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What is the new Logos 9 Factbook and how can it help you study the Bible more efficiently. We'll look at it in this series on new Logos 9 features.

What is the Logos 9 Factbook, and how can you get the most out of this new feature if you upgraded to Logos 9? We’ll take a look at each of the new features in Logos 9 now that we’ve had plenty of time to use them.

It’s now been six months+ since Logos 9 came out. Since we’ve had it in hand that long I wrote a 6-months-later review. In addition to reading that, you can see my original post about the release of Logos 9. In this post, we will do a deep dive into all the new features starting with the one Logos made the most of in their advertising of Logos 9, the Logos 9 Factbook.

new logos 9 factbook

If you’d like to get a discount on Logos 9, you can use my affiliate link to give you 15% off, some free books, and my appreciation. I get a kickback to help me with expenses related to my website, podcast, and YouTube channels. Use the code PARTNEROFFER9 when you follow that link to get the discount and free books.

What is the Logos 9 Factbook?

Demo of the new Logos 9 Factbook

Logos says, “The Factbook is one of the most powerful features of Logos, and it makes almost any biblical or theological term easily searchable.” I compare it to a Bible encyclopedia on steroids. Just about anything you want to learn about in a Bible text will show up in the Factbook.

Past versions of Logos included the Factbook. However, it received a lot of attention in the update to version 9. A minor update comes in the form of the new icon. It now looks like a book with a checkmark on it.

The new Logos 9 Factbook with a Bible book search of Hebrews.

New Sections in the Factbook

Second, Logos added a bunch of new topics to search for in Factbook. The new things include…

  • Biblical Senses – these are translations of the Greek or Hebrew word. Biblical Senses give you an understanding of different ways the original language terms were translated in various places.
  • Hebrew & Greek lemmas – you can now start a Greek or Hebrew word study from the Factbook report.
  • Counseling Guide – start a study of the counseling guide on topics related to counseling, like marriage or addiction.
  • Theological Guide – start a study of theological words or concepts from Factbook.
  • Denominational Content – find all content on the topic from a denominational library, like Baptist or Lutheran.
  • Lists as Topics – when you search for a topic, like a person’s name. You’ll see entries in the Factbook with lists related to that person’s name or book of the Bible. For example, if I search for Matthew, it will find people named Matthew, topics or preaching themes from the book of Matthew, and more.
  • Show All Topics – when you type a search term in the box in the Factbook, it will show a drop-down list of some searches you might be wanting as you type. At the bottom of the list, you’ll see Show All Topics, which gives you a new list with all the Factbook topics containing your search term.
  • Pericopes as Topics – search for a reference like John 3:16, and you’ll get a list of pericopes (passages) with links to open the passage in the Lexham Context Commentary plus Media, Events, Sermons, and a See Also section.

These make up the list of the major new parts found in the updated Factbook.

Other Parts of the Logos 9 Factbook Still Available

Below, you’ll see a list of other topics still included (from Logos support). The sections that show up in it are listed below:

  • Info – basic information about the item search. This shows up in every search.
  • Key Article – a section at the top from one of the common books in your library. Logos says the Lexham Bible Dictionary is an example of the book this Key Article will show. You get part of that article shown there in the list. Faithlife picked what Key Articles will show up for each kind of search item. The company focuses on its own tools, like Lexham Theological Library for original language terms.
  • Media – images from any of your media resources.
  • Letters – Personal Letter resources by an author if that’s what you searched.
  • Works – works created by the author showing links either to books in your library or store pages on Logos.com.
  • Passages – shows a list of passages, like concordance of the word, topic, or thing. A link lets you instantly create a Passage List from the resulting list in the Passages section.
  • Events – links to the Timeline and Biblical Event Navigator if a user owns that book.
  • Dictionaries – articles in your dictionaries.
  • Preaching Resources – topics from your preaching-themed resources.
  • Referred To As – Bible verses organized by the way the search item is referred to with a list of the verses and a graph showing where that shows up in the Bible.
  • Cultural Concepts – shows links to the Lexham Cultural Ontology Glossary, “which shows a hierarchy of the concept’s type, and search results for the concept within your Library” (from Logos Support site).
  • Library – books in your library with content related to the search item.
  • Journals – links to journals in your library with content related to the search.
  • Sermons – links to sermons found in your library with content related to the search.
  • Community Tags – these are tags that Logos users added to a section related to the search item. If I tagged a part of a book as “grace,” then it would show up in other users’ searches for grace.
  • Bookstore – shows books for sale related to the search item.
  • See Also – shows other things in your library that don’t fit in the above section.

How to Open the Logos 9 Factbook

To open the Factbook you can do one of the following…

  • Toolbar – Click the Factbook icon on the main window’s toolbar. Enter what you want to search for in the search box.
  • Go Box – start typing in the Go Box, and Logos 9 shows links to Open the Factbook to that topic, word, passage, etc. It also shows up as one of the taps that opens when you enter a search term and hit enter or click on the Go button.
  • Tools Menu – You can also open it from the Tools menu. Either look for Factbook or type that in the search box at the top of the menu. Or it usually shows up in the shortcuts area at the top of the Tools menu.
  • Context or Right-click Menu – Select a word in the text of your book or Bible and right-click, bringing up the context menu. You’ll see the Factbook links in many places usuually in the right when you highlight a subject on the left.
  • Visual Filters Button – There’s now a toolbar icon in the Bible window for the Factbook. Click to turn it on and from now on you’ll see blue dotted lines under words with Factbook entries. Don’t confuse those with other solid blue lines that may show up if you’ve created other visual filters, like I did for parts of speech. Click those words to open a Factbook window for that word.
  • Search Panels – When you search for things in a search box, the Factbook sits near the top somewhere in your search results. It moves around depending on what you searched for, but it will show up near the top of the results.
new logos 9 factbook visual filters menu
Turn on the Factbook with the toolbar button. Click the down arrow to turn on or off visual filters.

If you use the last method to turn on the Factbook, you can turn on or off what Factbook features will show when you click using Visual filters (see image above). Turn on or off different parts of the Factbook by clicking the down arrow next to the Factbook button. A list with checkboxes shows up, ready to turn off and on.

Bible Book Guides

The Bible Book Guide in the new Logos 9 Factbook

The Bible Book Guides in the new Logos 9 Factbook shows up when looking at a book of the Bible in the Factbook. For example, if you search for the book of Hebrews, it will show you a section about the book. This section will help if you’re going to do a study of a book of the Bible. You’ll see the following sections:

  • Content – Introduction, outlines, and contents mostly from commentaries on the book that you search for in Factbook
  • Origin – Links to the books in your library with information about the book’s author, date, and purpose.
  • Background – Shows books with content about historical context, recipients of a book, and the author’s location when writing the book.
  • Objects – Books with geographical, date, location, and key people in the book.
  • Canon – Discussions about the canonization of the book.
  • Form – Discussions of the book’s composition, text, title, style, and structure.
  • Meaning – Books with info on the book’s themes, emphases, interpretation, theology, significance, and spiritual content.
  • Additional Information – Links to Bible dictionaries and commentaries with additional info about the book.
bible book guides in new logos 9 factbook
The Bible Book Guides in the new Logos 9 Factbook

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