I have used logos for about 2 decades. I have been through a lot of the versions and it isn’t every year that you want to spend the money to upgrade. If you are on Logos 9 or below, I recommend you upgrade for a couple of reasons that I outline below.
Full disclosure, they upgraded my software to 10 (thanks Logos) and I appreciate that. That in no way slants my review in a positive way. I am going to tell you like it is and put a video at the end you can watch to see it all in action.
1 – Faster Boot
First, they made the software a lot faster. Everything loads quicker. Thanks Logos! This was needed. The old lag is a thing of the past. This is across the board in all the features of the software. There were still a few features that took a few seconds to load (like the new timeline) but overall everything is a lot faster. This improves your overall experience with the software.
2 – Improved Factbook
Second, they improved the factbook to be a lot more robust (and once again the increased speed makes the experience more enjoyable when using all the robust resources the factbook pulls together for you in just a few clicks (see the video for a demonstration). The factbook ties in all your resources on a topic all in one easy to access place. This feature gives you everything from your Bible dictionary entries on a topic all in one list to every time a person is referred to by any given word with scripture references. This is powerful and will speed up your study a good deal.
3 – Advanced Timeline
The Advanced timelines is far more intuitive than the old timeline and far easier to navigate. The filters are amazing and make finding things a lot easier. If you like the old timeline, you can use the View feature at the top right to work it like the old one. The timeline builds in various interpretations that affect particular dates and links to the resources that back up that view. For instance, the birth of Jesus could be in a few years for various reasons. They give you each possibility with links to the evidence all in the timeline. The new timeline is less overwhelming than the old one because of the filters. This one is far cleaner.
4 – Simpler Search
Fourth, search is much easier. I never got to use the full functionality of the search because you had to learn a lot of tricks to make it work. The old syntax is no longer needed to do advanced language searches or combinations of terms. I never learned all the old coding search language and now no one has to. This makes searching for particular combinations of things far more easy than it used to be.
5 – Add Print Library
Fifth, this is where things get rocky. The add books from your print library feature. I got an email just this morning that had the subject line, “Add Your Print Library to Logos” and said in the body of the email that I can use Logos 10 to search my print library “just like any Logos digital resource.”
This is where I am disappointed. First, the actual feature is amazing and should have been explained for exactly what it is. It does not allow you to search like anything else – the search is limited.
Here is what it does do – it allows you to “add” your physical titles but you can’t read them. You can run a search and get page numbers of words in your physical books. That’s all you can do. But it has been advertised like you could just put your physical books in there and that isn’t the case. The app does have an amazing camera feature that allows you to scan ISBN’s from hardcopies to put them into this print library search functionality but you aren’t getting the book in Logos.
Here are a few links, all affiliate links that bless this ministry:
Buy Feature upgrade (If you have an older version and want all the features with none of the extra books)
If you already own Logos, good news, they do Dynamic pricing so the software is reduced in price based on anything you already own that is in the package!
Again, this is worth buying and/or upgrading to. I find the whole experience in Logos more enjoyable than in the past as it is more intuitive and faster than ever! Thanks Logos!
One Response
I gave up on Logos in the late 1990s. I had bought the Scholar version, if I remember right at least 114 books in it. I started with Quick Verse for Windows when it first came out, upgraded many times, I believe that I was on version 6 when I found E-sword in 2000. E-sword does more for my studies than Logos even thought of, it is free, and a child can learn to use it in a short period of time. I have donated several times to help insure that it will always be free. I was not aware Logos had a free version, am installing it now.