Logos Road Trip

I’ve been using Logos Bible Software for years. In fact, it’s been so long that I cannot remember which came first, its installation on my computer or my installation at my first congregations. While I used it regularly and updated fairly frequently, I never took advantage of all its bells and whistles.

So I decided to check out the Bible Road Trip, a summer-long promotional tour in conjunction with the rollout of Logos Bible Software 3. I left the presentation in Shawnee, Kansas with the Scholar’s Library: Gold upgrade DVD and tutorial DVD in hand. A more comprehensive review of the package will appear at Luther Library in a few days, but let me urge readers who live along the route to check the itinerary and try to see some of the features first hand.

As for a quick overview, current Logos users will find a “leaner, meaner” product in the upgrade. Memory returns to RAM more easily and many of its functions seem to require less memory to run. The home page has been cleaned up and some search-related functions added or clarified. Searching itself is much faster and has more options. Much of what the average user will do can begin as soon as the software signs on. Some of this is due to the Logos package; there’s also a new Libronix engine “under the hood” — a feature that will only later be available to those not choosing to upgrade (or “cross-grade”) to a Logos 3 product at this time.

I’ll not get into all the new or enhanced features here. For one thing, I need something to save for the Luther Library review. For another, I’m still checking them out. They’ve added syntactical tags to the existing morphological tag system, enhanced the maps and time lines, and added or improved a number of other items. All of my existing books, including the NPH Triglotta and the CPH Luther’s Works are running just fine, as are the many “home made” books from Concordia Theological Seminary.

For now, there are two nifty features to which I want to give special mention. One is the Biblical People Addin a set of graphical links to personal names in Scripture, showing how they relate to each other.

The other is the inclusion of two “books” that aren’t — at least for now — in print. Logos has created the ESV English-Hebrew Reverse Interlinear of the Old Testament and the ESV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear of the New Testament. The way these are designed allows even to who know nothing of the original languages to dig deeper into the text and are outstanding tools for those who have studied them — even if they’ve forgotten a bit.

So if you’re near the route, try to get in on one of the tour stops. The Road Trip site includes maps and clickable RSVP forms. For further updates, check out the Road Trip Blog (the source of the photos on this page). Discounts for upgrades will continue as the Road Trip progresses and are currently in effect online, also.

And one last piece of good news: Logos plans a “late fall” launch of Logos Bible Software for the Macintosh. I don’t know what sort of interaction it will have with existing books, so, for now, some of the Lutheran products may remain Windows-only. But, perhaps....

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