Favorites II: Get Organized with Research Folders

Last week I answered the question “Can I save searches in Logos?” by taking a look at Favorites, one of the new features in Logos 3.

If you looked carefully at the screenshot I used to illustrate Favorites you may have noticed some interesting things in the “Crowds” folder. Take another look…

Notice that the Crowds folder contains not only searches, but also dictionary articles, notes, and even a Bible Word Study report.

Follow the Crowds

In college, I took part in a manuscript study of the book of Mark. We dug deep into the text using little more than a double-spaced printout of the gospel, lots of colored pencils, and hours of poring over the text and group discussion. (To read about the manuscript study method, check out the PDFs on StudentJourney.org, a cool new site from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship).

When reading through Mark’s gospel this way, one thing you can’t miss are the crowds. Everywhere you look, Jesus seems to be surrounded by a mob. At the time, we made a number of interesting observations concerning the ebb and flow of these crowds, and the Savior’s interaction with them…and now I’m doing some research into the topic using Logos Bible Software.

Playing Favorites

The Favorites feature in Logos 3 enables me to save and organize each step of my research by placing Favorites in my “Crowds” folder. As my study progresses (or is interrupted and resumed later), I can refer back to this folder to pull up and review any component of my research.

Just about any resource, report, or document within Logos Bible Software can be saved as a Favorite. Resources are Bibles, books or journals; reports are things like Bible Word Study, Exegetical Guide, or Compare Parallel Bible Versions; documents include notes, sentence diagrams, lists (word/vocabulary/reference/verse), or even remote library searches.

So next time you’re investigating a particular research topic or Bible passage, organize your work using Favorites folders.

Another great use of Favorites: flag stuff for later investigation. Instead of following a rabbit trail right now, make a Later folder and pop that juicy tidbit in there with a descriptive title so you can stay on track. Or when you see something that relates to a different project or research interest, pause only long enough to bookmark it to that folder. If you often find yourself wandering in your digital library, Favorites can help you stay focused.

Just think about all that Favorites can do to assist your study, and you’ll want to start using them right now!

• Save time and frustration trying to recall later what you did
  
• Instantly get back to that key resource or note file
  
• Keep a commonly-used text or search at your fingertips
  
• Defer your bunny trails and keep focused on the task at hand

Next in series: Favorites vs. Workspaces
If you have other ways you’re using Favorites, leave a comment here or drop me a line at daniel@logos.com…I’d love to hear about it and, who knows, it might make for an interesting follow-up blog post!