May 08, 2008

Understanding Data Types: Language Data Types

In the second post in this data types series, I mentioned two main categories of data types: language data types and reference data types. In this post, we'll look at language data types and what they mean for executing keylinks (i.e., looking up words) and for searching.

If you need a refresher on data types, you may want to look back over the previous posts. See the links at the bottom of this post.

Since we tag words according to their language, English is a data type, as are Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, Syriac, Latin, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese, etc. That means that Libronix knows where to look when you execute a keylink for a given word or phrase. That also means that you can perform language-specific searches.

Let's take keylinking first.

Keylinking

Setting Up Keylink Targets

To set up keylink targets for your various languages, go to Tools > Options > Keylink, select the appropriate data type from the Data Type drop-down box, and then promote and prioritize the resources however you'd like.

If you need some guidance setting up your keylink preferences, check out these three articles:

Executing Keylinks

Every word, though it does not appear to be hyperlinked, is a keylink, as long as there is an appropriate keylink target. To execute a keylink (i.e., look up the word), simply double click it or choose "Selected Text" > "Execute Keylink" from the right-click menu.

Notice that you can also select a specific keylink target in the half bottom of the right-click menu.

Searching

Usually you don't need to specify which language you want to search in. But there are at least two instances where this comes in handy.

Same Spelling in More Than One Language

There are times when multiple languages can share the same word with the same spelling. Often these words have totally different meanings. For example, the Latin word bonus (meaning "good") has the same spelling as the English word, but their meanings are different. If you wanted to find only the times where "bonus" occurs in Latin or in English rather than in both, you would have to specify the language in your search. So for Latin, you'd use {la}bonus{/}, and for English you'd use {en}bonus{/}. A search for just bonus would find both English and Latin occurrences.

All Words in a Certain Language

Another time you would want to specify the language would be if you ever wanted to find the total number of words in a particular language in a book. This is what I did in my previous post on which theologian uses the most Latin. To do this, you would want to specify the language and use the regular expression /.+/. So a search for all Greek words would be {el}/.+/{/}.

One place where this could be handy is if you wanted to find the total number of words in a particular book of the Bible. A Bible Search for all Greek words in 1 John in the NA27 yields 2,143 hits, and a search in Paul's letters yields 32,418 hits.

These numbers can be important for analyzing certain words and their usage across the New Testament.

Another useful thing you could do would be to search the Hebrew OT for all Aramaic words. Using {x-arc}/+./{/} in BHS with Westminster 4.2 Morphology you get 6,899 hits. You'll see hits not only in Daniel and Ezra, but also in Genesis 31:47 and Jeremiah 10:11.

Search Syntax for Various Languages

Here are the tags you'll need to search in various languages:

Simply put a word, phrase, or regular expression between the two tags. To find the search syntax for other language data types, use the right-click menu and speed search a particular word in that resource. The syntax you need will be displayed at the top of the search results.

Rick Brannan informed me that we use the ISO 639-1 standard two-letter language codes, and where a two-letter code doesn't exist we use the standard extensibility method, "x-" followed by a code that we pattern after the standard three-letter codes (e.g., Aramaic is x-arc) or make up where necessary (e.g., transliteration is x-tl). You can find this language code list at the Library of Congress website.

Previous posts in this series:

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (3)

May 01, 2008

Which Theologian Uses the Most Latin: Fun with Data Types and Regular Expressions

I thought it would be fun in our series on data types (see the introduction and definitions) to give you an example of how you can use language data types to perform language-specific searches.

Before we actually get into the searching, let's see how well you know your theologians. Which of the following theologians uses the most Latin? For the purpose of setting some boundaries, I'm limiting our analysis to theologians who have written a systematic/dogmatic theology.

Here are the ones we'll be looking at:

What's your guess? Which one has the highest percentage of Latin?

Here's how you can find out.

Step 1: Search for All Latin Words

To find all Latin words, there are two things you need to know. First, you need to tell Libronix to search only Latin text. To do so, use {la}{/} putting the word or phrase between the } and the { (e.g., {la}pro{/}). To find all words, you'll need to use the regular expression /[A-Za-z]+/ or the simpler /.+/ (or /[^0-9]+/, if you want to omit numbers). For simplicity, we'll use {la}/.+/{/}.

Here are the results in descending numerical order:

Here's a graph so you can visualize the data.

Click the image to see a larger version.

These results aren't really "fair" because they don't take into consideration the size of the work. To get more accurate numbers, we'll divide the number of Latin words by the number of words in the entire book or set.

Step 2: Search for All Words

To find the total number of words, use the regular expression search /.+/. Notice that we are dropping the language tags because we want to find all words of all languages.

Here are the results in descending numerical order:

Here's another graph so you can visualize the data.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Barth's 14-volume Church Dogmatics certainly is a massive work! (As a comparison point, Luther's 55-volume Works has 8,210,982 words, only 50% more than Barth's CD.)

When we divide the number of Latin words by the total number of words, we get these percentages (in descending order):

Here's what those data look like in a graph.

Click the image to see a larger version.

Did you guess Charles Hodge? By percentage his Systematic Theology is the most dense with Latin. If you're going to read Hodge or many of these other theologians, then you'd better brush up on your Latin or have a good Latin dictionary handy! (Thankfully, all of the Latin in our edition of Barth's Church Dogmatics includes English translation.)

Currently, the only Latin dictionary that is available in Libronix is Consecrated Phrases: A Latin Theological Dictionary, which comes in the Collegeville Catholic Reference Library. But that's about to change very soon. We currently have three Latin dictionaries on Pre-Pub.

Be sure to put your pre-order in for one—or all three!

If you're into Latin, you'll also want to check out the Works of John Owen (17 volumes), which restores all of Owen's Latin works left out of modern reprints.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (4)

April 23, 2008

Understanding Data Types: Definitions

Last week I started a series on data types. If you haven't yet read the first post, Understanding Data Types: Introduction, take a minute to look it over. It'll give you some very basic starting points that will help you with this post and the following posts.

According to Eli Evans, one of our information architects, "datatypes and keylinking are the two most important concepts in the Libronix DLS." If you're like I was prior to digging into this recently, you're probably missing out on some of the power of Libronix by not fully understanding these key concepts. Eli's discussion of data types is hard to improve upon, so I'll just borrow from it and put some of the ideas in my own words. I encourage you to read his post as well.

What Is a Data Type?

A data type is a grouping or association of similar data. There are several different categories of data types. Two of the most common ones, which we'll discuss in future posts, are language data types (e.g., a Greek word in an English article) and reference data types (e.g., a Bible reference or a Josephus reference).

A data type is not resource specific. Some of the links in Libronix resources will take you to a specific location in a specific resource. There's only one place the link can go, and if you don't have the resource, it won't go anywhere. These are not data type links. There's a second type of link that doesn't point to a specific place in a specific resource but rather to a data type that often has several suitable destinations. A great example of this is Bible reference links. Clicking on most Bible references doesn't take you to a specific Bible like the KJV, but to your preferred Bible, which you can set in Tools > Options > Keylink by selecting Bible from the Data Type drop down and promoting your favorite Bible from the list of resources at the bottom. (You can also select your preferred Bible by clicking "Customize View" on the Logos home page.)

This is one of the benefits to data types: you can choose your keylink targets and prioritize them according to your liking.

What Is a Keylink?

It might be helpful to think of keylink and keylinking as just a fancy way of referring to looking stuff up—things like words (or other bits of text like abbreviations) or references. Reference keylinks look like hyperlinks on web pages (but without the underlining). Clicking them will execute them and open the keylink target based on what resources you have and how you have prioritized them. But just about every word, even if it is not hyperlinked, can be a keylink, as long as there is an appropriate keylink target. (BTW, you execute a keylink that doesn't look like a hyperlink by double clicking it or by choosing "Selected Text" > "Execute Keylink" from the right-click menu.)

What Is a Keylink Target?

A keylink target is a resource that contains relevant data for a certain data type. So any version of the Bible would be a keylink target for John 1:1. Any English dictionary (as well as any Bible dictionary or encyclopedia) would be a keylink target for an English word. Any Greek lexicon would be a keylink target for a Greek word. And any edition of the Apostolic Fathers would be a keylink target for an Apostolic Fathers reference.

There are two ways to find out if a certain resource can be a keylink target for a given data type. The first is to look in About This Resource, which you can access from the right-click menu in My Library

or, with a resource opened and selected, by clicking Help > About This Resource.

Look for checkmarks in the column titled Keylink Target.

The second way is to look at the data type in Tools > Options > Keylink. Select the data type from the drop-down box (e.g., Greek), and look at the resources listed under "Default Order of Resources and Actions." These are the resources that Libronix will use to look up that data type. You can promote and prioritize them however you want for each of the data types.

What Does It Mean that a Data Type Is Searchable?

In About This Resource under the Data Types section, there is also a column titled Searchable.

This has to do with reference data types, like Bible references, Calvin's Institutes references, etc. A checkmark is telling you that you can use the Reference Browser to search for all the places where a given reference or range of references is cited in that particular book or series of books. This is possible for two reasons: (1) our team of book designers and book developers has meticulously tagged these references, and (2) these references are data types. There are most likely other links not listed here because they are not data type links but links to specific locations in specific resources (for the difference, see above under "What Is a Data Type?"). I pointed out one example of this kind of searching in the blog post on the Works of Cornelius Van Til. In a future post, I'll show some other scenarios where this can be incredibly useful.

Here are some related posts you might find helpful.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2008

Understanding Data Types: Introduction

In Friday's blog post on the new edition of the Works of Cornelius Van Til, I mentioned how you can now search the works of Van Til for a specific reference or range of references in Calvin's Institutes or Barth's Church Dogmatics. This kind of analysis is incredibly helpful for detailed study, and there's really no other way—at least not that I'm aware of—to get this data apart from doing the tedious work of reading the entire book (or series of books) cover to cover, which is not the ideal solution when you're dealing with something as large as the works of Van Til!

The reason you can do searches like these in Logos is because we have created data types for Calvin's Institutes or Barth's Church Dogmatics (and scores of other resources) and done the tedious work of tagging the references to those data types.

I've been spending some time lately playing with data types and have come to realize how powerful they are for advanced study, so I thought some of you might benefit from a brief series of posts on data types. I'm particularly interested in exploring what significance the information in the data type section in About This Resource has for what you can do with various resources.

In this post, let's just get a very basic acquaintance with data types.

For starters, open My Library, right click on a few different resources, and select About This Resource (or with a resource opened and selected, click Help, About This Resource).

Then scroll down to the Data Types section. You'll see the data types listed on the left with KeyLink Target and Searchable columns on the right. Each data type will have at least one checkmark after it. Some will have two. Here's the Data Types section for Van Til's The Theology of James Daane.

Here's the Data Types section for the first volume of Barth's Church Dogmatics.

I'll explain what all this information means in a future post.

Next, go to Tools > Options > Keylink and select the Data Type drop-down box. Here's where you can see a list of all of the data types that you have installed on your computer. The number of data types will vary depending on how often you run Libronix Update and what products you own.

Scroll through the list and familiarize yourself with some of the data types listed there.

That's all for this for post. In the next post, we'll cover the basics about what data types are and how they can help you do more powerful research.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (2)

April 08, 2008

Doing Things Faster with the Keyboard, Part 2

In yesterday's blog post I talked about how using keyboard shortcuts can make work in Libronix faster than using just a mouse. The post was triggered by an interaction that I had with a friend who was adjusting to Logos after years as a user of another Bible software program.

One of the other things that he said he missed in Logos was a command line. This is where the Quick Navigation Bar (a.k.a. Go Box) comes in handy. The Quick Navigate Bar is a toolbar that comes with the free Power Tools Addin (read about or watch how to download it). Here's what it looks like.


The Quick Navigate Bar

It should appear in your toolbar area, which by default is at the top of your screen. If you don't see it and have the Power Tools Addin installed, make sure to activate it by right clicking in the toolbar area and checking the box next to Quick Navigate Bar.


Toolbar Menu

Since we're talking about saving time with the keyboard, the first thing you'll want to know is that to activate the Go Box and be able to start typing in it, you'll want to use Ctrl+Shift+G. If your hands are already on the keyboard, this is quicker than reaching for the mouse and clicking the box.

So what can you actually do with this box?

Its most basic use is to jump to a passage of Scripture in your default Bible (which you can set on the home page or in Tools > Options > Keylink > Keylinking > Bible). Type in any standard Bible reference, and your preferred Bible will open instantly. References like John 3:16, Jn 3.16, Jn 3 16 will all work.

You can also use it to open up various Bible translations. By typing ESV or NIV and hitting enter, the appropriate Bible version will open. Hit tab (which activates the reference box in the newly opened resource) and type in a reference to jump to a particular location. Most of the standard abbreviations for Bible versions will work.

The Quick Navigation Bar also recognizes some of the standard commentary series abbreviations like WBC, PNTC, NIGTC, and K&D. You can type in the full titles like Preaching the Word or New American Commentary or portions of titles like Pulpit and Lange's.

You can use it to open other essential tools like BDAG (by typing bdag), HALOT (by typing hal or halot), Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (by typing anchor), ISBE (by typing isbe), and many others.

The guaranteed identifier for each resource is the file name minus the extension. So, to open up MacArthur's commentary on 1 Corinthians, you would type 1comntc. You can find this information by viewing About This Resource, which is available in the right-click menu in My Library or in the Help menu (with the resource opened and selected). Taking the time to look these up and memorize them will probably be worth the time investment if you frequently open certain resources. Or you might prefer, as I do, to simply create keyboard shortcuts.

While some things are faster with the mouse, others are faster with the keyboard. It's best to get in the habit of using both for the things they do best. Give some of these tips a try and see if using the Go Box doesn't speed up some of the common tasks you perform in Libronix.

For more on the Go Box, check out these two previous posts:

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (7)

April 07, 2008

Doing Things Faster with the Keyboard, Part 1

A friend of mine has been a longtime user of another Bible software program, but now he's using Logos as well. As you might expect, he still feels more comfortable performing certain tasks in his other program. One of the things he mentioned to me that he missed in Logos was the ability to use keyboard shortcuts. He felt like having to use the mouse for everything made for slow work.

As one who is convinced of the value of keyboard shortcuts, I was happy to inform him that you can actually do quite a bit in Logos with keyboard shortcuts. I pointed him to our list of standard keyboard shortcuts (which I just updated to include a few more) and to a blog post I wrote several months ago, where I explained how to set up your own custom keyboard shortcuts for opening books you use frequently and applying visual markups like basic highlighting.

I open books and highlight with my keyboard shortcuts all the time, but there's so much more that you can do. You can create custom keyboard shortcuts for just about any function in Libronix by using a custom toolbar, which I explain in the earlier post.

Here are some examples of the types of things you can do: view About This Resource with Alt+A, toggle the contents pane for your current resource with Alt+C, report a typo with Alt+T, open the Passage Guide with Alt+P, the Exegetical Guide with Alt+X, and the Bible Word Study with Alt+W.

Here are the things I currently have assigned in my keyboard shortcuts toolbar. (I have other keyboard shortcuts assigned in my primary custom toolbar.)

Feel free to download it and use it or modify it you'd like. Put it in \My Documents\Libronix DLS\CustomToolbars. Two suggestions for enhancing the usefulness of this toolbar: you may want to set up (1) parallel resource associations for things like Bible dictionaries, English dictionaries, English Bibles, Greek lexicons, and study Bibles, which will allow you to jump quickly to similar resources, and (2) serial resource associations for (a) any commentaries that don't already have one (e.g., JPSTC) and (b) your original language texts, if you want your Greek NT and Hebrew OT connected.

There are two things to be aware of when creating custom keyboard shortcuts. First, your key combination might not be available. If your shortcut doesn't seem to be working or works but does the wrong function, this is probably why. Second, your key combination might be overriding default behavior. Test your keyboard shortcut before assigning it. You might like the default behavior even better! :)

Next up, using the Quick Navigation Bar.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (6)

March 12, 2008

Looking Up Bible References from the Web

If you have a website or a blog, you can make your content much more useful to your readers by adding RefTagger. A good number of sites are already using RefTagger, but unfortunately the vast majority still have plain old text Scriptures references.

So what do you do when you're reading content on one of those sites? As a long term solution, you could email them and encourage them to add RefTagger. But your short-term options are either to ignore the passages of Scripture and not check the author on his points, or to take the time to look them up manually in Libronix or at one of the online sites like BibleGateway. I'd imagine that most of us usually do the former since the latter takes a fair bit of time and effort if you're having to look up more than just a reference or two.

But there is another option. It's quick and easy and works with just about any web page—and it uses your favorite Bible software program. In Libronix open a new verse list (File > New > Verse List), click Add, select From Web Page, and paste in the URL of the web page that you are viewing.

Libronix will quickly find all the Bible references mentioned and add them to your verse list in the order in which they appear on the web page. You can then decide how you'd like to view them. The default is to show only the references without the text. Double clicking those references will open them in your preferred Bible allowing you to read them in their contexts, compare them with other versions, or dig into your study Bibles and commentaries. If you'd like to see the text of the verses along with the references, you can select "References and Text in One Column" or "References and Text in Two Columns."

I find that this works best on a two-monitor setup, which enables you to have your browser on one screen and Libronix on the other. But even if you have only one monitor, you're still likely to benefit from this feature by using alt+tab or positioning your browser and Libronix next to each other.

If you find yourself using this often, you may simply want to save the verse list as "Web Verses" (or something similar) and reopen it each time you do reading online. You can easily delete the previous verses by using the delete key and add new ones when you're reading a new article.

With this simple tool you can now quickly and easily look up Scripture references on the web.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (6)

March 03, 2008

How to Find That Missing Gem

Have you ever had trouble locating something that you previously read in one of your Libronix books? Perhaps it's that perfect quote for the sermon or paper you're working on—if only you could find it. If you don't remember which book it was in, you can always check your history to see which books you've used recently. After you find the right book, you could then search or use the find bar to locate what you're looking for—if you remember an exact word or phrase. But what if you remember only the general idea?

I've found that often the quickest way to find something in a situation like this is to use the Next button and select Markup.

I remember reading something in Strong's Systematic Theology. I don't recall exactly where it was or the precise wording, but I know I highlighted it. So I open Strong's, switch the Next selection to Markup, click the button a few times, and I am quickly taken to the exact quote I was looking for. Of course, this works only if you are marking up your books when you read. If you're not, I'd encourage you to do so, even if only for the benefit of using this cool feature. Keep in mind that if your book has hundreds of markups, you'll at least need to remember the section or chapter to make this efficient. In my case, the quote I was looking for was in chapter two, so finding it was a breeze.

Another really handy use of the Next Markup feature is to get a quick survey of the parts of the book that stood out to you in your first reading. Try this with a chapter in a book, a large article entry, or a section in a commentary to get a quick recap of the most important points.

Give it a try. I think you'll find it a convenient feature that will soon become a part of your normal use of Libronix.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (2)

February 26, 2008

Still Accessing Libronix Resources from Your CDs?

I stumbled across a comment on a forum site recently where a user mentioned that he was accessing his books from his CDs and was frustrated by the speed at which they loaded when scrolling through large portions of text.

I was happy to see that someone quickly let him know that he could copy all of his resources to his hard drive and put his CDs in his closet as a backup.

If you are still accessing your Libronix books from your CDs, read on. With the size of today's hard drives, most of you will have plenty of room for all of your resource files and should not be using your CDs after the initial installation.

There are at least three benefits to copying your books to your hard drive.

  1. Your computer will be able to access your books much more quickly from your hard drive than you can from your optical drive.
  2. You won't have to be continually swapping CDs.
  3. You'll have access to all of your books at once instead of being limited to only the books on a given CD.

To copy your resources to your hard drive, follow these steps:

  1. Insert your CD/DVD into your drive.
  2. Open Libronix.
  3. Click on Tools > Library Management > Location Manager.
  4. Wait until it is done discovering all of the resources that need to be copied.
  5. Click the Copy Resources button.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have copied all of your resource files to your hard drive.

For more help, check out our support article Loading Books and our training video Loading Your Books (2:10, 2.69MB).

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2008

Seeing Double: How to Display Only Primary Resource Titles

A friend of mine recently emailed me the following question:

I’ve been sorting my library into collections and (several times) I’ve come across duplicate books with slightly different titles, e.g., (1) NBATLAS (New Bible Atlas) and (2) New Bible Atlas (Authors listed).

Any suggestions on how to eliminate these duplicates? I have tried the “Remove Duplicate Resources” function, but this function doesn’t seem to treat these occurrences as true duplicates.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

My friend is a very sharp guy, so I figured if he has had this question, there are probably many others who have as well.

When you see what appears to be two copies of a resource, you are probably simply seeing alternate titles for the same resource. That's why Tools > Library Management > Remove Duplicate Resources won't do anything. This feature is built into Libronix to make it easier to find titles in My Library, but not everyone wants to see multiple titles for their resources, so we allow you to turn this off. To set it to show only the primary title for each resource, click Tools > Options > General > Interface and check the box next to Use Only Primary Resource Titles in My Library.

Now you should see only one entry for every resource. Hope this helps!

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (7)

December 11, 2007

The Value of Custom Resource Associations

Two weeks ago I talked a little bit about the value of collections. To summarize, collections have two primary functions:

  1. They allow you to organize and group your books together so that they are easier to find in My Library. For example, you have a systematic theology kind of question, and you can't remember all of the systematic theology books that you have. You could just type "Systematic Theology" in My Library, but then you'd miss Shedd's Dogmatic Theology and many others. You could try the broader "Theology," but then you'd probably get a lot more books than you're really looking for (like all of the journals with "Theology" in the title) and you'd miss a book like Henry's God, Revelation and Authority. If you create a Systematic Theology collection, you'd be able to view your entire list of available Systematic Theology resources without missing any and without weeding through resources that don't belong.
  2. They also allow you to improve the way you search. Searching collections is the ideal way to search for two reasons: accuracy and speed. (1) You'll get hits that are more likely to address your question without having to wade through lots of false hits, and (2) your search will take far less time than if you are searching your entire library.
Resource Associations

Today I'd like to talk about the value of custom resource associations. I've found that many users don't know what resource associations are, how they differ from collections, what value they have, or how to set them up. I hope that the remainder of this post will help to provide some answers to questions like these.

A resource association is simply a grouping of resources that enables you to navigate easily to similar resources. There are two kinds: serial and parallel.

Serial Resource Associations

A serial resource association groups books in the same series, like commentaries in the WBC or PNTC. So if you are looking at Genesis 15:6 in Wenham's commentary in the WBC and want to jump to Romans 4:3 in the same series to read Dunn's comments, you can simply type Rom 4:3 in the reference box in the top left hand corner, and it will take you to the Romans commentary in the same series. Think of a serial resource association as making many resources in a series function like one big resource. For the most part, serial resource associations come included with products. You won't normally need to create any of your own.

Parallel Resource Associations

A parallel resource association groups books that cover the same basic content. For example, you might create a resource association for all of your English Bibles, all of your Greek New Testaments, all of your commentaries on Romans, all of your Hebrew grammars, all of your Apostolic Fathers texts, etc. This allows you to jump to one of these similar resources to compare with just two mouse clicks. I find this incredibly handy for those times when I go straight to a commentary instead of running a full Passage Guide report. By clicking on the Parallel Resources button, you will get a drop down list of the other books in your association.

So here I'm looking at Galatians 3:6 in Betz' commentary in the Hermeneia series. Clicking on The New American Commentary: Galatians will take me to the same location in George's commentary. (You can also use your right and left arrow keys to scroll through this list, but I find that using the parallel resources button is much quicker because you can go immediately to the one you want.)

The value of using your own parallel resource associations is that only the resources that you choose will appear, making the list targeted and customized to the way you study—and they are only two clicks away.

Defining Custom Resource Associations

Setting them up is simple to do. First, make sure you have the Power Tools Addin installed (read about or watch how to download it for free). Next, click on Tools > Library Management > Define Resource Associations. Select Parallel, and then click New. I recommend sorting by Title and checking the Unlocked Resources Only box. Add all of the resources that you want in your resource association, and order them however you want (e.g., alphabetically or in order of priority). Click OK and Close, and you're ready to use your new resource association. Create as many as you want. For more information, see the article "Define Resource Associations" in the Libronix DLS Power Tools Addin Help resource or search for it in Libronix DLS Help (F1 or Help > Libronix DLS Help). Also, check out the "Customize Your New Digital Library" training video. The applicable portion is 14:53–18:31.

Now navigating from one resource to the next will be easier than ever.

Two things you should be aware of as you create your custom parallel resource associations:

  1. A resource can be in only one parallel resource association.
  2. Adding a resource to a custom resource association will override the default associations.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (9)

December 07, 2007

External Linking to Libronix Resources and Reports

A very handy and unfortunately very underused feature in the Libronix Digital Library System is the ability to link to resources from external documents (like Word documents and PDFs) and web pages. This functionality is part of the Power Tools Addin (Tools > Options > Power Tools). If you don't already have it, you can read about or watch how to download it for free.

Libronix allows for a much better hyperlinking experience than the web does. When you link to a web page, you usually can't link to a specific location on that page.* For example, if you wanted someone to read a certain portion of Van Til's "Why I Believe in God" at Reformed.org, you would have to direct him to go to the fourth section, third paragraph, etc. Not horrible, but not ideal.

In Libronix we provide far greater power and specificity in linking. You can link to a variety of different things:

(Note: These links may not work properly in all feed readers. Visit the site to try them out.)

And that's not all. I just learned, thanks to Sean Boisen's blog post "Libronix Links As Knowledge Resources," that you can even link to most reports! So you can take someone directly to—and even run for them—any of these:How cool is that?! And most of these links will even preserve preferences like version choice, etc. where applicable!

Some of you are already thinking of all the ways you can make use of this. Others of you might still be wondering how this would come in handy. Let me suggest a few ways:

  1. Include links to resources and reports in your digital teaching materials. If you use a computer while you teach, this will save you time by allowing you to look up sources and run reports more quickly giving you more time to spend actually teaching.
  2. Include links to resources and reports in your digital syllabi. Many universities and seminaries are now distributing syllabi as Word documents or PDFs. Having Libronix links in your material will make learning more efficient—and fun!
  3. Include links to resources and reports in your papers. This is helpful if you share your papers with others via your website or some other way digitally. If they use Libronix, they'll be able to run down your footnotes. But perhaps it will be of most help to you. If you want to look up one of your sources to double check something or recheck the data behind your conclusion, it's just a click away. My dissertation is full of thousands of hidden Libronix links.
  4. Include links to resources and reports in your blog posts. I regularly link to my Libronix library when blogging (e.g., see the notes section in this post).
So how do you create a link? It's very simple. Open a resource to the location to which you want to link, click Favorites in the menu bar, then click Copy Location to Clipboard (or just use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Ctrl+C). Create your hyperlink, and you're all set. It works the same way with most reports.

Here are a couple of articles where you can find more information about external linking to Libronix resources:

One warning about external linking and web browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox don't handle Libronix encoding the same way, so you may occasionally run into trouble with more complicated links (e.g., spaces are particularly problematic). A link may work in one browser but not another. In addition, Internet Explorer struggles with Greek and Hebrew, but Firefox tends to handle them properly. You shouldn't have trouble with the simpler links, and we're working on ways to get browsers to behave properly with the more complicated ones.

* I say usually because some pages have anchors built into them, which allows you to link to a specific section of the page, but most pages don't have anchors and most people don't know how to find anchor text or how to link to it.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (13)

November 27, 2007

Changing Your Font Size

A blogger lamented recently that none of the Bible software programs that he has used allow the font size to be enlarged enough so that it is readable when projected on a big screen.

We were happy to inform him that Logos works very well on a screen. A user can easily change the zoom up to 400% (= 48 pts.)—and with a simple script code all the way up to 999% (= 120 pts.)!

The default zoom for resources and reports is 100%, which is equivalent to a 12 pt. font. That may be too small depending on the size and resolution of your monitor—and depending on your purpose. Changing it is a cinch.

There are a couple of ways you can adjust your font size.

  1. All Resources: You can set all resources to use a certain zoom. Do this by going to Tools > Options > General > Text Display and selecting anywhere from 50% to 400% under the Default Zoom drop down. You probably want to leave the box checked next to Use Default Zoom Only with Resources, but test it for yourself to see what you like. You can also change the reports separately. (I have my default zoom set to 150% most of the time, but Bible Speed Search set to 125%.)
  2. Individual Resources and Reports: You can also adjust the zoom on individual resources and reports by using the Zoom icon in the toolbar or by going to View > Zoom. I recommend doing this only after you have set your default zoom. (If you want to change these later, you'll have to do so one resource at a time! I learned that the hard way as a new user.)
Here are two other tips that some users might find helpful.

What if you want to set your default zoom to something other than what is available in the options (e.g., 135% or 500%)? With a simple script code, you can get as precise as you want.

In the following script code, replace 135 with whatever two or three digit number you want. Create a new toolbar button using the Run Script Code command. Click the button to execute the script.

Here's the script code:

Application.UserPreferences("LDLS/ResourceSettings").SetValue("Strings","Zoom","135");

Another thing you can do is create a button that will toggle between your default zoom and another zoom. This comes in very handy if you prefer one size for a resource when it's in a smaller window and another size when it's maximized for reading or displaying on a screen.

To do this, create a toolbar button using the Run Script Code command and this script:

var objWindow = Application.ActiveWindow;
if ( objWindow != null )
{
if ( objWindow.Type == "resource" )
{
var objView = objWindow.View;
if ( objView && objView.IsOpen() )
{
var objDisplayPane = objView.Panes("display");
if ( objDisplayPane )
{
var strZoom = objDisplayPane.Control.Zoom;
if ( strZoom != "175%" )
strZoom = "175%";
else
strZoom = "auto";
objDisplayPane.Control.Zoom = strZoom;
}
}
}
}

Replace the 175 with whatever two or three digit number you'd like. You can create multiple buttons to use for different purposes.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (8)

November 26, 2007

Keyboard Shortcuts

A great way to become more efficient in Libronix is by using keyboard shortcuts. We've compiled a nearly exhaustive list of keyboard shortcuts to help you learn them. Here are a few:

The best way to make these shortcuts a part of your normal use of Libronix is to go through the list and try each one. Pick a handful that you find especially helpful and start using them immediately.

In addition to the standard shortcuts, you can also create your own shortcuts for many of your favorite activities like opening a resource and applying a visual markup. Here are some examples of things I do with shortcut keys:

You can assign keyboard shortcuts like these by creating a custom toolbar. I'll get you started by showing you how to create shortcuts to open resources.
  1. Open Libronix.
  2. Right click on the toolbar area and click on Customize.
  3. Click New to create a new toolbar.
  4. Leave the Category as Special, and click on Open (Resource).
  5. Click Add, give it a name like Shortcuts, and then click on Details.
  6. Give it a name like ESV, select a style and icon, and assign a shortcut key (e.g., Alt+E).
  7. Click Change and select the resource you would like to open with your shortcut.
  8. Click OK, OK, and Close.
  9. Repeat this process to add other resources.
Feel free to hide your new toolbar by right clicking in the toolbar area and unchecking it. It doesn't need to be visible to be active.

Here's a brief video walking you through the steps.

Give it a try!

For other tips on being more efficient, check out our previous post on Mouse Gestures.

Posted by Phil Gons at 10:00 AM | Comments (8)

November 23, 2007

Changing Your English Font

Users often ask if there is a way to change the English font in Libronix. The default font is Times New Roman. If you're like me, you have another font that you prefer. While it's not a standard option, it is fairly easy to change your English font.

Here are the steps you will need to take:

  1. Open Libronix.
  2. Right click on the toolbar area and click on Customize.
  3. Click New to create a new toolbar.
  4. Leave the Category as Special, and click on Run Script Code.
  5. Click Add, give it a name like Change Font, and then click on Details.
  6. If you want, give it a name, select a style and icon, and assign a shortcut key.
  7. Paste the following Script Code into the box.
    8. var strFont=Application.UserPreferences("LDLS/ResourceSettings").GetValue("Strings","Serif");
    var strFontFamily=Application.UserPreferences("LDLS/ResourceSettings").GetValue("Strings","StandardFontFamily");
    strFont="Minion Pro";
    strFontFamily="Serif";
    Application.UserPreferences("LDLS/ResourceSettings").SetValue("Strings","Serif",strFont);
    Application.UserPreferences("LDLS/ResourceSettings").SetValue("Strings","StandardFontFamily",strFontFamily);
  8. Replace Minion Pro with the name of your favorite font. Be sure to use the exact name, which you can find in a program like Word.
  9. Click OK, OK, and Close.
  10. Click your new button (or use your shortcut key) to execute the script code.
That's it. Your new font should now display. To change your font back, just edit your script code and insert Times New Roman. Create as many buttons on your new toolbar as you'd like. I choose to hide my toolbar after executing the script so that it's not taking up toolbar space.

One caution: not all English fonts support the full range of characters used in Libronix. If you see boxes or other weird shapes, you've probably picked a font that's lacking some necessary characters.

Here's a brief video walking you through the 10 steps.

Note: you may need to view this post on a separate page to get all of the script code. Click the 06:00 AM below to do so.

Posted by Phil Gons at 06:00 AM | Comments (12)

July 31, 2007

More on Verse Mapping

Vincent's post about mapping out and harmonizing all the various book-chapter-verse schemes for the Bible has sparked some great discussion among other bloggers. Here are a few selections; click through on the links to read the complete posts at each site...

ESV Bible Blog - "They plan to use the data in the next version of their software to allow for a 'higher degree of precision when it comes to Bible navigation, comparing Bible versions and viewing them in parallel, and Bible reference tagging.' The amount of effort put into this project boggles the mind."

The folks at Crossway also point to a series of posts by blogger Ben C. Smith, who is working his way through a detailed description of the various canonical lists assembled by the early church. Interesting stuff which has a bearing on the Bible we read today.

Randy McRoberts of The Upward Way Press writes,

"Most people know that the chapter and verse divisions of the Bible aren’t part of the original text. Many people may not know that the versification of all Bibles is not the same. For example, if you look up a psalm in the Septuagint, it might have a different number than it does in the English Bibles. It is a very complicated situation. Particularly if your Bibles are digital."

I'm sure Vincent would concur with this assessment. He's been looking a little wrung out lately, and could probably use a care package.  :-)

In a post entitled "Here's Why I Believe in Logos Bible Software" (we appreciate the vote of confidence but would direct such praise to the One who truly deserves it), Benjamin Janssen writes, 

"There are many good reasons why any serious Bible student should invest in, learn, and use Logos Bible Software. But here's the best reason I can think of: the company is dedicated to getting it right. This is a Bible study software that I am confident will always be on the cutting edge of research and analysis without compromising quality, even down to chapter and verse divisions."

We do work hard to stay at the cutting edge of Bible technology, and are taking steps to promote a healthy "give and take" with others in the industry. The BibleTech 2008 conference in January will be a great opportunity for all those who work at the intersection of Bible and technology to share best practices and spur one another on to even greater levels of excellence.

If things like XML versification maps get you excited, you definitely need to be at the conference!

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 30, 2007

An author speaks out

Sometimes we take for granted the goodness of electronic publishing. But some people still wonder why an author or a publisher would choose to put out an electronic edition of their work.

Dr. Robert Lowery, seminary professor, dean, and author of Revelation's Rhapsody, was recently asked why he chose to publish his first book both electronically (with Logos) and in print (with College Press).

Dr. Lowery shared his answer to this question on his blog...which he has generously allowed us to reprint as a case study on Logos.com.

My favorite quotes:

Simply put, Logos is the world’s biggest developer of Bible software, and if I believe that my book will be helpful to people, I want to reach as many as possible.

And:

How many of the readers of my book will actually look up all of the Scripture references? If they choose not to do so, my book will not be as helpful as I desire. How many will actually turn to the back of the book and read the footnotes, notes that I believe are as helpful as the text itself?! In the electronic edition, notes and Scripture references are quickly available, just a mouse hover away.

I find it interesting to read an author's perspective on electronic publishing and see how his priorities align with ours: get the book into the most hands possible and help readers get more out of the book.

But it only makes sense: labor-intensive details such as footnotes and Scripture references represent hours of wasted effort...unless readers actually use them! And making these features easy to use is one of the great strengths of Logos Bible Software.

Read more from Dr. Lowery...

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (1)

July 27, 2007

Books, Chapters and Verses, Oh My!

The story goes around, and I want to believe this is apocryphal, that in 1551 Stephanus added verse divisions into his Greek Bible for the first time while riding a horse. You see, when we run into verse boundaries that awkwardly divide or join sentences, we are to blame the horse.

Most of us are probably aware that the original manuscripts and early copies of the books of the Bible did not have chapter and verse numbers. These were added centuries later for convenient reference. However, some might not be aware that there are actually many competing reference schemes for dividing the Bible into books, chapters and verses. Take this snapshot by way of example:

In the LXX (the Greek version of the Old Testament) Esther 5:1a is Esther 15:2-15:4 in the KJV. The use of letters here (as in 1a) indicates that this material is in the Greek, but not the Hebrew, edition of Esther, which added material the Latin translators moved to the end of the book. The English tradition of versification more closely follows the Latin in Esther, thus accounting for the radically different chapter number. But it gets more complicated than that: there are differences between the Latin numbering and the English, so Esther 15:2-15:4 in the KJV is Esther 15:5-15:7 in the Latin Vulgate. But after Vatican II there was a concerted effort to make the Vulgate follow the older Greek and Hebrew traditions more closely, so the Nova Vulgata, or New Vulgate, numbers that section as Esther 5:2a-5:2c. But to make matters worse, the LXX numbering we use today comes from the Stuttgart edition, but the numbering in the older Cambridge edition edited by Swete and several other, older editions follow a different LXX numbering. They designate Esther 5:1a as Esther D 2 – D 4, introducing the use of letters as chapter indicators for the Greek additions.

If one were to make an xml file that mapped out these relationships, one node might look like so (taking the LXX as the starting point):


<verse id="Esther.5.1a">

<map scheme="KJV" t="Esther.15.2-15.4" />

<map scheme="NRSV" t="Greek_Esther.15.2-15.4" />

<map scheme="LXX2" t="Esther.D.2-D.4" />

<map scheme="NVUL" t="Esther.5.2a-5.2c" />

<map scheme="VUL" t="Esther.15.5-15.7" />

</verse>

Of course, one XML file would be insufficient to resolve all the possible transformations, because as you can see, these types of transformations are not one-to-one, but rather many-to-many, so to really nail these sorts of conversions, you’d need an xml file for each system of versification.

But the problems are more complicated than just with chapter and verse divisions – they operate all the way up to the book level. The English and Greek Bibles have a book called Bel and the Dragon which has 42 verses, but this is Daniel 13:65-14:41 in the Vulgate and Daniel 14:1-14:42 in the New Vulgate. The English and Greek Bibles have a book called the Epistle of Jeremiah, but this is the 6th chapter of Baruch in the Latin tradition.

Ready to really make your head spin? The LXX has a book called 2 Esdras (or Esdras B) that is a combination of Ezra and Nehemiah. The English bibles have a book called 2 Esdras that is not at all related to Ezra or Nehemiah, but is a non-canonical book not found in the Greek tradition at all - it is found in the Latin Bibles, where it is called 4 Esdras (or Esdrae or Ezrae) – 2 Esdras in the Vulgate refers to Nehemiah. But modern editions separate the core Jewish material of 4 Esdras from the Christian additions, and break 4 Esdras into EITHER 2, 4 and 5 Esdras OR 4, 5 and 6 Esdras. And to really add insult to injury, in the Slavonic and Russian bibles, 2 Esdras is the name for the English and Greek 1 Esdras, which is called 3 Esdras in the Latin because 1 Esdras in Latin is the book of Ezra. Except when it isn’t. So when a reference book, or a user of Bible software, writes ‘2 Esdras’ there are a great many places that reference could refer to.

Early versions of Logos Bible Software tried to impose some order on this tangled mess of reference schemes. You can link your Hebrew Bible with an English translation and Malachi 3.19 in the Hebrew will sync with 4.1 in the English and so on, and these mundane transformations work rather well. But where book boundaries and names are radically different, or the material is massively rearranged, a preference for the English system was enforced or no versemap alignment rules were defined.

Until now.

We’ve just finished a massive data project that defines the various structures of the different Bibles in all their glorious, gory detail, and allows for effortless transformations from one versification system to another. As it stands now, the project consists of 56.6 megabytes of xml files that look a lot like the snip pasted above. The new Bible data type generated from this data will be available to you, our dear customers, in the next major version of the software, which means the next version will have a higher degree of precision when it comes to Bible navigation, comparing Bible versions and viewing them in parallel, and Bible reference tagging. However, if any versification schemes don’t line up perfectly in the next generation tools, please, blame my horse.

[Ed.--If topics like this interest you, be sure to check out BibleTech 2008, a conference on Bible and technology to be held January 25-26, 2008, in Seattle.]

Posted by Vincent Setterholm at 06:00 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 20, 2007

Logos Is Listening – Tell Us What You Want

What is the one book or series that you want Logos to release? What is the one feature that doesn’t yet exist but would take your research to the next level?

We want you to tell us the answer to those questions by sending an email to Suggest@logos.com. Don’t just limit yourself to one book or feature. If your mind is overflowing with golden nuggets of inspiration, we want to hear about it. We don’t just want you to feel involved in the creative process – you actually are instrumental in what we decide to release or produce.

The way we see it, technology should not only make Bible study better; it should make dialog with our customers better as well.  Suggest@logos.com is one way that this is being done.

Through Suggest@logos.com we keep track of everything you ask for and if it is possible and feasible, we look for a way to make it happen. We place all requests into one of three categories: process, functionality, and content.

Logos processes, functionality and content today are the result of almost 16 years of suggestions from Logos users and those suggestions continue to shape how we do things. Here’s a closer look at each area.

What happens when you write to Suggest@logos.com?

Your message goes right to the inbox of the publisher relations assistant, who then forwards it to the appropriate department at Logos. Lately the assistant has received between 5 and 10 suggestions per day and, yes, she reads every one. Typo notifications go straight to Electronic Text Development; website recommendations are sent to marketing; and software functionality suggestions end up in development. If you are requesting the addition of a specific book into the Logos digital library, the publisher relations assistant adds that title to an ever-growing list. When we have an opportunity to speak with the publisher of that title we request your book along with all of the others that have been requested.

By what criteria is a suggestion judged?

When our customers make suggestions regarding Logos processes – we pay very close attention. These requests usually warrant the quickest responses in terms of the time it takes to implement a recommendation. Do you think our ‘on-hold music’ is too loud? Was there insufficient information on a product page at the Logos website? Don’t just grin and bear it, let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

As far as Libronix functionality, we don’t have an unlimited budget to do anything we want so we place a relative value on each suggestion.  We do this in terms of its ability to do the most good to the largest number of users and balance that with the cost.  A suggestion might be very expensive, but if a high percentage of our users would be happy about it, that weighs in very heavy.  If a suggestion is moderately expensive but would only cause a few to smile, that weighs in a bit less.

As mentioned above, the likelihood of whether or not we release suggested content depends mostly on the publisher’s stance toward electronic books. Many publishers have seen the proverbial light and are completely behind our efforts to digitize their content.  On the other hand, some think that venturing in this direction would negatively affect sales of print books and as such have decided to avoid electronic publishing altogether (until they absolutely have to release a title in electronic format).  Other publishers are willing to do no more than just dip their toe in and license a few books at a time.  But each year more and more publishers are catching on that the Libronix user base exists in its own parallel universe to the print world and that the electronic editions of their books will be used in a way that print cannot be.

So what does all that mean? It means that even if every Libronix user suggested a particular title we've been unable to license, there is very little Logos can do about it besides keep working to convince the publisher that it would be in their best interest to digitize their content.

That being said, you need to request your favorite books (a quick e-mail to suggest@logos.com is the most direct route) because if we don’t know about it, it may not show up on our book radar.

One great example of how a suggestion came to fruition is the Charles Simeon Horae Homileticae Commentary (21 Volumes).  The story of how that product was created can be found at the Logos blog. To sum up the story, it all started with a suggestion made via email from blogger Adrian Warnock. This product ended up being extremely popular, but we might never have released it were it not for Adrian’s recommendation.

Help us improve!

We want to know what you love about Logos and what you want changed. It seems odd, but we would actually prefer to hear the latter. Your suggestion might raise an issue that we’ve never considered before.

So when you’re using Logos Bible Software always keep an open mind for how the software, the Logos website or our book selection could be tweaked. You could also tell us which features should never change because they are exactly what you need. When the inspiration hits, make sure you let us know by sending an email to suggest@logos.com.

Posted by Mark Van Dyke at 06:00 AM | Comments (10)

July 18, 2007

Splleing errors or just tpyos?

Guest blogger Mark Van Dyke (when does he get promoted to a regular?) writes about typo reporting in Logos Bible Software.

Dr. Daniel Wallace's lecture about preserving the Word of God was a good reminder about the importance of textual accuracy. Just like the ancient manuscripts that are studied in Middle Eastern monasteries, Logos book files have an occasional misspelled word. That's why Libronix has a nice little feature for reporting typographical errors and grammatical glitches. It only takes a moment but helps us out immensely!

You can report a typo by following these three simple steps.

Step One

Highlight the error.

Step Two

On the top task bar select Help | Report Typo.

Step Three

Fill out the form with the typo correction and your email address. Then click "Submit".

Please note that if you are reporting an error with Logos' syntax database you might need to send an email to syntax@logos.com rather than using the internal 'Report Typo' dialog.

When you let us know that there is a misspelled word in one of our book files, that word is put on a list so the next time we update that book file we can fix the problem. This means that the typos aren't always fixed the next day after you tell us, but your message will definitely be read and acted upon.

As always, we love getting feedback. Even in the case where we need to change something about a book. That's because the textual accuracy of every book we create is of the utmost importance – whether it's the Bible itself or the Scripture Alphabet of Animals.

Thanks for helping!

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (8)

June 25, 2007

Better late than never...

Logos 3 launched nearly 14 months ago on May 1, 2006, and since then not a day has gone by without someone upgrading to version 3.

We've talked about various books and features of version 3 here on the blog, launched two road trips, and sent out some pretty postcards to those in our database who haven't upgraded. 

And yet more than a year later, some of you are still missing out on what Logos 3 has to offer.

It could be that we've said too much across too many venues and what's needed is just a simple list of the most compelling features of Logos 3.

So here is that list: The Top 20 New Features of Logos 3

The Top 20 list was compiled by our ministry relations team and is the product of countless conversations with customers about what really matters to them.

These are the features that get oohs and aahs when demonstrated to a live audience and that have the greatest impact on the user's Bible study. We've gone out of our way to explain the benefits of each new feature and what it means for your Bible study.

Each feature is also illustrated with a screenshot and includes a link to a tutorial video (if available). So check it out ...perhaps this is the prompt you've been waiting for to take your Bible study to new heights!

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2007

Download Free Vocabulary Lists

If you are teaching yourself Greek or Hebrew or simply trying to keep your skills sharp, you may want to check out these free vocabulary lists that can be downloaded and opened within Logos Bible Software 3:

Vocabulary Lists for Popular Grammars

We've built vocab lists built around 11 Greek grammars, 6 Hebrew grammars and 2 Aramaic grammars. Some of these grammars are available for Logos Bible Software; some aren't.

I was particularly excited to see a vocabulary list for Athenaze, the grammar I used when learning classical Greek at Hope College.

As you can see, the vocabulary words are given in the same order as they appear in the grammar, following the lessons or chapters and part-of-speech divisions. You can edit the glosses and words provided, delete an entry in the list (words you already know, perhaps?), and re-sort the entries.

Tip: To manually move a vocab word up or down the list, click and drag it. To delete a word, click it once and hit the Delete key.

Another cool thing is that you can print these vocab lists to make flash cards! So whether you're starting out on the adventure of learning a biblical language—or want to make sure your skills don't rust over the summer—take advantage of this freebie and give your studies a boost!

See also:

How-To: Make a Vocabulary Guide with Word Frequencies



How come I don't have the Vocabulary Lists feature? Vocabulary Lists are part of the Original Languages Addin, included in the following Logos 3 collections: Original Languages Library, Scholar's Library, Scholar's Library: Silver, and Scholar's Library: Gold. If you own the Original Languages Addin as part of an older collection but have not updated to Libronix DLS v3.0 or greater, you can get Vocabulary Lists for free: open Libronix DLS and click Tools | Libronix Update. If you own a collection like Bible Study Library or don't own a base collection, you can get the Original Languages Addin by upgrading to a Logos 3 collection that includes the addin or purchasing it individually.

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (4)

May 25, 2007

Top 50 Women in the Bible

As promised, I'm back for one final post on this whole "most important people in the Bible" topic. The first two posts in the series are here and here.

Today we'll take a quick look at a visualization of the top 50 women of the Bible, as determined by Logos information architect Sean Boisen's calculations. This data is also available at Many Eyes for anyone to manipulate and try out new information visualizations.

Here's the scatterplot; click the thumbnail for a full view.

This time, dot size is the final "importance" score using all the weights and factors calculated. The x-axis is the total number of mentions in the Bible. Bigger dot = more important; further right = more mentions.

One of the most interesting things we see here is the name Zeruiah with a pretty big dot and fifth place in terms of mentions. I don't know about you, but I don't recall ever hearing a Bible story about Zeruiah. My girls (ages 3 and 4 1/2) and I are on our second time through the cartoon Picture Bible and we haven't encountered any such person.

Who is this mystery woman?

With the help of the Biblical People Addin tool within Logos Bible Software 3, it's pretty easy to find out. I fired up the tool and typed "zeruiah" to generate the following graph.

Turns out Zeruiah was King David's sister. But if she's the fifth most-frequently mentioned woman in Scripture and is closely related to a major character within the biblical narrative why wouldn't I know anything about what she did or said?

The answer to this question is also provided by the Biblical People tool. I can hover over or click each of the Bible references to see every mention of Zeruiah in brief context. Or better yet, type Zeruiah's name into Bible Speed Search and get all the verses on one screen.

Looking through the results, we find that 24 of the 25 mentions of Zeruiah consist of the phrase, "Son(s) of Zeruiah." The exception is in 1 Samuel 17:25 where we read that David's sister Abigail (not to be confused with David's wife named Abigail) is a "sister of Zeruiah."

So it turns out that we don't know anything about Zeruiah except for her relation to other people. We don't know of a single thing she did or said. Commentators speculate that her sons are frequently identified by her name because of the link back to King David. Anyone who trailed an older sibling through high school or has a star athlete in the family could commiserate with Zeruiah—"Wait...aren't you Abigail's sister?" "You're Joab's mom, right?"

It may be that Zeruiah points up another opportunity for improving Sean's "importance" weighting factors. Can somebody who appears in Scripture by name only, with no speaking or acting role, be numbered among the most important? I'd ask Sean for comment but he's presenting a case study at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose so I'll just have to wait until he gets back.

In the meantime, I've got to quit playing around with Many Eyes and get back to work. :-)

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 21, 2007

Parallel Passages Hack

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again...Logos users are a very clever bunch. 

One user, John Minter, recently posted a "wouldn't it be nice if..." to the Logos newsgroups. Regarding Kurt Aland's Synopsis of the Four Gospels—a data set within the Parallel Passages and Harmonies tool—he wrote:

I like being able to generate with my desired translation. What would be nice is to generate a table for the given section as a handout...

Six minutes later he posted again to answer his own question:

OK Figured it out. Select a hebrew text like the BHS and all you get is the table. Woo hoo.

I'm not sure whether this little trick should be considered a hack or feature (no doubt my friends in development would take credit for it as the latter) but it does seem to work and strikes me as the kind of thing that could be useful so I'm sharing it with you.

Try It Yourself!

To try it out, open Logos 3 and click Tools | Bible Comparison | Parallel Passages and Harmonies. For Source, choose Synopsis of the Four Gospels (Aland) if you have it. If not, don't worry—it works with other data sets, too. For Bible version, choose BHS or ESV OT Rev. Int (the latter is in more packages).

Now when you drill down into a section of the synopsis, you'll get the report shown below on the left instead of the usual report, shown on the right (click the thumbnail for a full size image):

This references-only table can be printed, or pasted pretty well into a word processor. It's a handy little hack if you want to include just the parallel references in a handout or other document...

Thanks John!

Posted by Daniel Foster at 06:00 AM | Comments (6)

May 16, 2007

Parallel Passages - Verses Like These Verses

If you've spent time around Logos Bible Software, you probably already know that Bibles such as the ESV, NKJV, and NASB* include cross-reference links right there in the text. They're indicated by the "little letters and numbers" sprinkled throughout most passages.

Just hover the mouse over an indicator and the cross-references pop up in what we call a "tool tip" window. Click the indicator (rather than hovering) and the tool tip will remain in place when you move your mouse away, allow