have a note section superimposed over the text and so that I can keep editing it with the second window pane always showing the note.

Right now, to edit a note you must tap and hold your finger over the note icon and choose Edit Note. If you do, you will see the following.

You can change the note by typing in the title or content box. You can also choose a new highlight or note icon and color. Altar the style or delete the note entirely.

This is a great update! It took far too long to arrive and I wonder how many customers Logos lost in the process of waiting.

If you left Logos for this reason, it’s almost time to come back. We only lack one more important feature – bible reading plans that actually work properly! That should be coming very soon. When it does, the Logos bible app for iOS will be a 5-star app! Today it jumped from a 2.5-star app to 4 stars.

Logos 4.5 Released with Improved Notes, Highlighting and Sync 2.0

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jan 25, 2012 in Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software | 0 comments

Logos 4.5 was released today bringing an improvement to the notes, highlighting and sync features of the Bible Study Software suite. We hope the new Logos 2.0 mobile app will follow soon along with a fix for the broken reading plans that haven’t worked for months.

The application doesn’t look significantly different on the outside. Most of the improvements come under the hood. I can assure you that the performance of the notes function improved greatly in this version. In other words, you can actually use it!

Strangely, Logos chose to change the way highlights are stored. You now get a new note file that is named for the highlighting pallet you use. For example, my highlights were added to a new note file called “solid colors.” It behaves just like a notes file, so you will want to be careful about how you work with highlights.

You can get all the details at the Logos 4.5 Wiki page.

To upgrade your version of Logos, just open it and it should pull the update automatically within a few minutes. If not, then type Update Now in the command box.

Mac users will also enjoy some new gestures. Use your mouse and click and drag left to go back or right to go forward. They added a bunch of these and they’ll be useful if I can remember to use them.

Finally, you get a ton of bug fixes. See the list not he page linked above.

I’m pretty excited about this update. I’ll be singing praise songs when the reading plan debacle ends. Right now, if you want to sync your reading plans with the desktop app and your iOS app. you better not open it on the desktop app. I did and now my reading plan is all messed up. People have been dealing with this for months, but I’ve only had trouble for the last several weeks. It’s quite annoying and ridiculous that Logos let it go this long. Our long national nightmare nears an end!