One of the most tangible benefits of a digital library is the ability to quickly search and find whatever you need. This article outlines a range of techniques to find things of interest either using a "point and click" browser approach or a range of ways to access the powerful search capabilities in Logos.
Note: This feature is available in all subscription tiers.
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Note: In addition to the Bible Browser and the four search methods listed, many of your Logos tools help you locate items in your books. For instance, Guides surface relevant books.
Bible Browser
The easiest way to find specific items of interest in the Bible is with the Bible Browser, which lets you find verses that match any combination of filters.
- Open the Bible Browser.
Expand the Tools menu, scroll down to the Reference section, and select Bible Browser.
- Add any combination of filters.
Select your Bible version in the top left and begin adding filters from the left-hand panel, selected filters will show across the top bar above your results.
There are a range of options available:- Enter a search term in the Find box to filter the facets to just show those that match the search term
- Click the X next to a filter to remove it
- Select either Verse or Pericope from the dropdown to change how much context is shown around the search results
Note: Learn more about using the Bible Browser in Logos.
Search Methods in Logos
In Logos, there are four primary search methods:
- Selection Menu: Select any word or phrase then click Search.
- Inline Search: Open an inline search while in any book to examine its contents.
- Context Menu: Right-click any word or phrase to examine your tools and search options.
- Search Tool: Open the full search tool to conduct basic and advanced searches on any book or on your entire library.
As a general rule, each method provides increasing complexity. Learn the basics of search in Logos below.
1. Selection Menu
Select any word or phrase in any book to view the selection menu. Click Search to run a search on your selection.
Note: If the Selection menu does not show, open the Program Settings (Tools > Utilities > Program Settings) and toggle Show Selection Menu to Yes.
Depending on your book and selection, searching from the selection menu will perform different default actions.
- Searching a single word in any Bible runs a Morph search on the original language lemma.
- Searching a selection of multiple words in any Bible runs a Bible search.
- In a non-biblical book, any search from the selection menu runs a Books search for the selected text.
Note: Learn more about the Selection menu.
2. Inline Search
To open Inline Search, open the Search tab in the toolbar of your active book.
Inline search provides several customization options.
Search Parameters
Set the parameters of your search. Choose to search all text, specific search fields, or highlighters.
If your book is based on a biblical text, you can restrict your search to a range of biblical passages.
Search Scope and Display Range
You can choose to search within verse of chapter boundaries in a Bible (or sentence, paragraph or article in other types of books) and how you want the results grouped.
Enter a search in the Inline Search box. As you type, Logos will provide a drop-down list of suggested queries. When you’ve finished entering your search, press Enter on your keyboard. The active book displays your search results. Use the navigation arrows on the top-right of the panel to move to the previous or next search result. Click the X in the search box to remove the search.
Note: Learn more about Inline Search.
3. Context Menu
Searching from the Context menu gives you access to powerful search results without requiring you to know the exact syntax. Right-click any word or selected phrase to open the Context menu.
The menu reads left-to-right. Choose an option on the left to reveal search options on the right (under the subheading “Search”).
Logos divides the options on the left into categories. Each context label features an icon to distinguish it from the rest. The topmost section brings up commands for the selection and reference, but the second section features original language commands including:
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: tools to examine the form of the word presented in the Manuscript itself.
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: tools to dig into the Lemma of the selected word.
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: tools for language study on the Root of the selected word.
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: displays morphological information about the word and tools to dive in deeper.
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: quick access to the Strong’s and Louw-Nida data for the selected word.
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: tools to explore the word’s Sense.
Depending on your book and selection, the search options will vary on the right.
Note: Learn more about using the Context menu.
4. Search Tool
To use the Search Tool, open a Search panel by clicking the search tool icon in the top left-hand corner of the application - the exact position of the icon will depend on whether your toolbar is at the top or on the left.
Depending on what Logos packages you have brought or what subscription level you have, as many as twelve search options display:
- All: By default, this searches the entire Logos catalog using AI-enabled searching capabilities to find the most relevant match to your search query. If you constrain the search to a precise search (using standard Logos search syntax) it just searches your library as well as the Factbook Tool and some Logos datasets
- Bible: find words, phrases, and more within the Bibles in your Logos library.
- Books: searches all books in your Logos library - either using AI-enabled searching capabilities or using the powerful facilities in Logos precise searching
- Factbook: finds all Factbook entries that match your search term.
- Morph: find specific morphological constructions in any morphologically-tagged book in your Logos library.
- Media: find useful media (slides, photos, diagrams, videos, collections and art, audio tracks, interactive media, web images, etc.) from your Logos library as well as from the Logos Media Service and the internet.
- Docs: finds every appearance of the search term in your documents.
- Maps: finds wherever the place searched for appears in the Atlas Tool or your books.
- Factbook Tags: finds all books where the specified Factbook Tag has been added.
- Bookstore: returns results where the search term appears in books you don't own but that are available in the Logos catalog.
- Clause: search every sentence clause in the Bible for terms acting in specific grammatical or semantic roles (requires at least a Logos 10 Bronze base package or a Logos Max subscription).
- Syntax: search the grammatical structure of the Hebrew Bible, Greek New Testament, or Septuagint (requires at least the Silver base package or a Logos Max subscription).
Note: The AI-enabled searching mentioned above is only available to those with an active subscription.
Each search type provides different search capabilities to facilitate focused searching.
All Search
With an active subscription, the All Search defaults to running an AI-enabled search on your search query, across the entire Logos catalog. It returns a synopsis of the most relevant results with links to the articles it is drawing from to enable them to be studied for more detail.
Scroll down further in the panel to see individual search results - with the ability to see an inline summary of these results, even for resources you don't own.
If you don't have an active subscription, or if you specify a Precise Search, All Search searches your entire library and ranks results according to relevancy. In addition, various cards are shown within the results showing “specialized results” such as those from the Factbook, the Atlas, Your Documents, and more. Click the More button in any of these cards, to see a more focused search.
Bible Search
The Bible Search searches for words, phrases, tagged elements, concepts, and more within the Bibles in your Library.
Some examples of searches are shown below - there are many more:
- Single words
- The occurrence of multiple tagged elements
- Where particular types of events were associated with individuals
Books Search
The Books Search operators in one of two modes - Smart or Precise - with a dropdown menu enabling you to switch between them.
The Smart option is only available if you have an active subscription.
If you select the Smart option, this search will function in the same was as the All Search above with two exceptions:
- It only searches books in your library
- You can constrain the search to a particular set of books (in the example below, the search is restricted to just journals)
If you select the Precise option, or simply use precise syntax, the Books Search searches for the specified word or phrase in your entire Logos Library, or in specific fields within specific tools or sets of books.
The example below shows searching for where the words grace and truth appear near each other in books that are discussing John 1:17 (and have an internal marker - a milestone - to show that). This uses the search string (grace NEAR truth) IN Milestone:"John 1:17" with the results shown below.
Factbook Search
The Factbook Search provides an easy way to find Factbook articles. Enter a search term to find all matching Factbook articles - then click one to open the Factbook to that place.
Morph Search
The Morph Search finds specific morphological constructions in any morphologically-tagged book in your Logos library. For example, the search below shows every occurrence of the noun λόγος in the singular, masculine form:
Note: The number of books in your library with the required morphological tagging will vary depending on your subscription tier or previous purchase of Logos base packages.
Media Search
The Media Search finds useful media (slides, photos, diagrams, videos, collections and art, audio tracks, interactive media, web images, etc.) from your Logos library as well as from the Logos Media Service and the internet.
Docs Search
The Docs Search looks through documents – such as Sermons, Clippings, and Passage Lists – you have created for words or phrases. You can click a search result to open the associated document.
Maps Search
The Maps Search finds places in either the Atlas Tool or your books. You can click a result to open either the Atlas Tool to the associated map or one of your books to the appropriate place. You can also search for people, or other biblical entities, to find maps about places or events where they were involved.
Factbook Tags Search
The Factbook Tags Search finds all your books that contain the specific Factbook Tag.
Note: An actual tag, such as place:Jerusalem, needs to be used for the search term as opposed to a simple text string, such as Jerusalem.
Bookstore Search
The Bookstore Search looks through books in the Logos catalog that you don't own to find occurrences of the specified search term(s). The results show where the search terms appear in the books and provide options to preview or purchase the book when you click one of the search results.
Clause Search
Note: Available in Logos Max subscriptions and in legacy packages Bronze and above.
The Clause Search searches every sentence clause in the Bible for terms acting in specific grammatical or semantic roles. For example, the search below shows where Jesus is the subject of a particular Greek verb:
Syntax Search
Note: Available in Logos Pro subscriptions and higher, as well as legacy packages Gold and above.
The Syntax Search searches the grammatical structure of the Hebrew Bible, Greek New Testament, or Septuagint.
For example, the search below finds every place where the noun λόγος appears as an Indirect Object. And it is possible to construct very detailed grammatical searches using this option.
Additional Search Techniques
Insert Search Term
The "+" in the search box provides the ability to insert search keywords and can be very useful for building searches. Click it to see a list of potential datatypes that can be searched for.
Alternatively, you can start to enter a datatype name to filter on those values:
Once you have selected a datatype, you can then choose from its instances to construct (the start of) a search.
Once you have constructed the search, you can execute it to get the results.
Search Templates
A great way to learn how to search with the Search tool is to use search templates. Click the Navigation Drawer icon to expand the search templates panel.
Select any template from the panel and enter search terms in the prompt. When you click Search, Logos will provide the required syntax in the search panel for you. Once you understand the search syntax, you can build your own powerful searches.
Note: Learn more about using search templates to build a search.
Graph Search Results
Did you know? You can graph your search results visually from any Bible or Morph search.
With the Logos Bible mobile app, you can run a range of searches on your preferred Bible, open books, various collections, your entire library, items you have flagged as Favorites, the Factbook tool and more.
There are three different search methods:
While you can configure any of these to fit any search need (see search options below), their defaults create specific search parameters.
This article will demonstrate how to search using all three methods.
Search Tool
Note: The Search Tool, described in this section, may be invoked by either of the other two search options. This is one of the reasons it is described first.
- Tap the More Items menu
.
- Tap Search
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- Enter a search term/phrase. Then, either:
- Press Search on your keyboard to search for the search term. You can determine which books are searched and - within Bibles - which passage range is used to focus your searches. Learn more about search options.
- Select from one of the options presented in the list below the search field to search for different variants on the search terms. Options that show a history icon
indicate recent searches.
- View your search results.
Display Results
If you are searching within the biblical text, you can display the results in three different ways.
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Passages - The passages view is the default and shows results within the passages of scripture in biblical order.
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Aligned - The aligned view shows in biblical order like the passage view, but the passages are shifted so that you see the result in the same place in each passage.
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Fuzzy - The fuzzy view will show you results that almost match your search. This is most helpful when you're searching for a phrase in the Bible but can’t remember the exact wording. It will also lead to other passages that may have a similar idea but different words.
Search Options
Set Searched Resource(s)
Depending on the search method you selected, a search resource selection will display at the top of your search (with the options being All, Bible, Books, Factbook). Tap the current resource selection to see a range of options.
Note that the Search Parameters window has two sections. The top section identifies the type of resource you’d like to search. The bottom section clarifies different kinds of searches within that type of resource. For example, if you are searching in a Bible (as in the example above), you can specify your top Bible, top Bibles, all Bibles, all open Bibles, a specific Bible, or a collection of Bibles.
An All Search doesn't have any options to select from. With an active subscription, the All Search runs an AI-enabled search on your search query across the entire Logos catalog. It returns a synopsis of the most relevant results with links to the articles it is drawing from to enable them to be studied in more detail. Scroll down further in the panel to see individual search results - with the ability to see an inline summary of these results, even for resources you don't own. If you don't have an active subscription, an All Search searches your entire library and ranks results according to relevancy.
If you select a Books Search, you can choose from a range of options to define the set of books that will be searched, and you can also choose to run a Smart Search or a Precise Search under Search Mode:
If you select the Factbook Search, you will see a list of related Factbook entries; click one to open the Factbook Tool to that article in another tab.
Set Bible Passage Range
When searching a Bible or selection of Bibles, you can also set a passage range by tapping All Passages. Select a predefined range or tap the plus icon and add a biblical book or group of biblical books.
Use Search Operators
- Find a phrase containing all of the words: add multiple words with spaces between each (e.g., faith hope love)
- Find a phrase containing any of the words: add multiple words with OR between each (e.g., faith OR hope OR love)
- Find exact phrase: surround any phrase with quotation marks to return only results with your precise wording (e.g., “faith and hope”)
- Exclude a term from the search: add a NOT before any word to exclude it from your search (e.g., faith AND hope AND glory NOT charity)
- Find references to a verse: a search data label and a verse reference with quotes (e.g., bible:“John 3:16”)
- Find word combinations: use operators like AND, OR, and AFTER (e.g., joy AND peace) to locate specific word combinations
Note: For more information on using search operators, check out the Advanced Searching section of the Logos help file.
Insights Panel
Searching from the Insights Panel gives you several search options from within the specific book you are working in. This is helpful, for example, when you are studying a particular passage of scripture or book and want to dig deeper into a word or idea without having to leave that book to find it!
To open the Insights Panel, tap and hold a specific word or tap and drag over a phrase.
There are three ways to search from the Insights Panel: Inline Search, using the search tool, and using the Info Cards.
Search Tool
Tap Search to open the search tool preloaded with the term or phrase you’ve selected.
See above for more information about the Search Tool.
Note: If you are searching for a biblical word, using the search tool from the Insights Panel will show results that correspond to the English word used, not the original language.
Search Inline
Tap Search Inline to see where else that word or phrase shows up in this specific resource.
You can modify some of the search parameters - such as the passage range - as when using the Search Tool, though the results will be confined to the current book.
You can also change the display range affecting how much context is shown around the search results.
Search via Info Cards
The Insights Panel shows a series of options that correspond to data about the selected word or phrase. For example, if you select a word in the New Testament, you will see a Word Info option. Tapping it shows the English gloss, the MSS, lemma, morphology, and Strong's number.
Tap the more actions icon on the top right of the info card.
Multiple search options will show. The exact number depends on the book you are searching within. From this more actions menu, you will be able to search for the word - either in its original language or the translation - or open a Bible Word Study on the word.
The Search Button at the Top of a Book
You can also access search functionality by tapping the search icon at the top of an open resource - this will open a search panel, pre-populated with the current verse.
Once you enter a search term, you will see a number of search options including:
- Searching for items in your Favorites that match the search term, if applicable
- Performing a range of searches on the search term
- Looking up relevant Factbook articles