Archive - August, 2005

Using the Quick Nav Bar to Open a Lexicon

  |  Thu, August 18, 2005   |  Training   1

Earlier, I wrote about how to set up the Quick Navigation Bar (aka, “the Go box”) to quickly open resources. It can be used to navigate to references as well, and in the Libronix DLS, just about everything is a reference. I’ll look at two in this post: citations of Bible verses, and lexicon headwords.

The Quick Navigate Bar is already set up to open Bible references. Try it: Type Ecc 12:12 into the “Go” box and hit ENTER. Some version of the Bible should open to that verse. Which version of the Bible opens on your system depends on which resource you have set as your preferred translation (Tools | Options | Keylink…).

The Quick Navigate Bar can also be set up to navigate to other kinds of references, too. It simply needs to know what kinds of citations — which data types — it should expect. I’ve added Hebrew to my Quick Nav bar so I can type Hebrew words into the “Go” box to open my favorite lexicon: 1) Go to Tools | Options | Power Tools… on the main menu; 2) Choose the Quick Navigate tab; 3) Type Bible, Hebrew into the Data Types text box; 4) OK.

Now, when you type a Hebrew lemma into the “Go” box (don’t forget to change the keyboard with F2, or by using the Keyboard Selector in the system tray at the bottom-right of the screen) your favorite lexicon will be opened to that word. What’s more, if your favorite doesn’t have that word (or doesn’t have that spelling of the word), some other lexicon that does have that word will open.

It’s coming…

  |  Wed, August 17, 2005   |  Misc   14


(more details at www.MacBibleSoftware.com)

Bibliographies and Book Evaluation

  |  Wed, August 17, 2005   |  Products   1

In a recent post on the Logos Bible Software Blog, Daniel Foster writes:

Just writing this post brings it home to me that there is a definite need for more bibliographic “metabooks” (or perhaps more of us, myself included, should take advantage of the many that have been written). And it would be great to have more of these metabooks as electronic books in Libronix.

Daniel is correct, of course. Here are a few resources that may be of help when you are looking to evaluate a book; whether it is already in your Logos Bible Software library or if you’re looking at a copy in actual, bona-fide print.

  • Critical Review of Books in Religion (1988-1998). This is a set of books that is currently under production here at Logos. It is a collection of scholarly reviews of books in religion. Go read the pre-pub description and see if this type of stuff is for you.
  • Review of Biblical Literature. This is a web site that releases new reviews of books in the realm of Biblical Studies and Ancient Near East studies on a weekly basis. You can search by all sorts of criteria. You can subscribe to the weekly listing of new reviews as well (the subscription is free).
  • Getting to Know Your Library. This is a support article I wrote awhile back. It discusses some strategies you can use to get to know more about the books in your Logos Bible Software library.

The Logos Seal of Approval

  |  Tue, August 16, 2005   |  Misc   13

Soon after we posted the TNIV to our prepublication program I received a personal email from a user who was troubled and disappointed that we would digitize this (admittedly controversial) Bible version.

I appreciate that this user took the time to write and am grateful that he expressed himself in a loving manner. Two lines from his email really stood out to me and seem worthy of broader discussion. He concluded his email, “I had thought Logos far more worthy of our confidence than this last example. If you continue to make offerings like this, you will soon lose your reputation for being a leader in producing first class materials.”

This is not the first time I’ve heard statements along these lines and it seems to point up a disconnect between what we see ourselves as doing and what at least some of our users see us as doing.

Statements like these suggest to me the presence of an idea or expectation that Logos serves as a content filter for the material we digitize. It approaches an implicit assumption that the books we publish somehow bear the “Logos Seal of Approval.”
Continue Reading…

Using Keylinking to Navigate Between Greek Lexicons

  |  Mon, August 15, 2005   |  Products, Training   1

When I’m working through the Greek text at the word level, many times I like to get a second opinion. My primary Greek lexicon is BDAG, which is an excellent resource, but I do like to consult others. My favorite lexicons to consult for second opinion are:

This article explains just a little bit about Greek keylinking and then shows you how to keylink from lexicon to lexicon using the keylink functionality straight from the right-click menu. No funky keystrokes involved.

Continue Reading…

Hello, My Name is Daniel

  |  Sat, August 13, 2005   |  Misc   3

SnapshotAnother introduction…I’m Daniel Foster and I work in the marketing department at Logos. We get a lot of grief from the developers about belonging to “the Darkside” but they still share their hot sauce if we ask nicely.

Could be their suspicion is aroused by the motto on my whiteboard: Marketing: We don’t make the things you want…we make you want them!

But in truth, our job is simply to get the word out about Logos Bible Software and all the great things it can do. As soon as someone sees and understands what the software will do to revolutionize their Bible study, they’re sold!

I get to do a lot of PR-related stuff, which means I’m the face of the organization to product reviewers and press reporters. In addition to reviews, I work to get us press in various magazines and journals, whether Christian or secular. I’m also involved in writing for and helping to maintain the content on the website, managing our affiliate program, and working on various other super-secret projects I can’t reveal.

I’ve been with Logos for 3 1/2 years and moved out here to Washington from the Midwest where I was raised among Yoopers. My schooling thus far has consisted of 4 years at Hope College and 2 years at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Foremost among the delights in my life are my wife, Rachel, and two girls, Karis (2 1/2) and Esther (16 months). Rachel and I have also been blessed to have traveled in Europe and lived in Brazil for 7 months in 2001.

“Português é a lingua mais linda do mundo.”

There you have it…my introduction.

What’s a “Go” Box?

  |  Fri, August 12, 2005   |  Training   5

The other day, Rick Brannan mentioned the Libronix DLS “Go” box casually in passing, as if everyone has that feature turned on and knows how to use it. Since Rick and I work with LDLS resource files all the time, we often stop thinking about titles and authors and start calling books by their project names: CHAPSOT, ANLEX, BHSWTS40.

We also use the identifiers to navigate quickly to the resources using the “Go” box that Rick was talking about. This is so integral to the way that I use the LDLS that I forget that most people don’t know about these shorthand identifiers, and furthermore, many people don’t even have the “Go” box turned on in the first place.

Inconceivable!

What is it? What we’ve been calling “the Go box” is really the “Quick Navigate Bar” that comes with the Power Tools addin. That’s exactly what it lets you do: navigate to any resource in your library quickly. I use the Quick Navigate Bar to do three things: 1) Quickly open specific resources (books); 2) navigate directly to a Bible reference in my preferred Bible (when it isn’t even open yet); and 3) do the same with a Hebrew lexicon.
Continue Reading…

Logos icon stickers

  |  Fri, August 12, 2005   |  Misc   5

Now that we are building Logos Bible Software for the Mac we are buying more Macs. I think that it is pretty cool how Apple encloses a white logo sticker in their package and I have seen them around, on windows and doors and other places.

Our new logo combines a cross and a search icon, which gets to the heart of what our software is about: looking deeper into God’s Word.

So we ordered up a few thousand sheets with just the icon from our logo and we are including them in boxes and pre-pub shipments until we run out. They are vinyl with a removable adhesive, so feel free to stick them wherever you want.

Using the Works of Philo with BDAG

  |  Thu, August 11, 2005   |  Products, Training   Comments Off

One thing I like to do when examining Greek word usage is to evaluate how the Greek word is used in similar context outside of the New Testament corpus.

This article will point out an easy way to use the Works of Philo (in English) in conjunction with the BDAG Lexicon. This same method can be used with other Greek corpora for which Logos Bible Software has English translations, such as the Works of Josephus (in English) or the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

The strategy discussed is really a temporary one as we’re currently working on versions of the following corpora in Greek, fully morphologically annotated:

Continue Reading…

Rick’s Logos Bible Software Workspace

  |  Wed, August 10, 2005   |  Training   1

Logos Bible Software supports the concept of a workspace. Workspaces are used in different ways by all sorts of people. The basic idea is for the software to keep track of your window arrangement, open texts, linked windows and other stuff.

Awhile back, on my personal blog, I blogged on how I’ve got my primary workspace set up. I thought it would be fun to share that here too. Click the above link to head to the article.

I’ve had a decent amount of feedback from folks that this article helped them understand a bit more about workspaces and gave them some insights to relationships between texts. If you work in the New Testament, and if you work through the Greek word-by-word, then you may enjoy checking it out.

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