Logos Confusion

[Reformed Roman]

I downloaded the program logos for free recently from their website. I am considering buying it but I'm really unsure.

I don't think I have the money to buy the biggest package and I balk at paying extra money to finance something. So I was thinking about getting the bronze or even starter edition.

Also I'm a little confused because many people with Logos 5 in previous posts were talking about paying to upgrade. However I downloaded the newest program free, and apparently I just have to pay individually for literature or pay for a bulk package.

I'm a little confused so if anyone has any tips on logos, and any information on upgrades that would be great

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

If I recall correctly, the upgrade issue related to moving from Logos 5 to Logos 6 in order to obtain some new features not possible in Logos 5, hence the nominal upgrade fee.

 

[johnny]

Hi Zach,,,

I guarantee you will not regret buying Logos.

I jumped straight into Reformed Portfolio and added a few things like Luthers 58 volume set.
Just like you, I also asked members here on the PB, and they recommended me to buy the biggest package I could reasonably afford. There is a lot of stuff I would never actually use but that is handy for reference (like Baths Dogmatics for instance) I am just an ordinary joe with an interest in Theology so you dont need to be an academic per say. I have found it an invaluable tool, especially the passage guide searches which brings up every commentary reference in your library to any particular verse in the bible.
(Huge Shortcut) I also opted for the 24 month plan which makes the quite significant expense more do-able

One more thing,,,
I also recommend getting an ipad or tablet device, makes it easier to read than just on a computer.
Logos has apps that can sync between devices just for this purpose.

 

[Reformed Roman]

I actually read that thread.. To me I love financing when it benefits me but I hate the idea of financing anything when they charge me more for it. So if I don't have cash up front I don't normally like to buy. My wife and I got rid of all of our debt and we are starting to save now. We have $600 now and should have $1500 this month after it's over since biweekly people get paid 3 times this month. And should continue saving, but car insurance comes up in a month. Etc.

All that being said. I have some money... I will be getting more but also have some expenses coming in. Hard to weigh out what to do.

And if I decide get it, figuring out what package is the tough part. I don't want to pay a bunch of money for resources I wouldn't use... And many of the people in the reformed commentaries I don't know from experience. Would hate to have a bunch of commentaries from people who maybe overdid Calvinism to the point of not witnessing, etc

Any thoughts shared are helpful. I'm very unsure.

 

[ooguyx]

I have a different approach: Select the smallest package you'd be happy with. I'd do this by looking at the difference between the packages and noting with resources you'd use. My hunch is it'd be the Gold package. Then call the sales team to buy that package, they often can give better deals than what's on the website. For a bigger bang look at the reformed "bundle" and any other sets you'd like when you order the base package as they can often bundle these together. My approach is to pay for the upgrades and wait for sales to purchase books/sets that I want. Your money is much better spent that way.

 

[psycheives]

Hi Zach,

Do you have a PC or MAC? Please be aware of the three main Bible programs: Logos (PC/Mac), BibleWorks (Mostly PC) and Accordance (Mac). And consider what you will use your program for? I own both Logos 4 (lower package) and BibleWorks. I do prefer Logos by far and think it is the way to go. If you intend to someday learn the original languages, many people will buy BibleWorks (cheaper but not very user friendly - can't copy paste many things) but if you get the higher languages package with Logos, you can do all the same and probably more. Logos will most likely be more expensive for the languages.

Tip 1: Don't buy it without a discount. If you are a student, you can get a student discount with other students if you do a group buy program. Otherwise the standard is around 15% off for anyone who asks. You should never buy it without getting at least 10-15% off. They seem to work on commission, so I would be shocked if any Logos salesperson didn't give you this discount.

Tip 2: Serious Bible students should start with the highest package you anticipate using/wanting and get the languages if you will ever learn them! So which Logos package to go with? I started with the 2nd or 3rd lowest and figured I would someday buy the 2nd or 3rd highest. BUT the catch is that the UPGRADE from low to higher package is MORE EXPENSIVE than if you had just bought the high package to start with. So, say you spend $300 for a low package, instead of $2000 for a high package. Now you want to upgrade to the high package later? Well, you might spend the difference normally, $1700. Nope. Here you might pay $1900 or something. It ends up being more expensive to upgrade to the higher package later and your small package barely counts toward the upgrade. You won't end up just "paying the difference."

So if you anticipate at all wanting the higher package down the road, I encourage you to find a way to save up for it now. I regret not buying the higher package to start with. I started with the lowest package philosophy and left out the languages. Seriously, don't leave out the languages if you ever anticipate learning Greek and Hebrew. Keep in mind: If you skip the higher level package now and end up adding Bible commentaries, language packages etc later, you may easily end up paying more than just buying the higher level Logos package from the start. Figure it this way: at $200-2000 for a commentary set, one set could equal one of the highest packages, like this one: https://www.logos.com/product/52382/new-international-commentary-on-the-old-and-new-testament

And look at adding the special Reformed bundles to save the most.

And for sure learn how to use Community Pricing and Pre-pub specials to get the biggest discounts.

Remember Logos books cost more than a Kindle book but you don't have the limits of 10% copy/paste.

 

[Reformed Roman]

I like all of your methods. I particularly like the detail by psychieves. I think a mixture is in order. I don't have 1,000 or more to spend. And with a wife and just building up our savings before a kid we are very cost conscious.

At the same time buying too low of a package can cause you to spend a lot more.

I ended up buying bronze. It had everything for language I can see myself wanting for a long time. I don't see myself learning the languages for a while. It comes with many commentaries.

Yes, it's missing a few commentaries. And a few works. But most of those I could get free if needed so while it would be more convenient to buy via Logos it's not necessary to me.

Also I didn't see much that I was missing.

I don't see a high value of getting books on logos. With many of them much cheaper or free in other formats the main thing I would use logos for is studying scripture, checking language, and comparing commentaries, and while making a sermon or a study quickly copying and pasting. That's all really .

So bronze. I might buy a few commentaries, when I have the money, and when they are on sale heavily. And if I'm missing a few works I could get on kindle cheaper, as needed. That's my plan. Mostly considered on my needs, finances.

One PB member did show me great generosity, and recommended bronze, and gifted me with some money towards the bronze edition. The member refused to let me refuse. Praise God for generosity

 

[johnny]

Congratulations on your Logos purchase.

QUOTE from last post:

((I don't see a high value of getting books on logos. With many of them much cheaper or free in other formats the main thing I would use logos for is studying scripture, checking language, and comparing commentaries, and while making a sermon or a study quickly copying and pasting. That's all really .))

There is a way to convert ebooks and pdf's to Logos if you are interested.
It wont give you all the search options, but it will hyperlink scripture references automatically.
You can also create your own chapter hyperlinks as well. But dont forget to save your files independantly
because if you need to reload Logos you will lose all your hard work.

Happy computing

 

[Reformed Roman]

That sounds very useful considering all the resources available free today.

I am finding my logos is a little bit slow. Most programs run lightning fast on my computer but logos will take Luke 10 seconds to pull anything up at least. Just not as smooth as I'm used to. Any suggestions to speed up??

I've got 8 GB of ram, the program is installed on my SSD, and I've got a 3.5 ghz quad core processor. Any little settings within logos (maybe having less unnecessary things searched), or any other things I can do?

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

Runs relatively spiffy on my Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop, so I am surprised you are having issues on that 3GHz flamethrower of yours. Was Logos indexing content? You might sign up and post a question here:
https://community.logos.com/forums/

 

[psycheives]

Congrats on your purchase, Zach! Very exciting. Odd it would run slow on that computer. I've had it on like probably 5 different computers and it never ran slow, even on the oldest which was much slower laptop (little ram and no quad core) than yours. When you first download it, it will tell you that it needs to load all the books into your library and will be "indexing" for 4+ hours. While it is doing this, you will see a Logos icon on the bottom taskbar next to your date/time. Once it finishes this long start-up process, it should be smooth sailing. I set mine to download overnight and all was good the next morning.

 

[Reformed Roman]

Maybe my expectations are different. Typically when I search something on most programs it instantly comes up. Logos might take 5 to 10 seconds, and have the circular thing on the mouse while loading. Compared to other general programs it seems a little slow. But not so slow that it's a pain to work with or anything. I just think there are probably ways to make it smoother. I believe my indexing was over. I'll give it another go tonight

 

[DMcFadden]

Logos is perfect for high end research, particularly if you have a large library of unlocks. But, as you add resources, it gets unwieldy and sloooooow. My machine is an i5 (decent speed), but it runs like molasses when you have nearly 8,000 unlocks. For sermon prep, I tend to use my Wordsearch program because the screen layout seems more intuitive and the switching between resources is pretty swift for sermon prep purposes. You should do the Camp Logos or follow the tutorials on the Net. I might still profit from a Camp Logos to maximize my use of L6. But, at my modest level of expertise, it frustrates me as much as it helps.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

Number of open panes may help. With Logos I have a two window pane setup. Bible on left, everything else on the right, similarly so for Wordsearch and Swordsearcher. I generally start with the latter program for quick reviews and searches as it is very, very fast, albeit restricted to TR and MT manuscript tradition translations. Swordsearcher's search capabilities exceed all other tools I have found, especially given the large number of user created add-ins for searching. Hence, I often use SS for searches and then revert to the other programs for deeper dives.

Have come to rely upon Wordsearch's Zipscript utility for quick verse lookups and pasting without having to open the program, too.

Logos makes all content available via www.biblia.com, but with limited tool searches. Wordsearch is also available via https://www.mywsb.com/. So one can read content without launching the two programs on any browser.

Add Logos' blog to your newsfeeder and you can gain much insight into tips and tricks.

 

[Pilgrim]

Logos is perfect for high end research, particularly if you have a large library of unlocks. But, as you add resources, it gets unwieldy and sloooooow. My machine is an i5 (decent speed), but it runs like molasses when you have nearly 8,000 unlocks. For sermon prep, I tend to use my Wordsearch program because the screen layout seems more intuitive and the switching between resources is pretty swift for sermon prep purposes. You should do the Camp Logos or follow the tutorials on the Net. I might still profit from a Camp Logos to maximize my use of L6. But, at my modest level of expertise, it frustrates me as much as it helps.

That slowness has definitely been a consideration for me, and I don't even have one of their packages. Most of my books are from old Libronix packages. I don't want to have to upgrade computers twice as often in the future so that I can run this resource hungry program without having to wait 15 minutes for it to update and stop freezing up.

Hopefully they will improve their Biblia cloud site which is currently in beta. The last time I checked the only option for Bible text was red letter which is amazing to me. Just about any other free site gives you the option to switch it to black. I think there are some other issues too but I can't remember what they are. But logging on to that site or using the mobile app are good options if you're wanting to access something quickly.