It’s been about six months since Faithlife released Logos 9 upgrade to focus on some key improvements to the computer app and the mobile app. I published my review over at ChurchTechToday.com on October 30, 2020, and talked about it here as well.
The Logos 9 upgrade brought the following key improvements, like…
- Some user interface tweaks make the software easier to use.
- An update to the Factbook in the Logos 9 Upgrade
- The interesting Sermon Manager and Sermon Builder
- A Counseling Guide
- New sorting features in the Bible commentaries section of the Passage Guide
- Improvements to the Reading Plans and the Reading Queue
In addition to the above improvements in the Logos 9 Upgrade, we also saw some decent changes in the mobile app. They added the Factbook to the menu seen in the toolbar at the bottom right corner of the app. You can also use your iPad or tablet for preaching, thanks to the new preaching mode in the mobile app. I actually love using my iPad to preach.
15% Off Discount on Logos 9 Upgrade to Base Packages and 5 Free Books
From now till June 15, 2021, you can get 15% off a Base Package upgrade. To do that, follow this affiliate link, and you’ll get a discount. Full-disclosure, I’ll get a little kickback from Faithlife.
Follow that link, and not only will you get the 15% off discount when you use the code PARTNEROFFER9 at Checkout, but you can also get 5 free books. Select from 28 different books, including some great titles.
Here’s a list of my recommendations.
- Spurgeon Commentary 1 Peter
- Lexham Research Commentary: Colossians
- St. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians by George J. Ellicott
- The Essentials of Prayer by EM Bounds
- The Life of St. Paul by James Stalker
Faithlife offers a myriad of Base Packages. Here’s what I recommend depending on what you already own.
- Logos 9 Bronze – Great for people who are just getting started.
- Logos 9 Gold – Jump to this level if you already own a pretty big library.
At the bottom of the page, you see a link to see the other Base Packages. Follow that to find the Logos 9 Upgrade packages for Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Messianic Jewish, Methodist & Wesleyan, Orthodox, Pentecostal & Charismatic, Reformed, SDA, or Catholic (Verbum) users.
Logos 9 Upgrade: Best Feature is New User Interface Tweaks
One improvement stands above the rest. I like the features listed above, but the simple tweaks to the user interface on the computer version of Logos 9 made the most difference in my productivity with the Logos 9 upgrade six months after Faithlife released the update.
It sounds crazy, but the new button on the upper right corner of the screen helps users a lot. First, you can quickly jump to your account to see what you have or what pre-orders you might see published soon. You can also jump to Your Faithlife Profile, where you can interact with other users and see answers to your questions.
The other amazing new tweaks include transforming the program toolbar. For example, right-click on a book icon that you placed on the toolbar like I did as seen in the image above.
you now get a drop-down menu holding those books in that folder.
The new tweaks to the toolbar give you a drop-down list of icons from the toolbar that no longer fit on a narrow screen on small screens. See the image below to understand what I mean.
There’s a new light mode, dark mode toggle in settings. People love dark mode, and I don’t understand why. But if you do, then you now have it.
Other New Features in Logos 9 Upgrade
Logos seems most proud of the other new features in Logos, which include…
- Factbook
- Sermon Builder
- Sermon Manager
- Counseling Guide
- Improved Reading Plans
I like all of those, and you should see my review linked in the top section of this post from ChurchTechToday. The second feature I’m most excited about also doesn’t seem big. Faithlife now added a feature to organize my library in a more useful way when I fun a Passage Guide.
Go to the Commentaries section of the Passage Guide and look in the upper right corner. You’ll see ways to sort your books including…
- Priority – follows your customization where you rank certain commentaries above the others.
- Series – groups the commentaries by series, like the New American Commentary series or the Word Biblical Commentary series.
- Author – who wrote it?
- Denomination – what is the denomination of the publisher/editor/author depending on the commentary.
- Type – is it a technical or devotional commentary?
- Era – when was it published?
Mobile App Improvements
Logos added the Factbook to the mobile app too. You’ll find it in the menu button in the lower right corner.
Faithlife added a preaching mode to the mobile app. That way, you can build and manage your sermons in the computer app. Then you can put your app in preaching mode and preach from the app.
