4 Exciting Tools in Logos Bible Software to Find Great Sermon Illustrations
We teach you how to use 4 exciting tools in Logos 10 to discover great sermon illustrations. They will help you paint pictures with words.
Logos Bible Software includes many valuable tools to help preachers find sermon illustrations as they write sermon outlines. Good sermon development always includes sermon illustrations, which the preacher can use to explain the text, prove its truthfulness, and then apply the text to the lives of their audience. So, we'll look at 4 useful tools in Logos to help you find good sermon illustrations.
For those who don't already own Logos 10, head over to my affiliate link and order one of the great packages, which include the tools you read about below. I recommend getting Logos Gold or higher to get the most bang for your buck.
4 Tools in Logos Bible Software to Help Find Great Sermon Illustrations
Let's look at the list of XX tools you can use in Logos Bible Software to find great sermon illustrations, and then we'll examine each one more fully.
Click the list item above to jump directly to the section that focuses on that tool, or just read about them in order below.
1. Factbook Collects Many Tools in One
Users can open many of the tools in the list above directly, but the Factbook will put them in one window with links to open them to your topic, passage, idea, person, place, or thing. That's the benefit of Factbook; it puts everything in one place. So, let's look at what tools you'll find.
In our previous posts on the 4 Essential Tools for Sermon Development, we looked at the passage about faith. Jesus uses the illustration of a mustard seed to show the binary nature of faith. You either have faith, or you don't. That's the point of the tiny seed used in Jesus' illustration. Modern science can measure the volume of a mustard seed, but most in 1st-century Israel would conceive of measuring a mustard seed's volume.
We open the Factbook from the Logos 10 toolbar (see above). Then, type an idea you want to illustrate in the search box. Hit enter, and the Factbook shows all it can find in the Factbook search tools. Some of the things you'll find in the Factbook include...
- Key Article - Each Factbook idea comes with a Key Article, often from a Bible Dictionary. Faith's Key Article is the entry for Faith from the Lexham Bible Dictionary.
- Further Reading - You'll see articles about your topic from other books or resources. For example, "Faith" shows the Lexham Theological Wordbook article.
- Media - the Factbook finds media related to your search, like videos or graphics.
- Key Passages - think of a cross-reference tool finding all the instances of your topic in the Bible with Key Passages and then a See Also section with other passages. They all appear as links you can hover over or click to open.
- Biblical Senses - if you search for a word with an original language like faith and the Greek word pistils (transliteration of the Greek term sometimes translated faith) that is translated as your word, then the Factbook lists Biblical Senses, which show the kind of word and the basic usage in Scripture.
- Dictionaries - articles from your dictionaries covering your topic or word.
- Journals - a search of your journals related to the topic or word.
- Sermons - sermons about your topic that may include great Sermon Illustrations.
- Preaching Resources - mostly sermon illustration databases.
- Biblical Events - you can discover places related to your passage or subject. This might not help us with faith.
- Biblical Books - maybe you're studying a book and want information about the book, the author, and the book's audience.
- Theological Topic - find information in your library about a topic like faith.
- Greek and Hebrew Words - some original language terms come with "word pictures," which help us understand a topic or an idea because the word etymology illustrates the concept concretely.
- Other Books from Your Library - a broad search for your word in your library.
- Factbook Tags - other books with Factbook tags related to your topic.
- Logos Store Links - links to buy books related to your search.
- Other Tools and Links - links to run one of the Guides on your topic or word.
The results listed in a Factbook search differ depending on what you search for.
How to Make Use of the Factbook Results
Some of the above will offer more fruitful results when looking for Sermon Illustrations. For example, Preaching Resources seems like a great way to find illustrations. However, Sermon Illustration Databases often include stale or boring illustrations that modern listeners can't relate to.
I took an illustration from these collections and researched online to learn more. For example, a search for faith shows an entry in the book 1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching. We read about a man named Stewart Alsop who had leukemia. If you search for him and his book mentioned in the illustration database, you can find and read it. You can also read the Wikipedia page about him. Search Google or select the title and author name in the article, right-click, and choose Selection on the left part of the menu and Wikipedia on the right. As a result, this might give you better context about him and help you craft a more effective illustration of the concept of faith.
Other tools in the list above contain great information that you can use to explain your idea and illustrate it to appeal to the mind and the imagination. You'll even find media to display if you use a multimedia system in your worship or teaching environment. Key Passages will take you to cross references where you can let the Bible illustrate your concept. Share an example of faith from the life of someone like Abraham, who, in Genesis 12, was called to leave his home and wasn't told where he was going.
You'll find more images and videos with different searches. Faith is more of a concept than a person, place, or thing. If I'm preaching from the story of Moses in the book of Exodus, I can find media showing plagues, maps of Egypt, or the Israelites' exit. Make sure you also look for Factbook icons in the text of your Bible passage. The above screenshot shows three icons related to Pharaoh and two for the Egyptians.
2. Use Logos Guides to find Great Sermon Illustrations
The Factbook shows a lot of cool content. However, the Logos Guides give us similar results. Find content related to a passage, a topic, a specific word, counseling issues, or theological topics. Logos includes the following Guides...
- Exegetical Guide - for language study of a passage.
- Passage Guide - seeks a wide range of content based on a passage.
- Topical Guide - search your library for a Topic.
- Sermon Starter Guide - takes the Guide concept and finds content to help you prepare a sermon.
- Bible Word Study Guide - like the Exegetical Guide, but focuses on one Biblical word.
- Counseling Guide - focuses on counseling issues.
The Passage Guide, Topical Guide, and Sermon Starter Guide offer the best hope for finding great sermon illustrations. You can open these Guides from the Guides button on the toolbar. The most recently used items will appear at the top, but all of them will appear in the menu's Guides section. Also, each guide will let you search for one part of that guide. Scroll down to the Guide name in the menu and click it to show the sections of the Guides. Click on one, like the
To find some of the Guides, open to your passage and right-click on it. Click on Reference in the left part of the menu and then click on the Guide in the right. You'll see Passage Guide near the top, but if you scroll down on the right, you'll also see things like Sermon Illustrations and a few more Guides further down the list.
Using the right-click method, you can also search for a word or phrase in a passage. Instead of clicking Reference in the right-click menu, choose Selection. You'll find Guides on the right side of the menu. If you search a word you'll find the Bible Word Study Guide at the top and other Guides as you scroll down.
You'll find a wealth of potential Sermon Illustrations in the resulting search.
3. Sermon Builder and New AI Sermon Assistant
The Sermon Builder came with Sermon Illustration tools for a while. Logos added a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to overcome sermon writer's block. This new AI-powered tool requires a subscription to Logos Pro, which costs $9.95 and gives early access to new features like this new Sermon Assistant. See their official description of the Sermon Assistant in the Logos Community Forums.
Open a sermon you're already editing. Click on the Sermon Assistant button in the box's toolbar on the right of your sermon text. Next, choose Illustrations under Sermon and type an idea into the Idea box. You can also copy from the sermon and paste it here. Click Generate, and you'll see the resulting Sermon Illustration ideas. (see screenshot above).
If you like the illustration shown in the search results, hit the Insert or the Copy button. Insert places where your insertion point sits in the sermon text. Copy places it on the clipboard, letting you move the insertion point and paste it manually.
Next to the Sermon Assistant button, you'll see a Quotation icon. Click it to open the Popular Quotes tool, which works like the Sermon Assistant. It finds quotes from your library related to what you type into the box on that screen.
4. Don't Overlook Your Interactive Media and Your Library of Books
The above tools will help you find sermon illustrations, but some people overlook their books and features in Logos. For example, I'm going to do a demonstration of the Passover Seder for two churches in my Association of churches. I own the Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals and Fasts of the Bible. Under the Passover section, an excellent graphic shows the Seder Plate with descriptions of each item. This visual illustration will help me teach this feast.
To find these illustrations, search in one of the Guides as described above or open one of your dictionaries, a lexicon, or study Bibles, which often include charts, graphs, maps, or images.
Here's a list of books or features that include images useful to illustrate ideas or sermon points:
- Dictionary
- Encyclopedia
- Study Bibles
- Sermon Collections
- Media Collections
- Handbooks
- Atlas
- Illustration Books
- Bible Backgrounds (IVP, Zondervan, etc)
How Do You Find Great Sermon Illustrations?
How do you use Logos to find Sermon Illustrations? Please comment below to help out the community. I'll edit this article and cite you. If you know of a good YouTube video covering this how-to, share the link, and I'll take a look and update the article with the best videos, too.
Logos 10 Mobile App: What's New?
Here are the top new features of the Logos 10 Mobile app with a demo video and instructions on how to use them.
Faithlife, the makers of Logos Bible Software, updated their suite of Bible study apps and desktop/laptop programs, releasing Logos 10 Mobile for iPad, iPhone, and Android. Most new features work best on the iPad, but many also work on iPhone and Android. We've got a demo of all the most significant upgrades with instructions on how to use these new features.
Logos 10 Mobile App Adds New Selection Menu
When you want to select a verse or some text to highlight it, add a note, or look up information, the Logos 10 Mobile App improves the selection menu.
If you tap on a verse, a popup menu shows up with a few things in it. Depending on your selection, you'll see highlighters, buttons to interact with the verse, some information from your user notes, the Factbook, or other content. This works in non Bibles too.
The highlights come from the most recent first and then the top highlights in your highlighters tool.
The buttons that you can use to interact with a Bible verse include the following:
- Copy the verse
- Share the passage
- Add a Note
- Search
- Compare in multiple translations
- Perform a Passage Guide on the passage
- Perform an Exegetical Guide on the passage
- Mark the passage as a Favorite
- Translate the text using the new Logos 10 Translation tool
- Clip the selected content
- Create a Visual Copy, which makes the selection into an image to share on social media, save, or use in your presentation.
Below the buttons, you will see cards for items found in the selected text. These take you to the Factbook or Bible dictionaries. It might show an entry from a Lexicon. What it shows depends on what it finds in the selected text.
Slide left or right on the cards to see more of them. Use the menu button in the upper right corner of each card (it looks like three vertical dots) to do more with the content in the cards.
Press and hold on a single word and bring up a different kind of menu that shows info about that one word. You'll see Word Info that comes from tags on the word. For example, it will show an entry from your top Greek or Hebrew lexicon. You can open it by tapping on the More button.
You'll also see an entry from an English dictionary or Bible dictionary.
Print Library Tool
Now in Logos 10 you can search your Print Library. However, you'll have to first add books to the Print Library using the Logos 10 Mobile App.
Tap on the More button, which looks like three horizontal lines in the lower right corner of the screen. If it's not showing up, tap on the book's title that's open on the screen. In the top Library section of the menu, tap on the Print Library ISBN Scanner entry. This opens the camera. You might have to give the app permission first.
You can only add books to the Print Library if Logos also has the book in its digital library store. That's because they have to have the text of the book in their library to search for text in the book. Any book that you have with an ISBN bar code or QR code will work.
Now, when you search for words or phrases, they will return entries in the Print Library. You can't read the whole book in Logos, but the Logos 10 Mobile App will tell you where you can find it in your print copy of the book.
Read Aloud in Logos 10 Mobile App
If you like audiobooks, then you'll love the improvements to the Read Aloud feature in the Logos 10 Mobile app. It's easy to find in the open book's top toolbar. It looks like a sound icon. Tap it, and it brings up the reading feature at the bottom of the screen.
In the Read Aloud feature, listeners can pause and play the audio. They can also skip back a verse or a whole book of the Bible. Skip forward a verse or a book too. There's a speed option to read the book or Bible faster. I like to listen at 1.5 times to many books.
If the book comes with an audiobook version, a download button appears next to the X in the Read Aloud feature box.
Most phones let users add different voices to read books that don't come with an audiobook version. Open your phone's Settings app. In iOS, go to Accessibility and then tap on Spoken Content. That opens the screen where you can choose Voices to select your voice.
iOS lists voices by language first and then name. I tapped on English at the top and chose Samantha. The phone gives the user two options. One is regular Samantha and the other reads "enhanced". I picked the enhanced version and downloaded her voice.
Go back to Logos, choose a book that doesn't already have an audiobook associated with it, and follow the instructions at the beginning of this section to listen to the book using the iOS voice we chose in settings.
The Android version of the Logos 10 Mobile App plays audio almost identically, except for changing the voices.
Sermon Manager Update
The update to the Sermon Manager in the Logos 10 Mobile App allows users to edit and read sermons created, either in the app or on the desktop. Open the Sermon Manager from the More button, which looks like three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other in the lower right corner of the toolbar.
You'll find the Sermon Manager in the Tools section of the menu. Tap on it to open it.
You will see all the important features of the Sermon Manager on your iPad. This only works on iPad.
You can also open the Sermon Manager from the tabs button. Hit a plus button to open from the Tools section of the new tab feature.
Canvas Tool on iPad
A canvas shows information in a visual way. The iPad and desktop app tools include many drawing tools, diagramming tools, and text formatting. Add images, icons, and shapes. Do this all to show information in a visual way for presentations or documents. You could create them for your own benefit.
To open or create a Canvas, go to the More button (three horizontal lines in the lower right) and tap on it. Head to the Documents section. Tap on the Canvas item, and you'll see a list of any Canvases already in your library. Tap one to open it. Work with the canvas, and then you can work with the Canvas.
You can also create a new one from the Tabs screen. Tap the plus icon and go to the Documents tab (right button on the Tabs toolbar). Now tap on the plus icon at the top of the box, which shows a list of the kinds of documents you can add. Tap on Canvas to make a new one.
The Canvas feature is available only on iPad, and only in Bronze packages, and above.
Draw On Screen Feature on iPad
Teaching using Logos as a visual aid got easier with the update to Logos 10 Mobile thanks to my favorite new feature, the Draw On Screen feature on the iPad only. You can now draw on your screen and save that as a screenshot in notes or share it elsewhere.
Open the More button (three horizontal lines in the lower right) and choose Draw On Screen from the Tools section. This brings up the Apple annotation feature, which lets you draw using your Apple Pencil, a third-party stylus, or your fingers.
Drawings can use a pen, highlighter, pencil, eraser, selection tool, and ruler to make straight lines.
When you're finished drawing on the screen, share the drawing or exit without saving it. You can share the image in a few ways.
- Copy Image - copy it for pasting in a document or note.
- Save to Photos - save it in the iOS Photos app.
- Save as Note - saves the drawing as an unattached note, which you can then manually attach to a verse or paragraph.
- Share - use the iOS Share Sheet feature to send it to a Facebook post, a file on the iPad, Instagram, or other services you use.
Enhanced Panel Linking
You've been able to link books before so that your commentary would move along with your Bible as you swiped to advance to the next passage. Now, you can tweak these settings a little so that the Bible drives the link relationship.
Open a book and then slip the screen into at least two books. When you do, a new book will fill the second half. Then, if you like, then add other books. You'll see a box with the word None in it and a pair of linked chain links. Tap it to bring up the Enhanced Panel Linking feature. Tap the A to link to the other book. Then tap on Follow Only so that this book won't make the other book move, but the other book will move this one.
For example, I have the NASB and Faithlife Study Bible open above. If I choose Follow Only, then as I swipe up and down on the NASB or left and right in widescreen mode, the FSB will follow it so that the verse in the Bible matches the verse in the study Bible. However, if I choose Set all panels to match, then any book will force the others to follow it. Moving to a new chapter in the FSB will move to that channel in all linked Bibles.
You can also set this from the main book menu in the upper right corner of each book panel, which looks like three vertically stacked dots.
New Logos 10 Mobile App User Interface with More Tiles
The user interface on Logos 10 Mobile gets a much-needed feature update. You can now open as many as six books on your iPad. However, this doesn't work on the phone since it would be impractical to open that many on a small screen.
To open a layout with more tiles, tap on the Layouts icon in the bottom toolbar on the right. You'll see a little popup with options for...
- 1 book
- 2 books side-by-side
- 2 books, top and bottom
- 3 books with one on the left and two splitting the right side column
- 3 books with one on the right and two splitting the left side column
- 3 books arranged in verbal columns
- 4 books splitting the screen into four equal quadrants
- 4 books with 2 each in the vertical columns on the left and middle and two splitting the third column
To add two more books, open the layout in the top right of the popup. Then, from the toolbar at the top, tap on the 3 dots which opens the options menu. Choose Split this tile.
Deal on New Logos Books
If you want to get the new Logos 10 upgrade, then head over to my affiliate page to get a nice discount on Logos and some free books. This way you can use the Logos 10 Mobile app
Logos Black Friday Deals on Books on Software
You can save a nice stack of cash by taking advantage Logos Black Friday Deals this month. We've got what's on offer and how much they cost.
I hate Black Friday, but these days few have to wait in line a store to get deals. In fact you don't even have to wait till Black Friday anymore if you shop on line at places like Logos Bible Software. They've already got Logos Black Friday deals going. Here's what you can get and save money on this month on books and the upgrade to Logos 10, which I shared with you in my overview of the new version.
Logos Black Friday Deals on Zondervan Courses and Mobile Education
These deals go from November 8th to 15th. You can save up to 85% on these courses. For example, save on courses to learn Biblical Greek or Hebrew. You can go for something as simple as a quick course on how to learn the alphabet for either $15.52 (Greek) or $21.36 (Hebrew). Then study the languages for $189.99 for Greek and Hebrew. Find them on my Affiliate page.
You can find other courses on Theology, Church History, Counseling, and Preaching. One thing I like to do is preach through books of the Bible. So, I get a course on a book of the Bible and study it as I prepare to preach through the book.
Other Deals Coming the Rest of the Month
Other deals are coming in the Logos Black Friday Deals include things like Commentary Mini-Bundles and Publisher Spotlight deals.
In addition, you can still get a nice discount on Logos 10. If you're new to Logos, you'll get 15% off. Prior customers get 30% off. And everyone will get 5 free books when they buy Logos 10 and a package deal, like the denomination collections, collections for preacher or counselors, or the basic color-themed collections, like Gold, Silver, etc.
You can use my affiliate link to get the 5 free books in this deal.
Every month Logos also offers free books and heavily discounted books. You can find the list of November's free and discounted titles here. Here's whats on offer this month...
- Luke (The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 26 | TPC) - Free
- Jon Courson's Application Commentary: New Testament - Free
- Thru the Bible Vol. 56: The Epistles (1 John) - 99 cents
- Did You Know? More Than 6,000 Bible Questions and Answers - 99 cents
- MacArthur's Quick Reference Guide to the Bible - $1.99
- Visual Survey of the Bible - $1.99
- God in the Manger - $2.99
- All the Parables of the Bible - $2.99
- KJV Bible Commentary - $3.99
- Proverbs (The Preacher's Commentary, Volume 15 | TPC) - $3.99
- 1 Peter (NIV Application Commentary | NIVAC) - $4.99
- Sermon on the Mount (Story of God Bible Commentary | SGBC) - $4.99
- 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Story of God Bible Commentary | SGBC)
- New International Bible Dictionary
- Ecclesiastes (Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 23a | WBC)
- Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible
- Joel: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament)
- Believer’s Bible Commentary
- Mark (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament | ZECNT)
- Acts (NIV Application Commentary | NIVAC)
- John, 2nd ed. (Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 36 | WBC)
- Thinking through Paul: An Introduction to His Life, Letters, and Theology
In addition, Logos offers a pre-order for $34.99, It's the Leviticus: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible from Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (AKA: ZECOT)
Logos 10: What's New and How to Get a Discount?
What's new in Logos 10 Bible software? Read about each new feature and watch my video demo.
That's right; Logos 10 shipped on 10-10-2022. Despite the marketing department at Logos taking advantage of the date and version number, this was a big upgrade. It marks the 30th anniversary of Logos first hitting the Bible software world. They weren't the first, but they indeed have outlasted most.
Users get some interesting new features with the latest version of Logos 10. I want to highlight what's new in Logos 10 on the desktop or laptop version, the mobile version, and the web app.
Many of the features listed below only come in advanced packages, like the Gold or Bronze. You can buy a package using my affiliate link. This gets you either 15% or 30% off the price plus five free books. I'll get a cut of the sale as well.
Logos 10 User Interface Changes
Users of Logos 10 will notice the new user interface immediately. The software displays the toolbar on the left instead of the top of the window. Users can change this, but it might conserve screen space if you use the program on a wide 16:9 screen aspect ratio.
I won't keep the toolbar on the left because I like to display the button label text to remind me of what each one does. You can show the labels on the left, but that takes up too much screen space. Without labels, people who can remember what each button does can collapse the toolbar. Here's how to change the position and collapse or expand the toolbar.
How to Move the New Logos 10 Toolbar Between Top or Left
Open your Program Settings. You can do that from the menu. On a Mac, click on Logos in the upper left corner and then choose Program Settings. The Logos menu in the upper left doesn't appear on Windows, only on Mac. The second item in the settings list will change position. Click the drop-down arrow to choose Top or Left.
Optionally, in the lower left, there's a menu button with three vertical dots. Click it, choose Program Settings, and then choose the drop-down arrow to select Top of Left.
Millions of New Factbook Tags
A new visual filter in Logos 10 shows users millions of new tags from the Factbook. The Logos 10 Factbook, like the one in previous versions, serves as an information treasure trove to help Bible students understand what their reading and studying in God's word.
With Logos 10, these tags appear as an underlined word with information about that term in the Factbook. You might find things like...
- Greek and Hebrew Lemmas - open them to study the original languages for that word in English or another language.
- Information about People, Places, and Things.
- Terms with theological significance like Propitiation or the word Conform from Romans 12.
Logos described these underlined terms like the Kindle X-Ray feature that shows definitions of words in your Kindle digital books.
How to Turn On or Off Factbook Tags in Logos 10
See my post about How to Get the Most Out of the Factbook in Logos
Factbook tags are like Visual Filters, but you don't turn them on or off from the Visual Filters menu. Instead, the Factbook gets its own button in a Bible or book window. It looks like a book with a checkmark and a drop-down arrow next to it. Click the arrow to open the menu and select which tags you want to turn off or on.
Not everyone will get these new Factbook tags. First, if you upgrade and buy a Started collection, you'll get the People tags. The bronze level will add Theological terms and Greek words. You'll need to buy Silver to add Hebrew and Aramaic.
Everyone must have their computer connected to the Internet to use the new Factbook tags. If you're not connected, then they won't work. Logos 10 still works, but the tag underlines don't show up.
Church History Themes
Another Factbook improvement comes from a dataset and resource that shows Church History Themes.
To find them open the Factbook from the toolbar. You'll see the three horizontal lines often called the Hamburger menu button. Click on the Dropdown box and find Church History Theme from the list.
You can also find it in the Advanced Timeline (see more below about the Advanced Timeline). Open the Timeline and click on the Hamburger menu (three horizontal lines). Find the Event Type section and then click on Church History Theme.
The information comes from two resources - the Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History and the Church History Themes dataset. Open them from the Library and read or search for them from there.
Simpler Search Terms
To search in older versions of Logos, users had to know some complex boolean search terms to get advanced searches. With Logos 10, you get simpler search terms.
Logos gave the following example of one more straightforward search you can now perform in Logos 10 but could not in version 9 or earlier. If you wanted to find out where in the Bible Jesus mentioned Moses, you'd type in a search box the following:
<Person Moses> WITHING (Speaker <Person Jesus>) and hit enter.
Now, just type:
person:Moses IN speaker:Jesus
That's much easier to remember and to type.
Logos will auto-complete suggested search terms to help you. You may not even need to remember the search terms to search your Bible.
Another simpler search lets you do a Search All, and Logos 10 will find results in all your datasets without you even knowing the dataset exists.
Bring Your Print Library Into Logos 10
You can add your print books to Logos 10 without buying digital copies. This also works with Kindle books too. When you add such books to Logos using the camera on your iPhone and the ISBN code on a print book, the book shows up in the Logos 10 Library. When you search for something and find it in the books added, it shows them in your list of returned search results. You can find it by page number, open that book from your bookshelf, and turn to that page.
To import a print book into your Logos 10 Library, open the app and then tap on the menu button in the lower right corner. Next, tap on Print Library ISBN Scanner. Finally, scan the ISBN code on the back of the book.
2. Tap on Print Library ISBN Scanner.
3. Scan the ISBN code on the back of the book.
The feature comes with a few caveats.
- This only works with books in the Logos catalog of books. If they don't already have the digital text of a book, it won't work.
- You must spend time and effort adding your books one at a time.
- The search results only show a snippet of the content from the book. You'll have to read the book in the print edition.
- Only people who buy the Gold package will get access to the feature.
Searching the Print Library
The new books in your print library will appear in general searches, but you can't open those books. Instead, Logos tells you where to find the content in your print book by page number. You'll open the physical copy of the book and find the content.
However, if you want to search your print library books, you can use the Library window. Open a Library window and look for the Print Library item on the left-hand side of the Library window. Find the book you want to search, right-click, and choose Search this resource.
If you want to search the entire library, follow the above steps, but instead of right-clicking first, select all the books in the Print Library. Do this using the keyboard shortcut CTR+A on Windows or CMD+A on Mac.
After selecting all the books, you can right-click one of the selected books and choose Search these resources. This opens the Search panel. Type in your search phrase or word to find items in the book.
You will see results in the Search window. Find the Print Books section as seen above. Look at the results and find the entry in the book. Grab your book and open it to the page listed or the section listed. Not all books will show page numbers.
Import Multiple Sermons into the Sermon Manager in Logos 10
Logos 10 now supports importing a collection of sermons into the sermon manager. After you add them, you will get tags added for Scripture references in the text of the Word document.
The Sermon Manager import only supports Microsoft Word's DOCX format. Only buyers of the Gold package or higher in Logos 10 will get access to the tool. If you want to upgrade, use this link to get 5 free books and a discount.
Access the import tool by opening the Tools button from the toolbar (9 dots on it) and either click on Sermon Manager or type it in the search box to find it quickly. The Sermon Manager will open. Click on the menu button (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the Sermon Manager. Choose Import and then click on the Choose Files button in the lower part of the Import dialog box. Navigate to the folder that holds the sermons you want to import. You can select multiple files with the CTRL+A or CMD+A.
How to Find Imported Sermons
To find your sermons open the Sermon Manager in a separate full-screen window and choose the Date you preached the sermon. This makes working with the Sermon Manager easier, especially if you're using a small screen.
I had to open the Grid view and select All from the top of the window. I opened one of my sermons, and it the formatting I used didn't work with the Import very well. If you use the built-in Microsoft Word Headings, then it will work better for you.
Now you will want to clean up your imported sermons. Edit them to use things like Headings, the information pane that opens on the right side, and the slides. If you make slides from your sermon, then you can export them to programs like PowerPoint, Keynote, Faithlife Proclaim, or PDF documents.
Popular Quotes in Sermon Builder
The Sermon Builder gets an added feature called Popular Quotes. Preachers search for quotes to add to their sermons inside the Sermon Builder.
Open a new Sermon using the Sermon Builder from the Tools button (grid with 9 dots on the toolbar). Create a sermon and then choose the Popular Quotes button on the right when you want to add a quote. The button looks like a quotation mark.
A list of quotes will appear. Drag and drop any quote you want to add to your sermon from the right-hand column to the Sermon Builder. The Sermon Builder will add the default slide. Change it by clicking on the slide thumbnail. You'll see a menu appear. The list of options includes...
- Edit - change the look of the slide.
- Apply this style to quote slides - change all quotation slides to match this.
- Apply this style to all slides - change all slides in general to match this slide.
- Delete - delete this slide.
Advanced Timeline
The new Advanced Timeline shows historical events in the context of the era in which that event occurred. The timeline offers this in a visual way. Users can filter events to focus on what they're most interested in seeing.
To open the Advanced Timeline, click on the Tools button on the toolbar. It looks like a grid of 9 dots. Either type Advanced Timeline or scroll down to the Reference section on the Tools menu and click Advanced Timeline.
This feature only works on Bronze packages or above. You can buy the Bronze package at this link and get a discount plus 5 free books.
Interact with the Advanced Timeline using the sidebar or the toolbar. The toolbar at the top has the following...
- Button to open the sidebar, which lets you select the kinds of content you want to hide or show.
- A time range box where you enter years like 20-100 AD.
- Search box where you type what you're looking for.
- Zoom in, fit, and zoom out buttons.
- View the dropdown menu to limit by things like Bible & Church Eras or Western History Eras
- Info button
- Menu (three vertical dots)
Speed Improvements
Logos 10 boasts faster performance, especially for users of Silicon Macs that use M1 or M2 branding. These are modern processors that run more efficiently than Intel chips. They claim a 35% speed boost, especially while indexing your library. I can attest to this improvement. It used to take hours to index my library with 8,000+ resources. It now does it in around an hour.
The computer still chugs along while the program indexes the library. However, Logos 10 takes far less time to index on my M1 MacBook Pro, M1 Mac mini, and M2 MacBook Air.
For Windows users, you'll see a small speed boost. It comes thanks to something called .NET 6.
Auto Translation
In almost any book, open a side panel on the right that shows a translation of the book's text. To use it, open a book. Click on the Sidebar button in the upper right corner. A new window opens with the default language. You can use the language dropdown list to pick from dozens of languages. The above image shows a French translation of the open book.
If you want to copy the contents in the Sidebar, choose the copy button to the right of the language dropdown list.
Your computer needs an Internet connection to use the Auto Translation feature. You also have to own the Gold Package, which you can buy here and get a discount plus 5 free books.
Questions and Answers
Think of Dear Abbey only for Bible study. The Questions and Answers feature answers common questions you might have about the Bible. It also includes some obscure answers too. This all comes from a new dataset.
Use the feature by typing a question in the search box (magnifying glass icon on the toolbar). The program notices you worded it as a question and tries to find your answer in the dataset. The results come from your library. It also includes other kinds of results, so scroll down to the Questions & Answers card.