Getting Started with Logos

Installation + Indexing

Tip: Before installing Logos, connect computer to reliable network and power adapter, disable computer and hard drive sleep (OK for monitor to sleep). Laptop cooler is a good idea.
Wiki has Installation and Indexing FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) that includes tip about not installing Logos as administrator in Windows (needs user account).
Logos is resource intensive on PC & Mac and benefits from fast processor, graphics, and disk along with adequate memory i.e. newer hardware.

Logos 5 Installation Steps to download from Logos servers, followed by indexing.

Tip: Official Logos videos need Abode Flash Player plug-in
After installing Logos application, sign-in with your Logos account. Logos then downloads your library content, followed by indexing (computer tends to get Hot while processors and disk busy indexing for several hours).
Tip: Recommend waiting for indexing to finish before using Logos (can read resources, but scrolling will be sluggish).
Tip: After Logos.com order(s), changing your Logos program setting for Automatically Download Updates to Yes initiates process to download, install, and index new purchase(s).
Tip: Many free resources are available for purchase (Logos does not charge credit card for $ 0.00), installation, and indexing.

First Steps

Mark Barnes created Tutorial # 2 – First Steps video that covers the basics of using Logos Bible Software: finding, opening and reading a book; the Home Page and “Go” button; setting your preferred Bible. It introduces the three guides: Passage Guide, Exegetical Guide and Bible Word Study, and demonstrates searching, before showing you how to resize and move panels and tabs.

Blog has Your Guide to Getting Started with Logos 4!
Wiki has Logos4 Basics
Wiki also has Mac and PC User Interface Differences - PC & Mac share common code and feature usage but some Logos PC features are not yet available on Mac.

Look at Passage and Exegetical Guide sections for your bible study – can customize Passage and Exegetical Guides. By default, Passage Guide includes several sections that retrieve information from internet.
Tip: Forum PAINFUL SCROLLING ... has an Exegetical Guide tweak – remove Word by Word section for faster scrolling (especially with Bible Books and Chapters). Option: create a custom guide with Word by Word section – use when want detailed report for a verse (or two) with 5 links for every word (lemma, morphology, and 3 dictionaries) plus “more >>” link to expand dictionary list and populate Bible Word Study (BWS) usage count for each lemma (clicking lemma opens BWS for lemma in a new tab).
Tip: PC control key often becomes command key on Mac.

Videos demonstrate many Logos features on PC & Mac: overall several hours of instruction with time shown for each video (ranges from 29 seconds to 39 minutes).
Tip: You will learn as you go. It can take some time finish these setup procedures, but keep at it! Stop and try items in videos so you see how it works (may need to replay video section so you can repeat item in Logos). More Learning Logos options below.

Home Page

Wiki has Logos4 Basics that has Home Page “GO” tutorial and helpful hints.
Tip: Use a Bible Passage with fewer than 5 verses for initial Home Page “GO” - may take a minute (or two) for Passage and Exegetical Guides to populate all sections.
Tip: Change Text Comparison link set from A to Follow for smoother scrolling in Bible. Optionally close Text Comparison since can highlight Bible verse(s) in Logos and press F7 for pop-up Text Comparison of Top 5 Bibles. On Mac, if “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard keys” in Keyboard preferences is unchecked, then (fn) key needs to be pressed with F7.
Tip: Logos blog has tip about collapsing guide section(s) for speed improvement
Tip: Use Layouts to retain your preferences for different studies.

Prioritize Library

Tip: Prioritize your Top 5 Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries, Grammars, and Lexicons (used by Passage and Exegetical Guides).
Tip: Prioritize your devotional resource(s) to show on Home Page in all Logos apps.
Wiki has Prioritizing with Basic and Advanced prioritization plus A Sample Prioritize List and Library.

Tip: For New Testament, Louw-Nida resources offer semantic domain (contextual usage) insights – a Greek word can have one Strong’s number and many Louw-Nida numbers.

Search

Wiki has Search help, Detailed Search Help, Morphological Search, BDAG Search, Setting up a Syntax Search, A Strategy for Syntax Search, Topical Search Suggestions, and About Topic Search
Blog has Logos 4: Display Basic Search Results Differently
Logos has 5 Faster Searching videos: Bible, Entire Library, Greek NT, Hebrew Bibles, and Hebrew – Reverse Interlinear
Forum MVP Mark Barnes created Tutorial # 4 – Searching video and Tutorial #8 – Passage Lists

Tip: Pay attention to Search helps – this will streamline your work.
Tip: Case Study: Day of the Lord in Isaiah has a Bible Study example using several Searches, Passage List, and Passage Guide.
Tip: Basic Search for images using fields Description; Tag; Title (hymns have descriptions)
Tip: Basic Search for topics using fields Heading Text; Large Text e.g. Wuest Word Studies , Deuteronomy in Journals , and Prophecy study
Tip: Morph Search within Words of Christ using a Passage List

Favorites

Mark Barnes created Tutorial # 6 – Favorites video that shows four ways of creating favorites (and how to ensure whether they will always open to a specific point or whether they’ll open to their most recent position), how to delete and rename them, two ways of re-ordering favorites, how to create and organise folders, the difference between favorites and bookmarks, how to add web links and files as favorites, and how you can resize the apparently unresizeable favorites tool.
Tip: If you open My Library and drag a book into a folder under Favorites, it can open that book to the Scripture that is displayed in the active window at the time you click on it.
Wiki has Favorites
Tip: Favorites can open resources or tools into a floating window.

Highlighting + Visual Filters

Tip: Search can become a visual filter with your custom highlighting – many color and formatting options (including image placements).
Wiki has Visual Filter, Extended Tips for Highlighting and Visual Filters, Using Passage List to limit Visual Filters, and Finding Highlighted Text Custom Highlighting: Orig Lang. (for Visual Filters)
See what you can do with Visual Filters. Mark Barnes created Tutorial # 9 – Highlighting video
Tip: If you like to highlight when you read, Logos can do itl Want to undo: just select the highlighted text and click undo. Also, Visual Filters can be clicked on and off.

Cited By

Tip: Cited By tool searches your Logos Library for reference(s) to your Scripture Passage.
Wiki has Cited By
Logos created “New Cited by Tool” video
Cited By can be customized using collections and saved in layouts.
Tip: When sections collapsed, Black shows section has 1 or more hits while Gray shows section does not any hits.

Layouts

Tip: Save layouts for later use.
Tip: You can link resources so that when one scrolls the other scrolls, change where hyperlinks open, change the text size in one or all resources, use reading view or floating windows to maximise your reading experience.
Wiki has Layouts, Linking Resources, and Layouts useful to Users

Tip: After naming (or updating) layout, can use close all command (or keyboard shortcut: Cmd+Option+W on Mac; Ctrl+Shift+W on PC) to close all panels.

Collections

Tip: Take your time setting up Collections. You can have many Collections, can be a big help with searches (and Passage Guide sections)
Wiki has Collections, A Rationale for Dynamic Collections, Example Collections, and Canonical Commentary Collections
Logos created “Dynamic, Rule-Based Collections” video and Mark Barnes created Collections and Prioritizing video set
Tip: Collapsing Collection sections in Cited By tool allows faster launching of Cited By, then can choose collection(s) to expand for further study. Logos 4 Windows has right click option on collection name: Collapse All.

Reading

Tip: Reading Lists and Plans will organise & schedule your reading activities.
Wiki has Reading Lists, Reading Plan (Basics), and Reading Plans (Custom)

Learning Logos

Tip: Becoming proficient with Logos features and capabilities takes months of use – practice and perseverance produces powerful results.
Tip: Learning Logos is an iterative process. Try using Logos features and capabilities – can come back and improve initial attempts.

Reading List: Logos blog and forum tips - links to many Blog articles and Forum discussions, grouped by topic, and you can check items to track your progress.

The Logos Blog has Your Guide to Getting Started with Logos 4!

Wiki has Visual Table of Contents that shows all Logos 4 menus plus screen shots, tutorials, and examples
Logos 4 Video Tutorials has many links, including Personal Book Quick Clip Videos, Sentence Diagramming, Sermon Preparation, and Syntax Search.
    Option: watch video, pause, switch to Logos, try to do what video shows, switch to video, play

Logos Forums have many friendly discussions about using Logos Bible Software – good place to ask questions. Wiki Using the Forum has usage tips, including searching.
Tip: Many wiki pages are available as a docx file Wiki has Personal Books (how to build a personal book in Logos 4 from a docx file)

Camp Logos Schedule Morris Proctor is the officially authorized Logos trainer: 2 or 3 days hands-on Camp Logos recommended + worthwhile + effective
    Logos.com offers Camp Logos training items for purchase, including DVD’s plus Learning videos for purchase (some videos use older Libronix 3)
    Morris Proctor offers free training chapters to download about Logos highlighting and notes
John Fallahee (Former Logos employee) offers Independent training for purchase (not affiliated with Logos.com)
    Free Tutorial Videos
    Free Live Webinars