About Personal Books
Personal books (PBs) are user created resources with almost all the features of a Logos resource.
They are built from Microsoft Word documents (.docx files) using the Personal Books tool and are fully incorporated into your Library.
With Logos 6 and higher, PBs may be synced across multiple desktop installations, but Faithlife has no plans to support PBs on mobile apps.
Syntax
Milestones
The syntax for milestones is [[@datatype:reference]]. For example:
- [[@Headword:Word(s)]] It uses the language from the Word document, else use
[[@Headword+<language>:Word(s)]] where <language> is the two-character ISO-code, such as
en=English, es=Spanish, el=Greek, he=Hebrew, de=German, nl=Dutch, fr=French, af=Afrikaans etc. e.g.
[[@Headword+el:δοῦλος]]
- [[@Bible:jn 3:16]]
- [[@GreekStrongs:G3056]]
- [[@DayOfYear:January 17]] This would tend to be used in calendar devotionals that could be used in any year
- [[@YearMonthDay:Jan 17, 2012]] This would tend to be used in lectionaries that would be used in a specific year
- [[@Page:513]] or [[@VolumePage: 1,513]] or [[@VolumePageLine: 1.513.3]]
If you’re unsure how to find out the name of the datatype and reference, there are step-by-step instructions available.
Datatype links
The syntax for datatype links is very similar to milestones, but without the @ sign, and with an optional label [[label >> datatype:reference]]. For example:
- [[Rome, City of >> Headword:Rome]] this will link to the current resource if the milestone is present
- [[Bible:Jn 3:16]] most Bible links are created automatically, which means you don’t need to tag them – however, you may explicitly refer to a datatype with a certain verse-map, such as BibleLXX or BibleLUTBIB1984, see Bible Datatypes
- [[GreekStrongs:G3056]]
- [[LouwNida:LN93.387]]
- [[Lemma:lbs/el/δοῦλος]] where lbs = Logos Morphology
- [[LogosMorphGr:NDPM]] where Gr = Greek
- [[DayOfYear:January 17]]
- [[YearMonthDay:Jan 17, 2012]] the date may be given as mm/dd/yyyy, e.g. 01/17/2012 as well
- [[Page:513]] Page numbers always link to the current resource
If you’re unsure how to find out the name of the datatype and reference, there are step-by-step instructions available. Note that Headwords in other resources have to be accessed as Resource links (below).
Resource links
These links use one of the Copy location methods in the Panel menu.
For resources where you want a link to the article, lemma, bible reference, page number, etc.:
- open the resource to the desired place,
- usually with your location at the top of the panel, but
- the reference in the Find box or TOC will be used.
- select wiki or L4 from the Panel menu; and
- paste the link into your document
- any offset will not work in the PB!
For resources with long articles, you can get an exact text offset for the location:
- open the resource to the desired place
- but not books with dynamic text insertion!
- select some of the text at your starting location,
- it doesn’t have to be at the top of the panel.
- select wiki or L4 from the Panel menu; and
- paste the link into your document.
Note:
- The wiki link uses the syntax [[label >> link]] so you can simply change the label as needed.
- If you chose L4, you have to format it as per the wiki link.
- The wiki link uses ref.ly, but this is treated as a direct link in PB’s.
- L4 provides a direct link using the logosres protocol, but it doesn’t have to be used for PB’s.
- To open a lectionary to today’s reading replace the date with today
e.g. logosres:rcl;ref=YearMonthDay.11-15-2020 ==> logosres:rcl;ref=YearMonthDay.today
The Anatomy of a Link includes Bible and Headword examples (logosres only).
Fields
The syntax for Fields is {{field-on:<fieldname>}} ... {{field-off:<fieldname>}} OR use a Word style field:<fieldname>. For example:
- {{field-on:Bible}}”For God so loved the world, {{field-off:Bible}}
- {{bible-on}}”For God so loved the world, {{bible-off}}
- If above text has a Style called field:RedLetter then it will be compiled as words-of-christ or WOC.
See Search Fields List for field names (except Languages).
Text Input Box
The syntax for a text input box is {{input id=IDENTIFIER | type=text | lines=number | width=number | prompt=“text”}} where
- ‘input id = IDENTIFIER’ is mandatory. The identifier value of the id attribute must be uppercase, start with a letter, and may consist of letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens, and periods. It must be unique within the resource e.g. QUESTION_1
- ‘lines=number’ is optional. This controls the vertical size of the text box, in whole number line-heights. Default is 1.
- ‘width=number’ is optional. This controls the horizontal size of the text box, in whole number character-widths.
Note: you can only specify either lines or width. If both are given then the compiler will use lines and ignore width.
- ‘prompt=“text”’ is optional. This may be used to specify text that will be displayed in the text box until the user inputs something.
For example {{input id=QUESTION_1 | type=text | width=35 | prompt=“Type”}}
Building Personal Books
Create the book
Your book is built from one or more Word .docx files. Add text or paste text from your original and add milestones, fields, links and other syntax elements as necessary. You can generate footnotes and use Word Heading styles for your articles/chapters as this will automatically generate a TOC. Text and syntax elements should use the Normal style and can be intermingled. Keep formatting consistent between the files of your book.
Note that milestones can be on the same line as Headings because they are not visible in the resource, including TOC. Also remember that milestones are the only way to index the content of the article.
See Examples for other suggestions.
Language Fonts
For original language words, use only the Greek/Hebrew/Syriac fonts supported by Logos if you want them to use the default font in the compiled resource e.g. use SBL Greek for your Greek font, use SBL Hebrew or Ezra SIL for your Hebrew font.
Body text in a modern language is affected by the Default Resource Font.
Note: Times New Roman is regarded as the default font by the compiler, so you can ignore any font errors that arise from using other fonts (some are spurious).
Build the book
- Go to Tools > Personal Books
- Click Add book
- Enter Title
- Enter Author (optional)
- Enter Copyright message and Description (optional)
- Choose the book Type (default: Monograph).
- Choose a Language (it is hoped that more will be added in the future)
- Click Add field for a menu of optional fields:
- Abbrev. Title & Series Title - can add/modify these in the Library Information pane
- Alternate Title - may be useful
- Publisher - use as necessary
- Publication Date - Year only
- Subject Heading - select this for each subject (separated by a semi-colon in the Library Details view).
- Optionally add a cover image: Click Change... under the blank book cover and choose an image file from your hard disk. You can find usable image files for most published books by searching for their title on Google Images
- Click Add file... and select the .docx file from your hard disk. You can add multiple .docx files to make up a book and use “drag&drop” to reorder them (right-click a file to remove it).
- Click Build book
After the book is built (aka “compiled”) it should automatically open in a tab and begin Indexing.
Rebuild the Book
Make changes to your docx files, Add or remove any BODY FILES and then click Build book.
It will recompile, recreate the resource file and then Index it.
Problems you may encounter
- If you get the message “Build Failed – Could not remove existing resource” it will advise you to close all open panels, but a restart works best.
- You may still get some Warnings/Errors when the build succeeds, but they can be ignored if the document appears to be converted properly. View this PB errors page for more information and possible solutions.
- Your milestones and links may appear to be correct but if they aren’t recognised by Logos you can often fix them in Microsoft Word by following these steps:
- Save your Word document as an RTF file and close it.
- Re-open the RTF file and Save as a Word .docx file.
- Logos can crash without generating a log file. If this happens to you please send the document to logos4feedback@logos.com so they can test the document.
If the document doesn’t get converted properly report the issue as a Bug on the appropriate Logos Forum.
Uploading and Deleting books
If you want to upload the book to the Faithlife server, click Upload after building (and testing) the book.
This will ensure that it syncs to your other desktop installations, but there is a limit to the size (c. 20 MB).
Alternatively, you can tranfer PB’s via the command scan <path>, where <path> is the location of a folder containing the compiled files (*.lbspbb)
e.g. a copy of the Resources folder on a USB drive, or just the *.lbspbb files.
This is also a way to restore PB files that were not uploaded.
The normal method of deleting PB’s is via the Personal Books tool (right click + Delete). It removes the book from Library
and from your Resources folder. However, the only way to remove uploaded books is to Hide them.
Hints and Tips
Add a Search
First perform your search in the Search tool, then click on the Search menu and click on URL to copy the query to the clipboard.
Then paste it into your document e.g. logos4:Search;kind=Basic;q=Word1_OR_Word2;match=stem
Consistent formatting is essential to getting your links compiled correctly e.g. it is almost impossible to notice different styles having the same font+size. Here is the best way to achieve this in MS Word:-
- place your cursor somewhere in the document that has the desired formatting (style + font).
- press CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy the formatting
- select the text/link.
- right click> Styles> Clear formating (or select Clear All in the Styles box)
- press CTRL+SHIFT+V to paste the formatting.
There are many free converters, mostly online. Afterward you may have to use your word processor to convert to docx.
Hidden hyperlinks
A datatype reference, particularly bible ones, can display duplicated entries in a hover popup. The reference may look OK in the docx file and the resource but there is a hidden hyperlink. You can fix with Word’s Remove Hyperlink or select a number of references and use Ctrl+Shift+F9.
If you want a reference or certain formatting characters to be ignored by the compiler try the syntax {{~ reference }} (note the space before and after).
e.g. Jn 3:16 and [[ will be rendered as normal text using {{~ Jn 3:16 }}, {{~ [[ }}
Labels
Use the syntax [[label >> link]].
Lemmas
The ‘Lemma’ tab in the (right-click) context menu is not currently supported. But you can change the language setting in Word to Greek or Hebrew (after selecting the text) to get your prioritized lexicons in the lower portion of the context menu.
Pictures and Images
You can paste images from Logos or .bmp (bitmap) format directly into your document. Others must be inserted from the hard drive and with Text Wrapping (on right click menu) set to In Line.
Note: Neither method works with Word 2003, so you have to save to docx from Word 2007 or Skydrive.
Referencing milestones in your PB
A datatype link will not work as other resources will be prioritized for that datatype; Page being the only exception.
A resource link could be used (after you compile the PB), but it is better to use a bookmark in your docx file:
- Move the cursor to the start of the milestone
- Insert a bookmark at that place e.g. from Word’s Insert > Links menu
- Select the reference text and create a hyperlink to that bookmark e.g. from Word’s right-click menu.
Tip: you can edit the Hyperlink style so that underscores do not appear.
Remove Hyperlink Style from hyperlinks
As the Hyperlink style is hidden until used, removing it from text pasted into your document is not easy.
- Embed the Styles window from Home > Styles
- Select multiple hyperlinks:
- if they are in a column of a Table, then select the column.
- NB. if you select hyperlinks with text all formatting and styles will be removed from the text.
- Click Clear All in the Styles window.
- the Hyperlink style will appear at the bottom of the window.
- Right-click the style and select Delete Hyperlink...
- Confirm that you want to delete.
Search Fields
Fields appear in the Search panel drop-down. Note that Red Letter text is “Words of Christ” and that you can only search for (tagged) Bible text in a Bible.
Search Results
Results appear in the Search panel under My Books but the section may need to be opened. Results from the Collections section of Passage Guide are also separated and PB’s will appear after any Logos books!
Searchable TOC Entries
If you want your TOC entries (Article heading, Chapters, Bible Book names, Pericope headings) to be searchable as a Heading field enclose them with {{field-on:Heading}} / {{field-off:Heading}} tags on separate lines.
Searching Bibles
You can use Bible Search for Bibles tagged with the bible search field, but Morph Search is not currently supported (see Lemmas).
Space is ignored (Workaround)
If space between words and codes (syntax) is ignored then expand the character spacing (Ctrl+D in Word 2007) by 1 or 2 pt.