4. Use Logos to Highlight Text and Take Notes

In the previous article, you learned how to open a reference resource, link it to your Bible, and use visual filters to make it easier to engage both texts. You also learned how to activate and customize the inline interlinear pane and the interlinear pane.

In this article, I’ll introduce you to some of the ways you can call out interesting and important features of your passage and record your questions and observations by making highlights and taking notes.

Understand

Here’s what you need to know about notes and highlights:

1. Notes have “anchors” which connect them to a location. This location is (usually) independent of the resource in which you’ve taken the note. For example, if you want, you can take a note on John 15:11 in your NRSV but have it display in your ESV as well. You can manage and add additional anchors in the Notes tool.

2. Logos does the organizational work for you. Your notes and highlights are automatically sorted in the Notes tool, and you can search for them by biblical book, date you created them, and more.

3. Notes and highlights can be organized in notebooks. Notebooks in Logos work virtually the same way as paper notebooks. You can create notes in notebooks or move your notes and highlights to different notebooks as you see fit.

Highlight

You can highlight text in your Bible or any other resource simply by selecting it. When the selection menu appears, pick the highlighting style you want to apply.

Note: If the selection menu doesn’t appear, make sure you have it activated in your program settings.

The selection menu provides only a few highlighting styles to choose from. If you want a larger selection or want to define your own styles, use the Highlighting tool (which you can open from the selection menu by clicking the Highlight tool icon ). Click the Notes tab in the toolbar and select Highlighting.

The Highlighting tool will open in a panel beside your main Bible panel. To apply a highlighting style from the Highlighting tool, select the text in your Bible that you want to highlight, then click the highlighting style in the Highlighting tool that you want to apply.

You can find and manage all of your notes and highlights in the Notes tool (discussed below).

Open the Highlighting Palette in Logos

Open the Notes Tool in Logos

Learn more about highlighting in Logos.

Take Notes

You can take notes in several different ways:

• Select a word, phrase, or reference marker. Then click the Notes icon in the Selection Menu to launch the Notes tool with a new note.
• Right-click a word or reference marker. Ensure the element of the text you want to discuss is selected in the left pane (this determines what your note is anchored to), then click Add a note in the right pane. The Notes tool will open with a new note, ready for you to record your thoughts.
• Open the Notes tab in the toolbar and select Add note.
• Launch the Notes tool by opening Tools and selecting the Notes tool. Highlight text in your Bible, then click New Note in the Notes tool.

The Notes tool is made up of three parts:

1. The navigation menu allows you to filter your notes and highlights by different attributes. You can toggle this menu open and closed by clicking the Navigation menu icon .
2. The middle section displays your notes sorted by creation date (or a different criterion that you select). You can toggle this section open and closed by clicking the Expand icon .
3. The note section is where you write and format your notes.

Learn more about taking notes with Logos.

Displaying Your Highlights and Notes

By default, your highlighting style will be visible whenever you open the resource you made highlights in. Notes will also be indicated by a small notes icon (there are a range of icon colors and shapes) in the location where you made the note. You can choose to show or hide these or to show specific highlights and notes (e.g. those from a specific notebook).

To change what highlights and notes appear, open the Notes tab and click Show notes and highlights. Check or uncheck the boxes beside the notebooks you want to show or hide. Use the toggle at the top of the dropdown to show or hide notes and highlights.

Note: If you have notes or highlights that are not in a notebook, check the No notebook box to capture them.

To see highlights in a different Bible than the one in which you created the note or highlight, scroll to the bottom of the Show notes and highlights dropdown and expand the From other books with corresponding text section. Check the boxes beside the notebooks containing the notes and highlights you want to display.

Previous: 3. How to Read Your Bible and Commentary Together

Next: 5. Study a Word in Logos