Logos Bible Software was updated yesterday to 4.0b. This is the first major update to the new Logos 4 product and it brings with it some nice additions and some features that were available in the previous version. You can read the Logos blog post about the new features here.
Import Notes and Highlighting from Version 3 – This is a feature that previous users have been shouting for since Logos 4 was released. Up until now there was no way to move all of your note file information from version 3 to version 4. Now you can not only import your Notes, but also any highlighting in your books with be imported to version 4 as well. A new post on the Logos blog today discusses this feature.
Prayer Lists – This is another Version 3 feature that has made it to Logos 4. Track the things you want to pray about and see them in the Home Page ribbon each day.
Custom Highlighter Styles – Create your own set of highlighter styles. This is another Version 3 feature that has been added. While Logos 4 shipped with the standard highlighter groups, you couldn’t create your own. Now you can.
Parallel Resource Groups – This is another feature that the Logos community has been requesting since the new version launched. Now you can create groups of parallel resources like Bible, commentaries, dictionaries and lexicons and have them in a pulldown menu in your resource panels.
Custom Settings for the Information Window – A Settings button has been added to the Information window allowing you to control what information is presented and from what resources. This makes this window much more useful in my opinion.
Search While Typing – This feature now functions very much like Bible Speed Search did in Version 3. As you type in the search box result begin displaying immediately. While this is impressive, I don’t see that it really changes much. Searching is so fast in Logos 4 the need to search as you type is really minimized.
Convert Search Results to Visual Filter - Visual Filters in Logos 4 rocks! They are so much more powerful than in Version 3. Previously, when you did a search the search results were highlighted in the text as long as you left the Search window open. As soon as you closed the Search window, the highlighting vanished. This new feature allows you to convert the Search results into a Visual Filter that can be saved and turned off and on at will. This may seem minor, but it is a real improvement. I am planning a screencast video on Visual Filters this week – stay tuned.
These are just a few of the new features released in the Logos 4.0b update. Many of the improvements are small and tend more to help with form and function, but they are small enough that they may go unnoticed. Your software should update itself (unless you have turned auto-updating off for some reason). If you have received your update yet and don’t want to wait you can type Update Now in the Command Box on the Home Page to check for the new version. INDEXING ALERT - Because some of the new features involve mew searches it Logos does need to reindex parts of your library. This can take a long time (mine took almost 6 hours) so be warned.
There is a good video by Logos user Mark Barnes available demonstrating a number of the new features here:
New features in Logos 4.0b from Mark Barnes on Vimeo.
MAC Version – Logos 4.0b is a Windows version update. The MAC version is currently still in Alpha testing and is at Alpha 15 last time I checked. It is making good progress but still has a long way to go until a full version release. Hang in there MAC users – it is in the works.
#1 by gualetar on March 22, 2010 - 12:59 am
The subject is fully clear but why does the text lack clarity? But in general your blog is great.
#2 by automatic websites on August 31, 2010 - 11:15 pm
Is the theme you use for your site available anywhere?
#3 by jmichaelhite on September 1, 2010 - 9:54 am
It is called Fusion 3.1. It is available from digitalnature. A quick search in themes should locate it.