Recently in Logos 4 Category

Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

A Logos user recently e-mailed me asking:

When I read a Logos resource I like knowing when I have gone to a new page. Is there a way to display page numbers in the text of the e-book?

The answer is YES! Here's how to show them:

• Open a Logos resource
• Click the Visual Filters icon (three circles) on the resource's toolbar
• Click Show page numbers

Now as you navigate through the resource you'll see the page numbers right inline with the text!

Please Note: If Show page numbers is not listed in the Visual Filters options, then that Logos e-book does not currently contain page numbers.

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

A Logos user recently contacted me with the observation that some books in the Logos library contain abbreviated titles. He wanted to see just those books in his personal library possessing such titles. Here's what I told him:

• Open the Library by clicking the Library icon on the toolbar (or pressing Alt + L)
• Click the View icon on the Library's toolbar so that a detailed spreadsheet view of the Library appears
• In the Library's Find box type this exact text: abbrev:*
  (Note: abbrev is the field name for Abbreviated Title and the * is a wild card representing any text. The instruction we're giving Logos is to display all resources with any text in the Abbreviated Title field.)

One of the most practical uses of an abbreviated title is typing it into the Command box to open the resource from there without having to go to the Library!

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

A Logos user recently posted this question at mpseminars.com:

My primary current interest is a thorough, in-depth study of the Greek preposition "pros" (w/accusative). Since it has so many different possible meanings, how do I go about searching the various LXX and NT occurrences - and other available resources - to see what range of alternative meanings might fit in various contexts?

You'll be very happy to know this type of in-depth original language study is quite easy with Logos Bible Software 4. Here's one way to tackle this study:

• Choose Guides | Bible Word Study
• When the guide opens type this exact text in the Word box: g:pros (the g: alerts Logos that what follows is a transliteration of a Greek word)
• After typing the text you'll see a drop down list of Greek words from which you can select the Greek preposition p???
• Click the Go arrow in the Word box or press the Enter key to generate the report

The report contains numerous sections including:

• Translation displaying all the occurrences of this Greek word regardless of how it's translated in the English Bible
• Septuagint Translation showing all the occurrences in the LXX
• Grammatical Relationships listing the words and cases used with this preposition including the accusative about which our Logos user originally inquired!

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It’s official!
The release version of Logos 4 Mac has a ship date. We’ll be rolling out the completed version to new and existing users on Friday, October 1, 2010—six weeks from today!

We’re super excited to reach this huge milestone (in spite of many obstacles), and we know you are too. Since this is such a big deal, we wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. We’re having a huge Mac-related giveaway to celebrate. You and all your friends are invited to join us, as we give away thousands of dollars in prizes to more than 100 people!

Don’t worry, even though we started out coding for Windows, this is a celebration any Mac lover would be happy to be a part of.

The prizes will be an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, an iPod Nano, and an assortment of 100 gift cards from the Apple Store, iTunes, and Logos.com! There will also be special limited-time discounts on all of our Mac base packages and base package upgrades.

Windows Users, we haven’t forgotten about you.
You can celebrate too, because not only can you enter to win one of the cool prizes (who knows, you might even switch to Mac), but thanks to our Mac users, you get a second chance to buy or upgrade to Logos 4 at a special discount too!

Maybe you missed out when we launched Logos 4 last November, or maybe you wish you had purchased a higher base package. Well, now’s your second chance to save with special sale prices on all our base packages and upgrades!

Mac and Windows Users alike, come join the celebration. And be sure to invite your friends!

Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

I recently received this question from a Logos user:

The Lemma section of the Bible Word Study guide and the Word by Word section of the Exegetical Guide provide links to dictionaries and lexicons for various words. To the right of some resources are brief definitions, but some books display no such definitions. Why is this and can I control this feature?

First, those brief definitions or glosses are coming from the glossary field that appears in many, but not all Logos language resources. So if no glossary field is present in the book, no gloss is displayed in the Guide.

While we can not control the glosses that may or may not appear in the guides, we can determine which and in what order the resources are listed:

• Open the Library
• Click Prioritize in the upper right corner of the Library
• Type this text in the Find box of the Library: type:dictionary which displays all of your English, Hebrew and Greek dictionaries
• Right click on a dictionary and select Prioritize this resource, which places the book in the Prefer these resources list on the right
• Repeat this step for as many language dictionaries as you like
• Once the dictionaries are in the list on the right you can reorder them by dragging and dropping

The Exegetical Guide and Bible Word Study will now use this list to display resources for the words you're studying.

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

If you’re like me, you can’t keep up with all of the “begetting” in the Bible. In other words, what are the names of all of Jacob’s sons? Well, here’s an easy way to access the family trees of people in the Bible:

• Open a Bible to a verse with a person’s name in it
• Right click on the person’s name
• From the right menu select Person the name (in our example, Jacob)
• From the new left menu, select Biblical People

The Biblical People tool now opens displaying that person’s family tree as recorded in Scripture.

Related Tutorial Videos:
Biblical People I
Biblical People II

Note: Biblical People is a feature included in Logos Bible Software 4 base packages from Bible Study Library and above.

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

Do you ever find yourself needing to refresh your biblical geography as you come across places in the Bible? For example, you’re reading about Paul’s voyage to Rome in Acts 28 and you’d like to see a map displaying his various stops. Here’s all you have to do:

• Right click on a place in the Bible such as Malta in Acts 28.1
• From the right menu, select Place your place (in our example, Malta)
• From the new left menu, select Biblical Places

The Biblical Places tool opens with the map, Paul’s Trip to Rome. You can now refer to the map as you retrace Paul’s ports of call in Acts 28.

Related Tutorial Videos:
Biblical Places - Dynamic Map
Biblical Places - Information
Biblical Places - Maps

Note: Biblical Places is a feature included in Logos Bible Software 4 base packages from Bible Study Library and above.

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No, this is not a post about gender differences, but about one of the most under-appreciated Greek words you’re going to find. It is pronounced just like men in English. It is one of those words that causes translators fits, and is left untranslated nearly 75% of the time. Here is a link to the search in Logos 4 in the Lexham English Bible. Take a look at how many blank spots there are.

So why is it left untranslated so much of the time? Because it is what Robert Funk (the F in BDF fame) called a function word. It doesn’t so much mean something as it signals something. It’s what grammarians call a concessive adverb; it’s only purpose in life is to create the expectation that another related element is coming, with the latter being the more important of the two. Take a look at how adding the underlined words affects the following statements.

• I really liked what you fixed for dinner.
• While I really liked what you fixed for dinner…
• Although I really liked what you fixed for dinner…
• I mostly liked what you fixed for dinner …

If you have been married for any length of time, you might have a guess about what might happen next. All but the first statement have a function word that anticipates something more. In English, we would expect this to be a not-so-positive something. Not so in Greek.

The use of μέν creates what is called a counterpoint, setting the stage for a more important point that follows. It lets us know from the outset that something more is coming, that the initial statement is somehow incomplete. Here is an NT example taken from the Lexham High Definition New Testament:

The bullet in the first line stands in the place of the untranslated function word μέν. The and symbols delineate the counterpoint and the more important point that follows. John the Baptist is letting folks know that he is not the one they are looking for. He even does this in the grammar through the use of μέν. There is natural parallelism between the first and last part of the verse through the repetition of baptize, but the added function word makes this connection much more explicit. Figuratively speaking, it signals the first shoe dropping, creating the expectation that another, more important one is about to follow.

There are 179 occurrences of μέν in the NA27/UBS4 Greek text, and in the vast majority of cases, this word is left untranslated. Why? Because counterpoints cannot be signaled as easily in English as in Greek. We have to use clunky idioms like on the one hand, notwithstanding, in as much as, although, etc. Most often in conversation folks will say "While I liked X..." even though time is not the central focus.

So we have a fundamental problem here: how do you convey important exegetical information other than with a translation? You could use commentary or footnotes, but can be difficult to connect the comments to the text. There is a much more effective alternative, only available through Logos.

This week is the third anniversary of a bold experiment: The Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament (LDGNT) and the Lexham High Definition New Testament: ESV Edition (HDNT). These projects take the most useful insights from linguistics, discourse analysis and Bible translation, then annotate all occurrences of devices like μέν using an easily accessible set of symbols. Hovering over the symbol conveniently pops up a glossary description, so there is no need for memorization.

The feedback on how people are using these resources has been amazing! Pastors and Bible teachers are using them in their preparation because they tackle issues not addressed in most commentaries. Professors are using them to equip pastors to more carefully exegete Scripture, both in tools-based programs and as part of advanced Greek grammar classes. Bible translators are using the LDGNT to help mother-tongue workers to accurately preserve important features from the Greek in their translation. ESL teachers are using the HDNT to teach students the ins and outs of idiomatic English.

These projects are also the basis for the new High Definition Commentary series that is now underway, talking you through the text and providing integrated graphics for teaching.

In response to requests from users, Old Testament counterparts are in production, beginning with the Lexham Discourse Hebrew Bible (LDHB) and the Lexham High Definition Old Testament (HDOT).

Take the time to watch the introductory videos to see how the HDNT and the LDGNT will enrich your Bible study. The HDNT is English-based, the LDGNT is for those comfortable working with a Greek interlinear. Logos is pioneering not only discourse-based Bible study, but also innovative ways to meaningfully communicate it.

Related posts:

• Making of the Lexham High Definition New Testament
• Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop, Part 1
• Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop, Part 2
• Talking about What I Am Talking About
• Who Cares About Participles? I Do!
• Stylistic Variation or Intentional Shaping? A Look at Characterization in John 11
• Paying Attention to ‘This’ and ‘That’

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Almost 20 years ago we started Logos Bible Software with the idea of building a tool to help people study the Bible. Over the years Logos has grown from two programmers in a basement with one idea to 200 people offering 10,000 resources for Bible study.

As you can imagine, our mission has changed along the way, too. Today it reads:

To help more people do more and better Bible study.

Okay, so the mission hasn’t changed much; we added some adjectives. We have spent a lot of time on the plan of execution, though, and I thought I should share it with you so you can understand what we’re doing, what we’re going to be doing, and why.

First, the fundamentals:

Logos is all about Bible study. We’ve released software, a paper magazine, and video training materials. We host a conference. We’re on multiple technology platforms. We’re on the desktop and on the web. How does everything fit together? It’s all about Bible study.

Logos leverages technology. We choose projects that leverage our technology expertise. Even if a project isn't software, you can be sure our decision to do it was based on leveraging technology. Of course technology isn’t essential to Bible study; it’s just our particular skill, and a place where we can serve well. We’re following centuries of non-technology-based Bible study tools, and many organizations serve that need well already.

Logos harnesses the network effect. Each e-book we add to our system is extensively tagged and linked to all the others. The scholarly translations and databases we build are both made with and delivered inside our software; the books and articles we commission build on content we offer and help users go deeper with our tools.

Logos is easy. The real work of Bible study is inside the student. We just provide tools and resources, so we need to focus on equipping without obstructing. The easier we make it to get into Bible study, the more people we can encourage to do it. The easier the tools, the more likely people can do better study. Easy means excellent user interface. Easy means elegant design that engages the student. Easy means fantastic customer service so a technical problem or misunderstanding doesn’t get in the way of getting into the Word.

Now, the plan:

Access. An internal joke at Logos goes “If it isn’t in the Passage Guide, it doesn’t exist,” because resources aren’t useful if you can’t find them. Logos Bible Software makes it easy to access the resources in your library when and where you need them. Our “one license, any platform” philosophy means you can access your content on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, smart phone, and the web. We plan to offer even more interfaces in the future. We are planning task-specific mobile applications that connect to your library and web sites tailored to specific data sets.

Your Logos.com account will let you access your content (and documents you create) wherever you are, with whatever interface you need.

Content. We are planning more content for Bible study. Our scholarly translations and databases already make it easier to study the Bible in Greek and Hebrew; our visual resources are an aid in understanding and teaching others. Behind the scenes, we are building metadata that links content together and improves discoverability. An extensive set of tools lets you create your own content, too, ranging from notes to highlights to sentence diagrams. Synchronization with your Logos.com account connects your content to you, not a specific device.

Community. We study, learn, teach, and share in community with others. We are planning new ways to connect with others around Bible study. We will have ways to collaborate on documents, aids to studying in a group, and tools that help you share the fruit of your study with others. You will be able to link your Logos.com account to multiple groups and choose what you share with the communities important to you. And because we know that Logos Bible Software is itself part of a larger community, we plan new ways to connect our tools with the work of others.

Access, content, and community are interwoven; each both enables and is enabled by the other two. The connection point is your Logos.com account. Already this single login manages your content on multiple platforms and identifies you in communities like the Logos Forums and Sermons.Logos.com. In the future it will be even more valuable. (Is your profile filled in?)

How will this master plan be manifested?

That’s the exciting part: we are going to find out together.

We have some ideas, though, and you can see them starting to come together.

Books.Logos.com shows a content-specific search interface for scanned books from a seminary library. (We plan to link Logos Bible Software 4 to this site in the future.)

Sermons.Logos.com shows how community-created content can be shared with new users on the Internet and (through a section in the Passage Guide) inside Logos Bible Software.

Biblia.com is an alternate interface to most of the content in your digital library that is easy to use over the web. For some users it may be all they need for simple Bible reading; for others it’s a way to check a book when they aren’t at their own computer.

Topics.Logos.com exposes the Logos Controlled Vocabulary to everyone, and lets users contribute web links and share reading lists that will automatically show up in Logos 4.

Almanac.Logos.com lets our community of users search and edit a growing database of information on the Christian world (particularly seminaries, at this point). This database provides a platform for connecting users by school, organization, denomination, and area of interest.

Api.Biblia.com offers the power of Logos Bible Software to other web sites, enabling mashups and creative ideas we never imagined.

And we’re not done. There are new projects coming, and we are experimenting and learning as we go. We need to hear from you about what you need, and your ideas about how we can serve and connect more people who want – who need! – to study the Bible.

I am excited about our “master plan,” and thrilled that we get to play this small part in The Master’s Plan. Thanks for sharing in it with us!

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Have you noticed everyone’s getting a Mac?

We sure have; Logos 4 for Mac has been in Alpha all year long, yet thousands of users have already made the switch. Undeterred by theft or theft, our Mac team has been putting out new Alpha releases every two weeks. And today I’m happy to announce we’ve hit Beta!

Logos 4 for Mac is working well, and we have most features of Logos 4 for Windows up and running on the Mac. (And in some cases running twice as fast!) Beta means we’re confident you can install Logos 4 for Mac and join the thousands already using it as their primary Bible study tool. The developers will be focusing on your feedback, fixing bugs as they are reported, and polishing the user interface.

Then we’ll add the minor missing features and make sure we’re in sync with the 4.1 features already in beta on the Windows side. Moving forward, our goal is simultaneous release of new features on Mac and Windows, and a seamless cross-platform experience for all your books and data: Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and even the web.

To report bugs or get help, be sure to check out our forums, where you’ll find a strong user community and many of our developers hanging-out.

I hope you’ll join me in thanking our development team for their hard work and long hours. They’ve done an amazing job catching up to decades of Windows development in a very short time. And thank you for your patience; I trust you will find the result a blessing and an aid in more and better Bible study!

If you are interested in the beta for yourself, you can buy a Logos 4 base package, upgrade to Logos 4, or download the free beta and try it out. You're going to be glad you did!

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

I recently received an e-mail from a gentleman asking if there was any way to locate all of the Old Testament verses mentioned in the New Testament. You'll be happy to know the answer is yes! What's more, Logos even neatly recorded them all in a resource. Here's how to navigate to the book:

• Click the Library icon
• In the Library's Find box enter this text: type:harmony
  (Note: This will display all of the harmonies contained in your library. You should see the resource, Old Testament Quotations and Allusions in the New Testament, which is included in all base packages with the exception of the Christian Home Library.)
• Click the title of the resource to open it
• Click the panel menu of the open resource
• Select Show table of contents
• In the contents pane you'll see both books from the Old Testament (the source of the quote) and New Testament (the destination of the quote)
• Click the arrow icon next to the title of a biblical book to view the chapters
• Click a chapter number to jump to that location in the resource

Now you'll see both the source and destination of the quote side-by-side!

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Today's guest blogger is Sean Boisen, senior information architect at Logos.

The many Bible reference resources in Logos 4 contain a wealth of photographs, maps, illustrations, and other images that can enhance your study of the Bible. Some are specifically devoted to visual resources: for example, 1000 Bible Images, Images of the Holy Land, Photos from the Holy Land, and The Biblical World in Pictures. Because of the high-quality tagging which Logos performs on its resources, you can find these images using the #image operator: for example, this search,

#image “golden calf”

finds any image that’s relatively close to the words “golden calf” (most, though not all, of which are depictions of some kind of calf).

Despite all the imagery that was already part of our resources, for Logos 4 we specially commissioned more than 100 brand new, high-resolution infographics. Why did we go to all this trouble (and expense)? One reason is that many of the images from published works have copyright restrictions that restrict Logos users from copying them for teaching, presentations, handouts, etc. By creating our own collection of infographics, we have clear rights which we can then pass along to our users for their ministry and other non-commercial use (republishing them, for example, in a book, is a different matter: contact Logos about situations like that). The same is true of the Logos maps for Biblical Places: you can copy and paste them into PowerPoint or other programs that support graphics, or print them out for ministry use. In Logos 4, you can view the infographics by typing “Open Infographics” in the Command Bar.

Creating the Logos Bible Software Infographics was a significant challenge that took numerous professional artists and many months of effort to complete. In the case of images representing buildings or artifacts from Biblical history, a great deal of that work involved careful research to determine how best to depict these objects.

Here’s one example: the Golden Calf which Aaron and the Israelites constructed by melting down their jewelry (Ex. 32). The Golden Calf infographic in Logos shows a glistening figure with long horns. A Logos user wrote to us last week to ask why we hadn’t caught an obvious mistake: calves (that is, baby cows) don’t have horns!

In fact, it’s much more involved than that. Scholars differ in their opinions about the background of the calf imagery and the cultural and historical details behind the incident (which is repeated later in Israel’s history under King Jeroboam, 1 Ki 12:28-33). The Hebrew word ‘ēg̱el translated here “calf” can refer either to cattle or oxen, up to three years of age: so it’s not necessarily a “baby cow” (and some scholars think the diminutive term here might be a reference of disdain to their small size, rather than their young age).

Archaeological discoveries from the same period time include many images of bovine or ox idols from surrounding nations: many of them do in fact include horns, including the Egyptian deity Hathor and other Canaanite deities. The moon god Sı̂n was often represented as a bull, perhaps reflecting the similarity of the horns of the bull to a crescent moon. We know from historical evidence that Sı̂n was worshiped both in Ur (the likely birthplace of Abraham and Sarah) and Haran (where the Patriarchs stopped on their journey to Palestine). So there’s good historical evidence supporting the possibility that the Israelites would have been familiar with these practices and images.

Of course, we can only speculate about what the actual golden calves (both Aaron’s and Jeroboam’s) might have looked like: no one actually knows. But we worked hard to make sure any images we created for the Logos Bible Software Infographics represented solid historical evidence. In Logos 4, you can look at the Biblical Things pages for Golden Calf, as well as Jeroboam's Golden Image at Bethel and Dan, to learn more about these artifacts.

Want to go deeper into the background of subjects like the Golden Calf? Consider stepping up to a more in-depth Bible dictionary, like the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, or the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary.

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A new version of Logos Bible Software for Windows is shipping today. Version 4.0d is the fourth significant update since we launched back in November. This free download brings with it a handful of new features and improvements and fixes lots of little bugs. So you’ll definitely want to make sure to update soon.

If you have automatic updating enabled (screenshot), which is the default setting, Logos 4 should notify you sometime today that updates are ready to be installed. When you see the balloon tooltip window, right-click on the Logos icon in your system tray and choose to “Install update” (screenshot). If Logos 4 hasn’t downloaded the update by the end of the day and you just can’t wait any longer to get your hands on the latest release, type Update Now into the Command Bar (screenshot). This will force Logos 4 to check for any available updates (screenshot) and begin downloading them.

Important Note: Installing Logos 4.0d will start a complete reindexing of your resources. So you might want to wait to install the update until you have some free time.

What’s New in 4.0d?

There are far too many changes in 4.0d to list. Here are some of the most important ones:

• Using our new COM API, other programs can now talk back and forth with Logos 4 to do some pretty cool things.
• You are able to link directly to guides, reports, searches, and other parts of the software, not just to resources as in previous versions.
• Clippings, Information, and Text Comparison tools can be exported.
• Clippings can be reordered by drag and drop.
• The Scan DVD command will display an option for all connected CD/DVD-ROM drives containing media (e.g., “Scan D:\”).
• Passages can be added to a passage list from the clipboard.

To see a complete list of the changes in 4.0d, check out the support article “What’s New in Logos 4.0d.”

Time to Upgrade to Logos 4?

Are you still running Logos 3 (or the old Logos Library System!)? If so, now would be a great time to upgrade to Logos 4. It’s had nearly eight months of extensive testing by thousands of users, and our team of developers has been fixing bugs, listening to user feedback, and adding some really cool new features. There’s a lot more still planned. To see some of what’s coming, check out the list of additional features we plan to add.

What about Logos 4 for Mac?

The Mac version is getting really close. Yesterday we released Alpha 23. Now that nearly all of the features of the Windows version have made it in to the Mac version, there might be a beta around the corner. Those of you who’ve been holding off while it was still in alpha testing may want to consider jumping in during the beta phase. Remember, you can safely use both Logos for Mac 1.2.2 and Logos 4 for Mac side by side. If you’re ready to help us test it, you can either upgrade your base package or download the core engine and start contributing in the Logos 4 for Mac forum.

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I am a relatively new user of Logos. I have upgraded to version 4 and I have been learning more about it daily—there is still so much more to learn. I subscribe to RSS feeds of the Logos forums and learn new things about how to use the program just about every day.

One of the ways I use the software each day is in my daily Bible reading. I have a rather ambitious reading plan which leads me to read the Old Testament every 90 days and the New Testament every thirty days. This means I read the entire Bible four times each year and the New Testament an additional eight times.

My old system of getting this reading done was to open Logos to my preferred Bible and enlarge the text to the largest setting possible . In order to do my reading more quickly (and I think also to help retention), I use audio files to read as I scroll. I began with a set of MP3 audio files containing the narration of Eric Martin which I purchased for about $20. I adjusted the tempo of these 1189 individual files (one for each Bible chapter) by using the software Audacity. Adjusting the tempo did not result in the chipmunk-sound, rather, the words were easily understood, but were coming twice as fast as the pre-adjusted files. This project took quite a long time and was arduous, but I knew that once I got them prepared I would use them daily, so I did it. Reading the files at this faster pace requires one to concentrate more on the text and I think this is a useful serendipity.

A couple of weeks ago I learned that the very same thing that I had spent several hours of my precious time working on had already been provided by Logos 4.

I am using Windows Vista. All I needed to do was go to Control Panel and open up “Text to Speech.” I selected the voice that sounded best to me: “Microsoft Anna.” I set the “Voice Speed Slider Scale” to two notches slower than the very fastest setting. Then I opened up Logos4 to my Home Page. My two reading plans are on the home page. I click on the day’s reading. I hit the keys, and Anna reads to me at accelerated speed until I stop her by hitting once again . The scrolling is done automatically by Logos.

My reading for today was 1 Chronicles 23–29 and John 7–11. I read this in 26:30 minutes. With Logos 4, and its wonderfully adaptable reading plans, ability to read to me at whatever speed I choose, to scroll automatically through the Bible text, being a more disciplined daily Bible reader is so much easier and so much more fun—I love it!

The word potential comes from the Latin potentia meaning power. Potential literally means “that which is possible” and is used to represent the untapped power and resources available in almost anything.

There are appropriate times to get excited about potential. When you send your child off to college, are researching a new business endeavor, or buying an engine for your new muscle car you are thinking of all the power that you hope to see released. There comes a time, however, when you would like to see that potential realized, in many instances, power that is left untapped represents lost opportunity.

Logos Bible Software is a powder keg of potential for your Bible study and we want to make sure that you release as much of that power as you possibly can. We do not want the potential for dynamic study to remain dormant and unused.

There are so many venues available to help you release the power within your Logos 4 resources!

• Support articles: If you encounter a question or problem, there is a wealth of great information here. There are FAQs, training articles, and answers for known issues.
• Training Videos: Here you will find literally hours of great instructional videos created in-house, by Camp Logos Instructor Morris Proctor, as well as many user-created videos!
• Logos Bible Software Forums: There is so much great advice and information on our user forums. With the forums search feature, you can access the thousands of threads already available to help answer important questions or give you ideas on how to get the most out of a feature. But don’t stop there, you can easily sign up to ask specific questions, start your own discussions, or help others get the most out of their study.
• Logos 4 Bible Software Training Manual Volume 1 and Volume 2: Written and compiled by certified and authorized trainer Morris Proctor, these manuals provide clear, easy to follow instructions to help you master Logos 4!

One tool that should be highlighted is found right inside Logos 4 itself. The question mark in the upper right hand corner of the tool bar or using the keyboard shortcut Alt+P opens up the drop-down Help menu. The Help menu allows you to access audio tutorials explaining the screen you have open, as well as the Logos Bible Software Help section offering hundreds of tips to get the most out of Logos 4's many tools and features!

As you can see, the pieces are all there for you to use Logos 4 as a Bible study powerhouse. We are continually striving to provide you the most innovative and powerful Bible software in the world and it is up to you to release the potential of vigorous Bible study into your life.

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It’s been six months since we shipped Logos 4, and today we’re releasing our third significant update to the Windows software. Version 4.0c, which will be available later today as a free download, brings many new features and improvements and fixes lots of little bugs. If you have automatic updating enabled (screenshot), which is the default setting, Logos 4 will notify you that updates are ready to be installed.

When you see the balloon tooltip window, right-click on the Logos icon in your system tray and choose to “Install update” (screenshot). If Logos 4 hasn’t downloaded the update by the end of the day and you just can’t wait any longer to get your hands on the latest release, type Update Now into the command bar (screenshot). This will force Logos 4 to check for any available updates (screenshot) and begin downloading them.

What’s New in 4.0c?

There are hundreds of changes in 4.0c. Here are the two biggest ones:

1. Legacy Reverse Interlinear Display: In Logos 4 we introduced a new layout for reverse interlinears. Most of you loved it, but some preferred the previous layout where the Greek or Hebrew text was directly below the English text. So we’ve decided to add it back in as an option (screenshot). Just click on “Display” and choose which lines you’d like to appear. You can use it along with or instead of the new-style reverse interlinear display.
2. Passage Lists: Save your Bible search results as Passage Lists, which were called Verse Lists in version 3 (screenshot). There’s also a command to import Passage Lists from version 3 into version 4. Use “Import Passage Lists” to import just the Passage Lists, or use “Import All” to import Passage Lists, Highlighting, Notes, Favorites, and Prayer Lists. One cool new feature of Passage Lists in version 4 is that you can merge lists to get the union, intersection, difference, or symmetric difference or multiple lists.

To see a complete list of the changes in 4.0c, check out the support article “What’s New in Logos 4.0c.”

Time to Upgrade to Logos 4?

If you’ve been cautiously watching from the sidelines, waiting for the right opportunity to make the switch to Logos 4, now’s your chance. Logos 4 is better than ever. It’s had more than six months of extensive testing by thousands of users, and our team of developers has been fixing bugs, listening to user feedback, and adding some really cool new features.

There’s a lot more still planned. Version 4.0d is already underway, and we’re in the process of adding these additional features, as well as many others that we can’t tell you about yet.

There’s never been a better time to upgrade to Logos 4. It’s a powerful, stable, cutting-edge piece of software that just keeps getting better and better. Best of all, these regular updates don’t cost you a penny.

What about Logos 4 for Mac?

Progress on the Mac version of Logos 4 recently has been impressive. As Alpha 19.1 shows, it’s coming along quite nicely. We’ve doubled the size of our Mac development team, and they’re really cranking out new features at a fast pace. The consensus is that Logos 4 for Mac as an alpha is better than our previous generation software. So if you haven’t tried it yet, now might be a good time. Remember, you can safely use both Logos for Mac 1.2.2 and Logos 4 for Mac side by side. If you’re ready to help us test it, you can either upgrade your base package or download the core engine and start contributing in the Logos 4 for Mac forum.

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Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

Do you ever have to close Logos before you’ve completed your study? Perhaps it’s time for dinner or you’re making the final descent into an airport. No worries. You can set Logos to automatically open the way you close it. Here’s how:

• Click Customize in the lower left hand corner of the Home page
• Uncheck the box Show home page at startup

Now when you’re ready to close Logos, just close the program with all the resources and panels still open. When you restart Logos you’ll automatically return to this layout!

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Yes, the wait is finally over. Yesterday's announcement of Logos Bible Software 4.0b mentioned what many have been waiting for: Support for importing LDLS3 user-created content.

Specifically, Logos 4.0b now supports importing notes, highlighting, favorites, and prayer lists. Along with this release, regardless if you are importing from LDLS3 or not, Notes now allow for user-editable titles, as well as creating Notes for a reference range, not just a single verse.

So without further ado, let's get your notes from Logos 3 to Logos 4.

Since resources have changed over the years because we’ve corrected typos, added new hyperlinks, and made other edits, in certain cases, these changes can prevent Logos 4 from importing notes from Libronix DLS 3 correctly. In order to minimize the likelihood of notes not being transferred, we highly recommend you download the Custom Toolbar for LDLS3 that prepares your notes for importing into Logos 4.

Getting the toolbar:

• Download the Custom Toolbar from http://downloads.logos.com/LBS4/LDLS3Import/UpdateNotes.lbxctb and save it to your [MyDocuments]\Libronix DLS\CustomToolbars folder. (See the Special Folder Locations article for OS-specific locations.)
  
  (UPDATE: Please make sure the CustomToolbars folder does not have a space it the title. Use CustomToolbars not Custom Toolbars.)

• Run LDLS3, and click the newly added Update Notes Now button.
• When Update Notes Now finishes, return to Logos 4.

Now are you ready for this? In Logos 4 type Import All into the Command bar, hit enter, and sit back. You'll then see the “Importing…” status message in the upper-right corner of the main window. That's it.

Content imported into Logos 4 “remembers” that it was imported such that consecutive imports can be run in Logos 4, without adverse effects. Changes to imported content in Logos 4 will clear the link between Logos 4 and LDLS3, so if you edit an imported item in Logos 4, and then re-import, you will see the original item from LDLS3 along with the edited item in Logos 4.This is intentional in order to recover an original note without over writing the new content.

If you no longer want to use some of your user-created content from LDLS3, but want other parts, like your extensive Prayer Lists, there are commands for a more targeted import.

Additional Commands:

Import Notes
Imports only notes from LDLS3

Import Highlighting
Imports only highlighting from LDLS3

Import Favorites
Imports only favorites from LDLS3

Import Prayer Lists
Imports only prayers lists from LDLS3

Import delete (All|Notes|Highlighting|Favorites|Prayer Lists)
Deletes all imported content of the specified type

If you were on the fence about upgrading to Logos 4 because you couldn't transfer your Notes, Highlighting, Favorites, or Prayer Lists, now is a great time to upgrade to Logos 4. Logos 4 is now better than ever, and you can be sure we're already working to add additional features.

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A new version of Logos 4 will be available later today as a free download to all Logos 4 users. Version 4.0b adds a plethora of new features and improvements and squashes lots of little bugs. If you have automatic updating enabled (screenshot), which is the default setting, Logos 4 will notify you that updates are ready to be installed.

When you see the balloon tooltip window, right-click on the Logos icon in your system tray and choose to “Install update” (screenshot). If Logos 4 hasn’t downloaded the update by the end of the day and you just can’t wait any longer to get your hands on the latest release, just type Update Now into the command bar (screenshot). This will force Logos 4 to check for any available updates (screenshot) and begin downloading them.

What’s New in 4.0b?

There are hundreds of new features, improvements, and bug fixes in 4.0b, but here are some of the most significant ones:

• Import your notes, highlighting, favorites, and prayer lists from Libronix 3. Tomorrow’s blog post will deal with importing in detail. In the meantime, check out “Importing from LDLS 3” and “Importing Notes from LDLS 3.”
• A new Prayer List document type in the File menu allows you to manage your prayer lists.
• Create and edit your highlighting palettes and styles.
• Export a bibliography from a collection or group of clippings for use in a paper, sermon, etc.
• Customize the Information Panel with the new settings option.
• A Parallel Resources drop-down menu lets you quickly jump to similar resources.
• Resources support navigating by data type levels, highlighting, and search results.
• Choose to “Search (while typing)” for Bible searches (similar to Bible Speed Search in LDLS 3).
• Replace a saved layout with the current layout using the new “Update to current snapshot” context menu option.

To see a complete list, check out the 4.0b article on the Logos wiki.

If you’re like me, you’d rather see it in action than just read about it. Courtesy of user and Logos video creator extraordinaire Mark Barnes comes this nice Logos 4.0b overview video.

Time to Upgrade to Logos 4?

Many of you have been cautiously watching from the sidelines, waiting for the right opportunity to make the switch to Logos 4. As you can see, Logos 4 is now better than ever. It’s had more than four months of extensive testing by thousands of users, and our team of developers has been fixing bugs, listening to user feedback, and adding some really cool new features.

But development isn’t stopping with 4.0b. The next version is already underway, and work on some really cool new features is coming along nicely. We’re in the process of adding these additional features, as well as many others that we can’t tell you about yet.

There’s never been a better time to upgrade to Logos 4. It’s a powerful, stable, cutting-edge piece of software that just keeps getting better all the time. And best of all, these updates come to you free of charge.

What’s Your Favorite New Feature?

After you’ve updated to 4.0b, drop a note in the comments and tell us what your favorite new feature is. I think I’m most excited about importing and the parallel resources menu. What’s your favorite?

What about Logos 4 for Mac?

The Mac version of Logos 4 continues to make good progress with a new build coming out about every week or two. The latest release, Alpha 15, is looking good. If you’re ready to help us test it, you can either upgrade your base package or download the core engine and head on over to the Logos 4 for Mac forum.

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Today's guest post is from Dr. Steve Runge, a scholar-in-residence at Logos Bible Software and author of the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament, Lexham High Definition New Testament, and the forthcoming Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis.

This would be the heading of my want ad if I were to post one. You see, ten years ago when we bought our house, one of the first personal projects I did was build a custom, floor-to-ceiling bookcase in my new office.

At the time I was regularly buying Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental volumes, scholarly commentaries like Word Biblical Commentary, ICC, and the Anchor Bible and whatever else I needed to write my MTS thesis. This bookcase was to be the showpiece of my scholarly man-cave. I even inherited a great leather chair from an aunt-in-law, the kind that was scratched by a cat and isn’t allowed in the living room any more. Life was great—until something happened.

The “something” was Logos Bible Software: Scholar’s Gold. It completely changed the way I used my library, and more importantly how I spent my book budget. Here is a picture of my new office. My library now resides almost exclusively on my laptop, and I study and write in my rocking chair, not in my man-cave.

My wife and I are taking a finance class to refresh the lessons learned from Larry Burkett. We were challenged to sell off things of value that we don’t use anymore. When I heard this, I got really sad. Why? Because the first thing that came to mind was my collection of books. I realized I had two collections: the Logos collection on my laptop that I use almost every day, and the paper one sitting on my custom-made bookcase in my man-cave. It has been collecting dust for several years now, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone in there to grab a book.

I am taking all the books that I now (or soon will) have in Logos—the doubles—and am selling off the paper copies. The proceeds are being reinvested in—you guessed it—Logos books. So many great new titles are coming out from Baker and Zondervan and Continuum that it just makes good sense to consolidate my investment.

One last thing remains: getting an Apple device so that I can read on-the-go without my laptop using our iPhone Bible app. My birthday is just around the corner if anyone is interested!

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I was talking to my pastor the other day about what books he was using in preparation for his sermon series going through the book of Acts. It got me thinking about go-to resources. There are several resources that are the first ones I reference when I have a question or need further insight on the Scriptures. So, I decided to share with you some of my go-to resources, and I hope you will do the same and share your go-to resources in the comment section.

Calvin's Commentaries
You don't have to be a Calvinist to appreciate Calvin's handling of the Scriptures. Arminius himself recognized Calvin's skill when he said, "...he (Calvin) excels beyond comparison in the interpretation of Scripture...". I find that Calvin's Commentaries are approachable, easy to understand, thorough, and applicable. I always appreciate hearing what he has to say.

Most anything by John Piper
Ever since being introduced to John Piper's ministry, I've truly appreciated his insights into the application of Scripture to life. While I like referring to Piper in my studies, there is one title that truly changed my life in a tangible way and I include it among the most influential books in my life. The Supremacy of God in Preaching, fundamentally changed how I approached the ministry of preaching. Even though years have passed since I last picked it up, I often meditate on this quote from page 24:

"The true usefulness of our preaching will not be known to us until all the fruit on all the branches on all the trees that have sprung up from all the seeds we've ever sown has fully ripened in the sunshine of eternity"

NICOT/NICNT
I was first introduced to this series when the church I attended in Richmond, VA, was going through 1 Corinthians and the pastors, among other resources, were reading together through Fee's commentary. I later encountered the NICNT when I was taking a course on the book of Hebrews, taught by Simon Kistemaker. He assigned FF Bruce's commentary from the collection. Since adding the series to Logos I've enjoyed having access to the entire collection. It is scholarly, without being overwhelming, and provides commentary on every verse... something Calvin doesn't always give me.

Horae Homileticae
Prior to working at Logos, I had never even heard of Charles Simeon. Boy was I missing out! If Simeon was alive today, I'd certainly subscribe to his podcast. I thoroughly enjoy both the content and format of Homileticae, and find that I go to Simeon when I want a more bird's eye view of a passage.

Your turn
Sure, there are other titles that I love and use often... but the above four are probably the ones I go-to most often. So, what about you? What are your go-to resources? Leave them in the comment section below (and provide a link to them on Logos.com so people can find them and have a look!).

I love a good giveaway! The day Apple announced the iPad we decided it was something we needed to provide an opportunity to win. I spent some time on Apple's site that day—reading their copy and watching the videos—and thinking through the implications of a more accessible, mass-market tablet. I did smile at the promise of 140,000 apps at your fingertips, from day one. I wondered, "What percentage of those apps will actually add value to owning an iPad?"

When iPhone's software development kit (SDK) was made available to third-party developers in February 2008 it allowed them to create applications to be sold through Apple's iTunes store. On November 29th, 2008 Apple celebrated reaching 10,000 apps in the iTunes App Store. By June 10, 2009 they were just shy of 50,000. It is a little more than seven months later and there are 134,215 applications currently available for download from iTunes. By the end of this year there is a projection that over 300,000 apps will be available for download. The app industry is a juggernaut and—with the introduction of the iPad—it shows no sign of slowing.

It would seem the iPhone ad slogan, "There's an app for that" could not be more true. In fact, there is probably a couple apps for that. With over 100,000 apps there is no question that quite a few similar styled apps are vying for your attention, loyalty, and dollars. And then there are applications for things that are . . . to be quite honest . . . dumb. One app promises that the various types of inaudible high and low frequencies emitted by the app promote blood circulation around hair roots and under the scalp encouraging hair growth. Another promises to use the iPhone's vibration utility to vibrate your love handles away. SilentLogic Studios, a company built entirely around iPhone app development, has a little productivity gem that generates office sounds—paper rustling, mouse clicks, keyboard taps, coughs, and pencil sharpeners—so that you can sleep in your cubicle in peace.

In a marketplace where there is an ever-widening gap between high-quality and filler, Logos Bible Software's iPhone app is one of those remarkable applications that delivers unique value, productivity and excellence. What makes Logos' iPhone app even more exceptional is its unbeatable price point . . . free! Having an application that delivers important, constructive components and content already raises Logos into the upper echelon of developers for iPhone apps, but then being willing to give it away? Well, that's something else entirely.

One can not help but be impressed with features like:

• Absolutely free access to most of the Bibles featured at Bible.Logos.com including great translations like the HCSB (Click for preview)
• Simple tap-and-hold functionality offers Greek and Hebrew word studies for many of the Bibles available (Click for preview)
• Compare biblical texts in various translations with the differences highlighted (Click for preview)
• Linked cross references that allow you to read windowed referenced texts (Click for preview)
• Relevant verses found instantly with Logos powerful search function (Click for preview)
• A custom Bible reading plan (Click for preview)

These are just some of the free features that come with downloading the application. And if you simply sign up for a free Logos account you instantly add over 30 free books like the LEB English-Greek Reverse Interlinear, Commentary Critical & Explanatory on Whole Bible, and Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Testament.

That's a lot of functionality and content for free. If that were all there was to the Logos app it would still be pretty impressive, awesome even—but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you are a Logos 4 user, the iPhone app becomes a sophisticated Bible study machine. Many of the books in your library will become available* on your iPhone. Logos 4 syncs your library on your desktop, laptop and your iPhone or iPod Touch. It saves your last location in each of your books allowing you to leave your desk and pick up right where you left while you are on the go.

Many of the features that make Logos 4 such a powerful tool are available to you wherever you are when combined with the Logos app. With any Logos 4 package, your iPhone is capable of more immersive Greek and Hebrew word studies, and your Passage Guide collates the most relevant information in your library for every passage you are studying. The possibilities for personal and academic study, as well as preparation for sermons and other ministry opportunities are endless.

It's funny, deciding what apps and content you are going to put on your iPhone is a lot like deciding how you are going to fill up your day. There is no end to the opportunities and temptations to either add value to—or diminish the value of—your time. If you look hard enough you will find those little items that make things a little simpler and make your day a little brighter and, just like in life, the best of them are free.

*Currently there are almost 3,500 Logos Bible Software titles that will work on the iPhone. More titles are being added regularly as we secure rights and convert titles.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Whether you use Libronix or you've upgraded to Logos 4, downloads are the better delivery method when you place Pre-Pub orders. Installation is faster and easier. You don't pay for shipping costs. And you can get your books the moment they're available. There's no need to wait for a CD-ROM to be mailed.

If you're a Logos 4 user especially, downloads make the most sense. Logos 4 is a powerful web-based application. Installing new resources from CD-ROMs to Logos 4 takes extra time and adds several steps to the installation process. However, if you download your new books, you'll receive them automatically as soon as they are available. You don't need to do anything. It just works.

This past week, we created download options for all Pre-Pubs that were previously CD-ROM only, and launched a new tool you can use to change all your pre-orders to downloads at the click of a button.

Here's how it works:

• Visit the Downloadable Pre-Pubs Tool page. (Make sure you're logged in.)
• You will see the list of your CD-ROM Pre-Pub orders.
• Simply click the Submit button, and you're all set.

Even better, when you convert your Pre-Pub orders to download, you'll still get the same price for which you originally pre-ordered them. Pre-Pub prices often go up over time, but you will still pay your original price. For example, if you pre-ordered the CD-ROM of Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Psalms for $20, you can still get the download today for $20, even though the price has gone up. Nothing changes except for you how receive your Pre-Pubs—via download instead of a shipped CD-ROM.

Please note that this process is irreversible. Once you have changed your orders to the download option, they cannot be changed back easily.

We have also created new download options for the following Pre-Pubs. If you haven't yet placed your pre-order, do it soon!

• W.E. Crum's Coptic Dictionary
• Library of Hebrew Bible/OT Studies: JSOTS on Nevi'im (7 Vols.)
• Library of Hebrew Bible/OT Studies: JSOTS on Ketuvim (7 Vols.)
• Library of Hebrew Bible/OT Studies: JSOTS Old Testament Monographs (7 Vols.)
• Oxford Latin Dictionary
• Christian Approaches to Contemporary Thinking Collection (6 Vols.)
• Sahidic Coptic Collection (3 Vols.)
• PBI New Testament Studies Collection (11 Vols.)
• Northwest Semitic Collection (7 Vols.)
• BHS Helps Collection (3 Vols.)
• Qumran Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls Database
• Hebrew Pronunciation Addin
• Commentary on the Psalms by E. W. Hengstenberg (3 Vols.)

Head on over to the Downloadable Pre-Pubs Tool page to change all your Pre-Pub orders to downloads now!

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I know it seems like we've been beating the same drum on the blog this week, encouraging everyone to take advantage of the introductory pricing for Logos 4 that expires on Sunday at midnight, but the truth is there are still people who haven't heard and we really don't want them to miss out.

Here's some proof. Yesterday afternoon I saw a tweet from someone saying how much they loved Logos Bible Software. I replied to the person, and we had a few back and forth messages. Come to find out, she didn't even know Logos 4 existed! THIS WAS YESTERDAY! This person is one of our users. This person loves Logos. And yet she has managed to miss Logos 4 up to this point. I sent her a link to the Logos 4 demo, and she was blown away and said she couldn't wait to get it on her computer.

That's why we've been pushing the last chance offer so much this week. We don't want anyone to miss out. The deals really are going away on Monday morning and we simply don't want to have to break the bad news to anyone that they missed these amazing prices.

So, this is the last "last chance for introductory pricing" blog post you'll see.

But can you do me one favor?

If you know anyone who is a Logos user or who has been thinking about becoming one, please send them the link to http://www.logos.com/lastchance and let them know that this is the best deal they'll see on Logos 4. Write a quick blog post, share on your Facebook wall, tweet it up on Twitter.

The introductory pricing will be gone on Monday. Tell a friend!

Our stated goal at the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 was to help people do more and better Bible study. Three months have passed since the launch of Logos 4 back in November, and we have made it a point to stress to existing and potentially new customers the unbeatable deals we are offering on base package and upgrade purchases— all toward accomplishing the goal of better Bible study. Now, only a few hours remain for introductory discounts.

From redesigned product pages, a customized upgrader, detailed comparison charts, a new demo video, and ongoing blog posts highlighting Logos 4 features, we have presented a pretty tight case to you, the jury. Now test our claims.

No risk to you—or your wallet!

We stand by our product. Everyone knows that when you purchase software or even music CDs, the second the seal is broken on the packaging, you are stuck with the purchase, even if it turns out to be nothing like you expected. Talk about buyer's remorse. You now have a product you don't want, you are out however much money you paid for it—and you still have a need for the correct software. We don't buy into that practice. If you are not satisfied with Logos 4, we will give you your money back. Our grace period is 30 days. So make the purchase today, "break the seal," and find out for yourself if what we have been saying about Logos 4 is true. If you are not convinced Logos is for you, let us know within 30 days of your purchase, and our staff will try to resolve your concerns, or we will give you a refund.

Think about it. A month of sermon preparations, of term papers, of Bible study lessons, of daily reading plans, of personal devotional time. 30 days to see what a difference Logos Bible Software 4 can make in your life. What do you have to lose? Not money. In fact, you have money to save, but only a few hours left to save it. Time to lock in the introductory prices is running out. Today is the last day to call and speak to a sales representative to place your order, and Sunday, January 31st is the last day to get the discounts online.

Introductory discounts past January 31st? How?

If you haven't already received your tax forms, you know it is coming any day now. And with them, the hope of getting a tax return. Why not use your anticipated return to get today's pricing by setting up a payment plan for your purchase, and spreading your payments over several months? You'll have to place the order now, but your monthly payments will spread the introductory pricing discounts past the January 31st cutoff date. Then, when your return comes, you can pay your remaining balance, or you can continue with the monthly payments. On the final page of checkout, simply select the Payment Plan option and the number of payments you'd like to make, and your payment amount and schedule will be displayed.

You now have manageable monthly payments, a no-risk, 30-day money back guarantee, and only a few hours left. Upgrade Now!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

You’re probably aware that we are still working on the Mac version of Logos 4. The software keeps getting better and better all the time, with new updates released almost every week. It's a Alpha release, and new features and improvements are being added every day.

Time is running out to get the introductory discount on your upgrade to Logos 4. If you’re a Mac user and you’re still on the fence about upgrading, here are 9 reasons why you should upgrade today:

1. Books

You get tons of new books. Literally. Put your print books on a scale and add them up. If you upgrade, you will get hundreds—potentially thousands—of resources to aid your study of the Bible, including Bibles, commentaries, reference books, media resources, preaching and teaching tools, and ancient language texts and tools, plus a whole lot more.

This is the single best reason to upgrade to the Mac version of Logos 4. Don’t believe us? Run the numbers, or see for yourself.

2. iPhone and iPod Touch app

You can now access many of the books in your library on your iPhone or iPod Touch with the Logos iPhone App. We’ve already converted 3,000 titles to the new format, which you can access if you own a Logos 4 base package.

3. Windows

We know you love your Mac. But if you’re okay with running Logos 4 through VM Fusion, Parallels, or Boot Camp, you can install the Windows version at no additional cost.

4. Syncing

Reading a book on the Mac version and have to run out the door? Pull the book up on your iPhone on the bus and it will open directly to where you left off. Save a layout on your Windows machine at the office and you can open the same layout on the Mac when you get home in the evening. Logos 4 offers syncing across all your platforms.

5. New Releases

New features and functionality are released every two week or so. You get to witness the program’s progress all the way to completion. When the final version is released, simply type “Update Now,” and your software will update to the full version of Logos 4 at no additional charge.

6. Shape the Product

You can shape the development. By being part of the testing team, your feedback will provide our developers with valuable information to shape the final product. Our Mac forum is very active. With an upgrade to Logos 4, you can add your voice!

7. Version 1.2

Run Logos 4 alongside version 1.2. Upgrading to Logos 4 does not replace your current software. You can use both versions side-by-side. Even better, you can use most of your new Logos 4 resources on Logos for Mac version 1.2. You get all the books with the upgrade, but you can wait to begin using Logos 4 on your Mac until you’re ready.

8. Automatic Updates

Logos 4 is self-updating. Updates download automatically. No waiting for disks. You always have the latest and greatest Mac version of Logos 4. And when the final version of Logos 4 is released, you'll get the update at no additional charge.

9. Introductory Discounts End This Week

Remember, time is running out to take advantage of the introductory discounts on an upgrade to Logos 4. If you’re a Mac user, you can upgrade to Logos 4 whenever you want, but you can only get introductory discounts until January 31. Visit the custom upgrade discounter to see what discounts you qualify for!

Whether you are a Mac or Windows user, if you are serious about building a library of biblical and theological resources, there’s really no better way to do it than with an upgrade—and there’s no better time than now, while we still have our extra low introductory upgrade discounts running.

The great news is that you can use our payment plans on upgrades and spread out your upgrade cost over the next 3, 6, 9, or even 12 months. If you have a monthly or quarterly book budget, this is a great way to use it for a Logos 4 upgrade and still take advantage of the introductory discounts. Simply select the payment plan option during checkout.

Remember, these deals end soon. We are in the final hours of our introductory discounts on upgrades. The window of time is closing. Upgrade now!

You can also call 800-875-6467 until tomorrow at 5:00pm (PT) to speak with someone who can answer any questions you have about your upgrade options and about using Logos 4 on your Mac.

What do you think? Is there another reason you’ve been waiting to upgrade? Still have questions about the Mac version of Logos 4? Leave a note in the comments, and we’ll be happy to address your questions and concerns.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

About a month after I started working at Logos, I wrote a blog post titled, "A Library on the Bus." In the post I recounted the epiphany I had about how amazing it was to have access to a theological library on my laptop as I rode the bus to work. Last week I had a bit of déjà vu on my way into work.

The church I attend is currently going through the book of Acts and I'm trying to integrate Acts into my own personal study time. So, the other day I decided to use my bus ride in to work as a time to read through the sections of Acts we studied the previous week and the section we'll be studying in the coming week. Unlike my first "Library on the Bus" post, this time I didn't even have to go through the hassle of getting out and firing up my laptop. Instead, I simply reached into my pocket and turned on my iPhone. A couple taps of the screen and I was reading Acts in Logos' free iPhone Bible app.

We just started our study a couple weeks ago, so I was reading in Acts 1, and I got to Peter's quotations of Psalms 69:25 and Psalms 109:8 in regards to Judas and wanted to dig a little deeper. I swiped up and ran a quick Passage Guide.

Since one of my prioritized resources in Logos 4 is Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, it appeared in the top of my commentary list. With just a tap I was reading about the verses Peter was quoting, gaining valuable insight into their use in Acts 1:20. With a couple more taps I returned to my Bible, right were I left off, and continued my reading.

I heard the ding of someone requesting a stop, looked up, and saw that it was mine. I hit the power button and tossed the iPhone back in my pocket. I simply find it amazing how easily I can open multiple books, run Passage Guides, and dig deeper into Bible study all with my iPhone. A year ago I was amazed that I could access a library with my laptop. Having the access on my iPhone is even more convenient and amazing.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and haven't installed our free iPhone Bible app, get it today and take your Bible study on the go.

NOTES: To have access to your library on the iPhone or iPod touch you need to own a Logos 4 base package. Additionally, not all titles you own are currently compatible with the app. For more information visit our iPhone Bible app support page. If you own another mobile device and are wondering "when will Logos be building an app for (insert your mobile platform)?" then check out http://library.logos.com on your mobile device and visit our Logos Mobile Web forum for more help and information.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Since the launch of Logos 4 about three months ago, thousands upon thousands of people have upgraded to our brand new software platform with one of our newly reconfigured and much bigger base packages. In fact, some people have even upgraded multiple times. They moved over to Logos 4 at their same base package level, were blown away, and then decided to go all the way up to Platinum or Portfolio.

But not everyone has upgraded yet, and I’ve seen a variety of reasons people have given for not making the move to Logos 4. I’m not about to tell you what to do with your money. We’re all accountable before God for how we invest the money that He’s entrusted to us. So you’ll have to decide for yourself whether upgrading to Logos 4 fits into wise financial stewardship for you.

However, so many of the reasons that people have been giving for not upgrading to Logos 4 are based on misunderstanding or misinformation that I feel compelled to take the opportunity to respond to some of them while there’s still time to upgrade at our introductory pricing, which expire at the end of the month.

Reason 1: I don’t want to repurchase my books.

I agree. I wouldn’t want to either. But you’re not. In most cases you’re getting thousands of dollars of new resources that you don’t already own for pennies on the dollar. Look how much new content you’re getting if you upgrade from Gold for Logos 3 to Gold for Logos 4 (or higher). That doesn’t even factor in all of the cool databases that lie behind new features like Biblical People, Biblical Place, Biblical Things, etc. or the fact that you’re getting the most advanced Bible software platform on the planet.

So the short answer is that you’re not repurchasing your books. You’re purchasing lots and lots of new content at a huge discount.

Reason 2: The Logos 4 engine isn’t worth what you’re charging for it. / The upgrades are too expensive.

Many people mistakenly think that they’re not getting any new content with their upgrade—just the new engine. But that’s far from the case. In some instances you’re getting enough new content that in print would take a U-Haul truck to deliver! If you look at all the new content you’ll be getting and sit down and do the math, I think you’ll come to the conclusion that our upgrades are anything but too expensive. Most upgraders seem to agree.

Reason 3: I already got the free Logos 4 engine. Why would I want to pay to get Logos 4? Isn’t it just the same thing?

There’s far more to the Logos 4 experience than the new core engine, which is free. Much of what makes Logos 4 shine is tied to resources and databases that come with our new Logos 4 base packages. Explore the 4 ways to move to Logos 4, and find out why you should seriously consider upgrading.

Reason 4: I’ve spent years building my Logos library. I don’t want to lose everything I’ve acquired.

Don’t worry. You won’t. When you move to Logos 4, all your books come with you—even the ones you bought back in the 1990s. That’s the beauty of our licensing system. We sell you a license to a book or group of books, and that license isn’t tied to any particular file format, version of our software, or platform. If you’ve purchased it once from us, you can access it in any or all of the platforms we have available. Currently the available platforms include Windows, Mac (in beta), iPhone/iPod Touch, and mobile web (in beta). We’re even exploring a web version of Logos Bible Software.

Reason 5: The Mac version isn’t ready yet, so I’ll wait until it is.

True. The Mac version is still under development and isn’t ready just yet. However, Mac users might still want to go ahead and upgrade to Logos 4 now. Here are a few reasons: (1) You’ll get a better deal if you upgrade before the end of the month; and remember, you’re purchasing the books, not the engine. (2) You can use most of your new Logos 4 books in Logos for Mac 1.2.2 while you wait for version 4 to get finished. (3) Logos for Mac 1.2.2 and Logos 4 for Mac can run side by side without any problems so you can enjoy the stability of the old version while testing and enjoying the new features in the new version. (4) Logos 4 for Mac is being updated almost weekly with new features and bug fixes, and those updates come to you automatically and at no additional cost.

Reason 6: My computer is too old and probably won’t run Logos 4 well. / I’ve heard Logos 4 is slow.

It may very well be true that your computer won’t run Logos 4 well. Many netbooks and computers older than a few years may struggle to run Logos 4 as speedily as a newer, more powerful machine will. But keep in mind that you can continue to use the vast majority of your new Logos 4 books in Logos 3; think of it as another Library Builder collection. This will allow you to take advantage of the great new content in Logos 4 base packages and be ready to jump right into Logos 4 as soon as you are able to get a new computer.

Reason 7: Logos 4 is missing some of my favorite features. I’ll wait until they get added.

It’s true that Logos 4 doesn’t have all of the features that were in Logos 3. That’s partially because Logos 4 is a brand new platform, and we had a decade to add features to Logos 3. Instead of waiting until we got all of those features in Logos 4, we decided it was time to let you start enjoying all of the improvements you’ve been asking for. The good news is that the most important features from Logos 3 are being added, they’re even better in Logos 4, they’re free, and they’re getting pushed out in updates all the time. By upgrading now, you’ll actually increase the speed at which new features are added to the software.

Reason 8: I don’t want to lose Logos 3.

In the truest sense, as a software program Logos 4 is not an upgrade to Logos 3. Normally when you upgrade your software, it’s “out with the old and in with the new.” But Logos 4 is a completely separate application, which means you can run Logos 3 and Logos 4 side by side for as long as you’d like. You can even use most of your new Logos 4 books in Logos 3 as well. So take your time to learn Logos 4 and continue to enjoy the familiarity of Logos 3 until you’re ready to transition over completely.

Reason 9: Logos 4 is harder to use than Logos 3. / I don’t want to learn a new program.

Just about anything new and unfamiliar is going to be harder to use than something you’re very familiar with and skilled at using. But that doesn’t mean that the new thing isn’t far better than what you’re used to. There are numerous threads in our forums where a Logos 3 user who upgraded to Logos 4 posts about how much better he likes Logos 3, Logos 4 users reply by encouraging the individual to give it some time, and then, almost without fail, the original poster ends up coming back exclaiming how much better Logos 4 is and how much easier it is to use. In other words, the vast majority of people conclude that it’s well worth the effort to learn the new system. We even give you lots of help to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Reason 10: I don’t have the money to upgrade right now.

That may very well be a good reason not to upgrade to Logos 4 right now, but you may want to know that you can use a payment plan to spread your payments out over 12 months. This is perfect for pastors with book budgets. With our introductory pricing ending soon, you should at least consider whether a payment plan is right for you.

Well, that’s 10. I’m sure there are others. If you haven’t upgraded yet, I’m curious to know your reasons. If I haven’t mentioned them above, leave them in the comments. I’d love to have the opportunity to correct any other misinformation about upgrading to Logos 4. I’ll be out of the office all day today, but will do my best to reply to your comments tomorrow.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

How’s your Bible reading going? If you’re like many Christians, you probably made plans to read through the Bible (or a portion of it) this year. If the statistics are correct, right about now many of you might need a little encouragement to stick with it. Or maybe the new year crept up on you, and you never even got around to picking a reading schedule for the year.

Either way—whether you’re just getting started or trying to stick with it—let me encourage you to consider doing your 2010 Bible reading in Logos Bible Software 4. I can’t promise that it will keep you on track all year, but there are five reasons I think it could be a big help.

With Logos Bible Software 4, you can

1. start and end your Bible reading schedule whenever you want
2. customize your reading schedule to fit your schedule and pace
3. recover from missed days and stick with it
4. read your Bible anywhere
5. turn Bible reading into Bible study with ease

Let’s take a look at each one of these.

1. Start and end your Bible reading schedule whenever you want.

With most traditional Bible reading plans, you start on January 1 and finish on December 31. So if you didn’t start your Bible reading on the first day of the year, chances are you probably aren’t going to try—it’s just too much work to get caught up.

But that doesn’t have to be the case if you do your Bible reading in Logos 4. Your Bible reading plan can start and end any day of the year. You can just as easily set up your plan to start today. With Logos 4 every day is a good day to start reading the Bible.

2. Customize your reading schedule to fit your schedule and pace.

There are lots of good Bible reading plans freely available on the internet. Some let you read straight through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Others have you read through the OT and the NT at the same time. Others throw in a Proverbs a day. Still others include a daily reading from the Psalms.

While there are a wide variety of plans available, there may not be a plan that’s a perfect fit for you. Scheduling your reading in Logos 4 means you can create just the right plan. You decide when to start and finish, how often to do your readings, what portions of the Bible to read, and how much to read at each sitting. There’s no need to be forced into a plan you can’t maintain with your schedule.

In Logos 4 there are several predefined plans, but creating your own unique plan is easy. Go to File > Reading Plan, or type “Create Reading Plan” into the Command Bar and hit enter. Click on “All Passages” and choose one of the default plans, or enter your own custom range. For example, if you want to read from multiple places in the Bible each day, separate the ranges with a pipe. Ge–Dt | Mt–Jn would give you a reading from the Pentateuch and the Gospels each day. You can even create your own chronological reading plan using a variety of custom ranges.

3. Recover from missed days and stick with it.

According to the statistics I’ve seen, the majority of people who set out to read through the Bible or a portion of the Bible in a year end up throwing in the towel pretty early on. If you miss a few days, it’s easy to feel so far behind that you can’t get caught up. You could just adjust your schedule, but a print schedule doesn’t really lend itself to changes.

That’s the beauty of Logos. If you fall behind and can’t get caught up, instead of quitting you can just select “Adjust plan from here,” and it will push everything back (update: this feature is in beta and will ship soon!). Or you can just skip the readings you’ve missed by selecting “Catch up to here”—not ideal, but definitely better than quitting. If you’d rather still end on the same day and not skip any of your readings, it’s easy to quickly edit and rebuild your plan.

4. Read your Bible anywhere.

For the sake of consistency, it’s ideal to do your Bible reading at the same time and in the same place every day. But that’s not always possible. What often happens is that if you miss your scheduled Bible reading time, you end up missing the day (and one missed day often leads to another). You may have other opportunities during the day to do your reading, but you don’t have a Bible handy or can’t remember where you left off.

Logos 4 makes it easier than ever to do your Bible reading anywhere. Your reading plans are synced between your computers, so whether you’re at home, at the office, or on the road, you can keep up with your reading. With the Logos iPhone app, you can even take your reading with you in your pocket. I’ve been doing most of my Bible reading this year on my iPod Touch, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ability to make the most of my bus trips to and from work* and the convenience of reading in bed.

5. Turn Bible reading into Bible study with ease.

If you’re reading the Bible carefully, you’re likely going to have questions about the meaning of a word or a verse or the location of a parallel passage or cross reference. Many print Bible’s have basic cross references and notes, but even with a good study Bible you’re going to come up empty handed on occasion. Digging deeper with print resources can take a lot of time and effort, and doing your reading in a print Bible means you’ll probably be more likely to pass up on the opportunities to turn reading into fruitful study and meditation. The beauty of Logos is that you can get answers in just a few minutes to just about any question that arises while you read. If you want to take your Bible reading to the next level this year, Logos 4 might just be exactly what you need.

Whether you’re just now considering a reading plan for 2010 or you’re on the brink of giving up on one, I’d encourage you to get started today with Logos Bible Software 4.

* In order to do my Bible reading on the bus, where I don’t have Wi-Fi access, I have to make sure to look up my reading before I’m out of Wi-Fi range at home or at work. But this will no longer be an issue. We’re currently beta testing offline support for reading plans, and it works great. It’s coming to an app store near you soon!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Logos is happy to announce the winner of our second Seminary Scholarship award, Justin Hoke. Justin is currently working to finish his MDiv through the distance education program at Reformed Baptist Seminary.

As the winner of the Seminary Scholarship, Justin received a $1,000.00 tuition scholarship and a copy of the Logos 4 Scholar's Library.

Next Scholarship to be Awarded May 10th

If you're a seminarian (whether you're full time, part time, distance, or residential) and you're interested in applying for a $1,000.00 scholarship for tuition and a copy of Logos 4 Scholar's Library, then visit www.SeminaryScholarship.com and apply today.

Not a seminarian? Well, it is likely that you know one. Please take a moment and send them an email, tweet, Facebook message, or even an old fashioned letter letting them know about this great opportunity.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

John Calvin is one of the church’s greatest theologians, and Calvinism one of the Western world’s most influential intellectual movements. Calvin was a theologian, pastor, biblical exegete, and tireless apologist for Reformed Christianity. His theological works, biblical commentaries, tracts, treatises, and letters helped establish the Reformation as a legitimate and thriving religious movement throughout Europe and the world.

No theologian has been acclaimed or assailed as much as Calvin. Calvinism has spawned movements and sparked controversy throughout the centuries. Wars have been fought both to defend and destroy it, and its later proponents began political and theological revolutions in Western Europe and America. The breadth and depth of the engagement with Calvin’s works since they first appeared four centuries ago—and their continuous publication since then—testifies to Calvin’s importance and lasting value for the church today. Thinking Christians from the twenty-first century who ignore Calvin’s writings do so at their own peril.

To celebrate Calvin’s birthday and his importance for the church today, we launched the Calvin 500 Collection—a massive project to convert 108 books by or about Calvin to our format. The Calvin 500 Collection includes:

• 3 English translations of Calvin’s Institutes—including the rare Thomas Norton translation
• Latin and French editions of Calvin’s Institutes
• Complete set of Calvin’s commentaries
• Four volumes of Calvin’s letters and correspondence
• Dozens of tracts and theological treatises written by Calvin
• Ten biographies of Calvin’s life and work
• 31 volumes of secondary literature on the history and influence of Calvinism

We hoped to complete the project during 2009 (before Calvin turned 501), but it didn’t happen. Some of the texts, like the Norton translation of the Institutes—the first in the English language—took longer than we planned. We also ran into some problems with the commentaries which needed some special attention.

But the biggest delay happened when we launched Logos 4 in November. In the weeks before the launch, all efforts were devoted to making sure it happened as smoothly as possible—finishing all new books for the expanded Logos 4 base packages, working with our beta testers, building the new Logos iPhone app, training our customer service department and sales teams, and hundreds (thousands?) of other behind-the-scenes projects.

We’ve been busy since the release, too. We’ve been reading the emails you’ve sent us, talking to you on the phone, closely watching the Community Forums, listening to customer feedback, creating training videos and support pages, and doing everything we can to make Logos 4 even better. Since the launch, we’ve released a major update to Logos 4, with tons of new features. We’ve been updating the Mac version just about every week. And we just came out with a brand new update to the Logos iPhone app which now allows offline reading on your iPod Touch or on the iPhone when you're in an airplane. Oh, and did we mention there are 1,000 more books available for reading on your iPhone than there were a month ago? These are just a handful of great reasons to upgrade today—and until the end of next week, you can still get 25% off when you upgrade to Logos 4.

So you can see why the Calvin 500 Collection wasn’t finished by the end of 2009.

Fortunately, even though it’s 2010 now, John Calvin is still 500 years old. He doesn’t turn 501 years old until July 10, 2010, and by then, you’ll be using Logos Bible Software to read all of Calvin’s commentaries, books, and theological works.

In fact, you’ll be reading the new Calvin books much sooner than July. We are very, very close to finishing the project. Although we are not quite ready to project a ship date, we can promise that it will be soon.

One last thing, the Pre-Pub price for the Calvin 500 Collection will go up on Friday, which means you still have four more days to lock your order in the current price. If you’re thinking of pre-ordering, do it now before the price goes up.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Growing up in a household of seven—five kids, and my parents—I didn't always get what I wanted, but I found that if there was something I believed I "absolutely needed" (in my adolescent opinion), I did what it took to get it.

In high school, a few friends and I were really into bodyboarding, the sport commonly known as "boogie boarding." While at my favorite local surf shop one day, I found the board I had to have. This board was the Logos Bible Software 4 of bodyboards. I was able to set the board on layaway with a down payment, so I knew it would eventually be mine. From there on out, every dime I got went toward that board. I stashed away my lunch money, money from chores, and change from the couch—I was on a mission.

Eventually the day came when I had enough saved up. I was so stoked to be riding waves on my new board. It was well worth the wait, well worth not blowing my money on smaller things (who needs to each lunch anyway?) so I could have a really cool, brand new bodyboard. I still operate with the same mindset all these years later—just ask my wife. My point is, if I have to choose between buying smaller things I'm sure I would enjoy, or saving up for a more rewarding, cooler purchase, I will almost always save my money for the more rewarding purchase. I see it as an investment. I see it as going without until I can afford what I really want.

Whether you find yourself agreeing with my purchasing mentality or not, I would approach owning a Logos 4 base package the same way I did while trying to purchase my bodyboard. I would do what it takes. And better than layaway from my high school days, Logos has payment plans which allow you to start using your software right away, while spreading out your payments over several months.

There are many reasons why you should upgrade or purchase a new Logos 4 base package. Previous posts like The Best Reason to Upgrade, Upgrade Illustrated, How to Get the Most Out of the Logos iPhone App, and 4 Ways to Move to Logos 4 have already given detailed reasons.

So here's one straightforward reason: Introductory discounts end January 31st.

Come February 1st, we hope no one will say, "I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?" We also hope your friends and family will not discover you to be a Logos user who never told them how Logos Bible Software 4 could transform their Bible study—and that if they had bought before February, they could have saved 25% on their base package. I can't say it more emphatically. If you can, do what it takes to get Logos Bible Software 4 before the end of the month.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

One of the things I love about Logos 4 is its ability to take something conceptual and make it visual. Logos 4 does this with the help of topographical and interactive maps, high-resolution infographics, Visual Filters, various types of Passage Analysis, as well as many other diagrams, charts, and graphs.

One feature that I find myself returning to often is Biblical People. Biblical People makes understanding complex lineages as well as other interpersonal relationships in the Bible easier by providing diagrams of family trees and links to Scripture references pertaining to that individual throughout the Bible. All of those genealogies, that I might gloss over, suddenly begin to make sense. For a visual learner such as myself, there is no way to communicate the world that is unlocked by features such as this.

One of the great things about a feature like Biblical People is its accessibility from anywhere I am in Logos 4.

Let's say I am reading in Exodus and I am interested in seeing Moses's genealogy. All I need to do is right-click on his name, select Person from the window that opens (screenshot) and then choose Biblical People from the top left of the next window. It's that easy, and it opens up in a separate window so I can have it available while I continue in the text.

Another easy way to access Biblical People is through the Passage Guide. When I put Moses's birth and adoption story (Exodus 2:1-10) into the Passage Guide, it searches My Library and opens up all relevant Commentaries, Cross References, Parallel Passages, and a host of other important tools including Biblical People. In the preview pane for Biblical People (screenshot) you get a preview of artwork and archaeology that follows the verse theme as well as various trees and visuals that fit with that theme, too, including Slavery in Egypt, Joseph Sold as a Slave, and family trees for Moses, Miriam, Levi, and Kohath.

From the home page you can go right to Biblical People by choosing Tools and clicking on Biblical People under the Bible Facts header (screenshot).

Once I am in the Biblical People window there is so much useful information laid out in an uncluttered fashion. Across the top I have a quick explanation of who Moses is, a list of his relatives (clicking on any of their names opens up a new Biblical People for that character), dictionary entries from the dictionaries in My Library, and a collection of Biblical Things associated with Moses (Tent of Meeting, Burning Bush, Golden Calf, Bronze Serpent, etc.).

The center of the pane has Moses's Family Tree. I can customize the look of the graphic with seven variants, and the scroll wheel on my mouse can adjust the size of the Family Tree. By clicking the Biblical People icon on the upper left, I can copy, print, or even send the graphic to a PowerPoint presentation.

Across the bottom runs a ribbon of associated Family Trees like Aaron, Ithamar, and Eleazar. There are also visual representations of the individuals involved in significant events in the life of Moses (screenshot). You will even find a graphic listing the Psalm Authors, which includes Moses of course. At the bottom of the Biblical People window for Moses there are 26 more associated Biblical People graphics along with 20 related works of art. It is no small feat that all of this information is laid out in such a clean and unobtrusive fashion.

This is just a peek into my new favorite feature, one that really makes Logos 4 pop. Seeing a visual representation of the various relationships in the Scriptures really cements the significance of so many people, events, and families. What makes Logos 4 so ingenious is not just the amazing amount of information but the intuitive, imaginative and graceful way that information is presented.

Biblical People is a feature that is not available in the Christian Home Library package. This is a great reason to consider upgrading if you currently have the Christian Home Library (not to mention the 144 resources you'll get by jumping up one rung to the Bible Study Library). Take a look at the custom upgrader to see the special pricing designed to take you to the next level of Bible study.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Last week in Kent’s post, How to Get the Most Out of the Logos iPhone App, he told you how anyone with the Logos iPhone app could instantly access around 30 Bibles to read on their iPhone or iPod Touch, and that by registering (for free) you gain access to more than 30 additional free books.

He also pointed out that if you upgrade to a new Logos 4 base package, you get access to all the books that you have ever purchased for Logos Bible Software (as long as our publishing partners have given us permission to display each title), followed by a bullet-point list of reasons the app is more than a book reader.

Here’s one more reason: The Logos App now offers offline reading.

This is awesome news, especially for those who do not have a constant internet connection. To make this possible, you'll still need an internet connection to save the books locally, but once the books are saved, you can read them without a wireless connection. So before you head to your small group, your men’s or women’s Bible study, out to the park, or if you’d just like to sink into your favorite chair and read your Bible or favorite commentary, make sure you make your preferred Bible translation and other favorite books available offline.

For those of you who are determined to make 2010 the year you read through the entire Bible, what better way to accomplish that goal then with the free Logos Bible Software app? The offline reading mode will allow you to take advantage of your down-time, and before you know it, the few verses or few chapters you are able to read while waiting for your next meeting or class will quickly add up.

So here’s how it’s done:

1. Make sure you're connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or your carrier.
2. Open your library.
3. Click on the blue arrow next to the title you want available offline. (screenshot)
4. Slide the "Available Offline" option to On. (screenshot)
5. Click Done.
6. You should see an orange arrow indicating that Logos is downloading the resource. (screenshot)
7. Once the resource is completely downloaded, the arrow will change to an airplane icon. (screenshot)
8. After the book is completely downloaded, in offline mode, select Read and it will be viewable offline.

For those of you who use Facebook and are excited about this functionality, but still don't have an iPod Touch, find out how you can enter to win a free 8GB iPod Touch.

*The offline reading mode is only available if you own a Logos 4 base package. You can read and navigate books in offline mode, but you can't search or access them in reports like the Passage Guide, Bible Word Study, and Text Comparison.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

We offer some great deals at Logos, but Phil's post yesterday reminded me exactly how amazing the deal is when you upgrade your Logos base package. While Phil did all the number crunching, I thought I'd show you exactly what we're talking about here.

In the picture here, you'll see me standing next to four stacks of books. That's 180 books to be exact. To help you gain a little perspective on how tall those stacks are, I'm 6'2". Now, these stacks represent the number of new resources you get when you crossgrade from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s 4. As Phil pointed out yesterday, that crossgrade will only cost $127.50 (or even less*). Can you imagine walking into your neighborhood bookstore, carting all these books to the cash register, and saying, "I've only got $127.50. Will that be enough?"

Now, Phil's post went on to explain that when you upgrade from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s Gold 4 you get more than 650 new resources for only $720 (or even less*). At the bookstore, that looks something like this:

While $720 is a bit of a price jump from $127.50, keep in mind that we're talking about 650 resources. Not to mention that just one commentary set in the package (New American Commentary (37 Vols.)) would cost you nearly $720 all by itself... and you'll be getting more than 600 more resources on top of this. What an amazing deal!

Then, there was Phil's final comparison, upgrading from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s Platinum 4. In this upgrade you get nearly 950 new resources for only $907.54 (or even less*). That’s $.96 per volume and, in print, looks something like this:

Sure, quantity isn't everything. Which is why I loved how Phil pointed out just a few of the quality resources from each package that prove the point that upgrading to Logos 4 is simply an amazing deal.

If you haven't upgraded yet, today's a great day to do it! Simply visit www.logos.com/upgrade to see the custom upgrade price for you.

* Your upgrade price might be even lower based on several factors. Visit our customized upgrade discounter to see your low prices. Also, these pictures are representative and the stacks do not contain the exact titles included in the base package upgrades. At 180 books, we disrupted our electronic text development department enough just making the first stack. Also, in case you couldn't tell, we had to photoshop the stacks for 650 and 950. While we certainly have enough books in the building, we really started to feel bad for being such a distraction and, honestly, we were pretty afraid of seeing 950 books accidentally fall over on the floor. So, we hope you "get the picture."

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Over the last two months, we’ve talked a lot about reasons you should upgrade to Logos 4, like

• the incredible introductory prices
• regular free updates with new features
• access to most of your books on our free iPhone app
• the ability to use your new resources in Logos 3
• cool new features in Logos 4 like faster searching, self-updating collections, phonetic searching, automatic updating, search visual filters, the all new Home Page, and many more

But one thing we haven’t really talked about in much detail yet is the absolutely amazing deals you get on some of the best Christian books on the planet with our base package upgrades. Here’s what I want to argue in this post: there are many great reasons to upgrade, but the most compelling reason—at least in terms of value—is the hundreds of new top-quality books you’ll get for an unbelievably low price.

I’ve worked here at Logos for just over two years now and was an enthusiastic customer for three years prior to that, and as someone who loves to find and get a good deal, I can assure you that they don’t get much better than this. Let me illustrate this with some of the resources you’ll get when you upgrade and a little number crunching.

Crossgrading from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s 4

Let’s say you own Scholar’s Library for Logos 3 and you’re considering moving to Scholar’s Library for Logos 4. Did you know that you’ll get more than 180 new resources for only $127.50 (or even less*)? That’s $.70 per volume. Here are just a few examples of the titles that you’ll get:

• Holman Reference Collection (13 Vols.) $149.95 (Pre-Pub special)
• Opening Up Commentaries (30 Vols.) $189.95 (Pre-Pub special)
• The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church $150.00 (sale)

Did you know if you bought just these 44 volumes by themselves, it would cost you $489.90 (or $669.90 after the two on Pre-Pub ship)? If you crossgrade for only $127.50*, you’ll get these 44 titles plus more than 136 others for $362.40 (or $542.40) less! That’s about 1/4 of the price for 4 times as much content! And that doesn’t even include all of the databases and features in Logos 4. So when we say you’re getting an incredible deal when you upgrade, we mean it.

But the further up you go, the more amazing the deals get.

Upgrading from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s Gold 4

Let’s say that instead of just crossgrading from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s 4, you upgrade to Scholar’s Gold 4. Did you know that you’ll get more than 650 new resources for only $720 (or even less*)? In addition to the 180+ titles that I mentioned above, you’ll also get top-notch titles like

• Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (4 Vols.) $139.95
• The Context of Scripture (3 Vols.) $299.95
• Early Church Fathers (37 Vols.) $249.95
• The Encyclopedia of Christianity (4 Vols.) $389.90
• The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (3 Vols.) $139.95
• God, Revelation, and Authority (6 Vols.) $139.95
• Holman New Testament Commentary (12 Vols.) $149.97
• Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament (10 Vols.) $119.95
• New American Commentary (37 Vols.) $677.89
• The New International Greek Testament Commentary (13 Vols.) $618.27
• The United Bible Societies’ New Testament Handbook Series (20 Vols.) $399.95
• The United Bible Societies’ Old Testament Handbook Series (21 Vols.) $400.00

That’s an amazing amount of quality content. If you do the math, you’ll notice that these 170 volumes would cost you a whopping $3,725.68 if you purchased them all separately—and that’s at our sale prices, not full retail. If you upgrade for only $720*, you’ll get these 170 volumes plus nearly 500 others for $3,000 less than it would cost you to buy just these 170 volumes separately. Wow. That’s about 1/5 of the price for almost 4 times as much content! And, again, that’s not even including all of the databases and features in Logos 4!

Upgrading from Scholar’s 3 to Scholar’s Platinum 4

By now I think I’ve made my point—our upgrades are amazingly priced for the amount of quality content you get. But I’ll take it one step further. Let’s look at upgrading from Scholar’s version 3 to the brand new Scholar’s Platinum. In this upgrade you’ll get nearly 950 new resources for only $907.54 (or even less*). That’s $.96 per volume. In addition to all of the tremendous titles in the two lists above, you’ll also add to your library things like

• A. W. Pink Collection (40 Vols.) $249.95
• The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (6 Vols.) $99.95
• Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (8 Vols.) $224.95
• Baker New Testament Commentary (12 Vols.) $159.95
• Believer’s Church Bible Commentary (19 Vols.) $349.95
• Berkouwer’s Studies in Dogmatics (14 Vols.) $329.95
• Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae Commentary (21 Vols.) $489.95
• Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament (14 Vols.) $199.95
• Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research $79.95
• A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (BDAG) $150.00
• Oxford Movement Historical Theology Collection (10 Vols.) $124.95
• Pillar New Testament Commentary (10 Vols.) $327.95

If you bought just these 156 volumes by themselves, it would cost you $2,787.45. But think about this. If you’re coming from Scholar’s version 3, the difference in price between upgrading to Gold ($720*) and upgrading to Platinum ($907.54*) is only $187.54 (you’re getting an extra special discount for upgrading three levels higher). So if you were going to upgrade to Gold and think you might later purchase just one or two of the items in the list above, it would definitely be worth it to make the jump all the way to Platinum. Just look at all the extra content you’d get—and for less money, too.

I realize that we’re not talking about pocket change here, but if you’re serious about building a library of biblical and theological resources, there’s really no better way to do it—and there’s no better time than now, while we still have our extra low introductory upgrade discounts running. The great news for those of you who don’t carry this kind of money in your wallets is that you can use our payment plans on upgrades and spread out your upgrade cost over the next 3, 6, 9, or even 12 months.

So head on over while our lowest prices are still good, and check out your upgrade options. These deals are just too good to pass up.

* Your upgrade price might be even lower based on several factors. Visit our customized upgrade discounter to see your low prices.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

The Logos 4 release has been big news for the past seven weeks since it first came out. Response has been overwhelming, and we’ve been so busy with the release of Logos 4 that we haven’t had much time to talk about the other big project we recently launched—the free Logos Bible Software iPhone app.

Begin reading the Bible, searching, comparing versions, and setting up reading plans to keep you in the Word every day. Anyone with the Logos iPhone app may instantly access around 30 Bibles to read on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Tens of thousands of people who had never even heard of Logos, before the iPhone app, have already downloaded the free app, and love it. Many users have gotten even more out of the app by registering to gain access to more than 30 additional free books. Again, you don't ever have to register. You can keep using it free and anonymous forever if you prefer, but by registering you are able to access a total of more than 60 books, plus the app itself—all without spending a dime.

However, when you upgrade to a new Logos 4 base package, you get a key which tells our servers to grant you access to all the books that you have ever purchased for Logos Bible Software old or new, as long as our publishing partners have given us permission to display each title on the iPhone.

This bonus feature in the new Logos 4 base package allows you to access up to 3,000 of the titles you own on the iPhone—not just books in the new base packages, but also books you may have purchased ten or fifteen years ago. And we’re making new books available regularly as we secure rights and convert titles to the new format.

Even better, the iPhone app isn’t just about reading books. It also incorporates many of the features and tools you’ve come to love about Logos Bible Software:

• Bible study anywhere. Now you have access to many of the books in your library wherever you go.
• Syncs with your desktop application. The app remembers your favorite resources, bookmarks, and settings across all platforms. Logos 4 even saves your last location in each of your books, so you can leave your desk and pick up your reading right where you left off using your iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Stay up to date on your daily readings with a Bible Reading Plan. As a Logos 4 user you can complete your reading on your computer or iPhone and both will keep your plan up to date.
• Learn more about a word by running a Bible Word Study. Get a report with links to dictionaries, lexicons, verses using the word, and view various translations of the Greek or Hebrew word.
• Like the desktop version of Logos Bible Software, the Passage Guide allows you to enter a verse and get a detailed report that includes relevant commentaries, cross references, literary typing, media resources, and interesting words.
• Learn more about the original language words behind the English translation. Tap and hold any word in your Bible and Logos Bible Software will look up the word and deliver the manuscript, lemma, and morphological information on the Greek or Hebrew word.
• Just feel like reading a book? Browse through your library and open one up. If you’ve opened the book before on your iPhone or computer, it will pick up right where you left off.
• Lots more! Check out the iPhone page to see all the other features, screenshots, and more, or take a look at the iPhone posts in the Community Forums.

Many of the people who have never heard of Logos and started using the iPhone app have enjoyed it so much, that they’ve purchased a Logos 4 base package—just to access all the new content. They aren’t buying a Logos 4 package to use the desktop app, they are buying Logos 4 simply to access a ton of great books on their iPhone.

And the ability to access many of your titles on the iPhone is just one of the hundreds of brand new features that come with each Logos 4 base package or base package upgrade. So think about it: if people who’ve never heard of Logos are buying Logos 4 base packages just so they can access additional books on their iPhones, imagine the benefits you will get—as someone who is already an experienced Logos user, and already aware of all the great benefits of using Logos on your desktop—when you upgrade to a new Logos 4 base package.

We’ve decided to extend the upgrade discounts through the holiday season. That means you still have a little more time to save on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Merry Christmas from all of us here in Bellingham, Washington. We hope you’re having a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior with family and friends.

Many of you have already upgraded to Logos 4, and you may have even used it to read the Christmas story, prepare for your Christmas Eve sermon, or study the themes surrounding Christ’s first advent for your personal devotional time. If you haven’t upgraded to Logos 4 yet because you were waiting for some Christmas money, I wanted to take a few moments to give you your 4 options for moving to Logos 4. And even though we’re closed today, our website is available to take your order right now. If you choose the download option, you might even be able to start playing with your new toy later today.

Option 1: Base Package Upgrade

The first and best option is to upgrade your Logos 3 base package to a higher Logos 4 base package. So if you currently have Scholar’s Library for Logos 3, your best option is to upgrade to a higher base package like Gold or Platinum for Logos 4. The reason this is the best option is because we’re offering some extra special introductory discounts right now, and you always get the best deal on our highest base packages. In addition to keeping all the books you already own, you’ll get the most new features and resources at an amazingly low price. If you have the money or would like to use one of our payment plans, this is definitely the way to go. Even if you’re not sure if your computer can handle Logos 4 yet, it still makes sense to upgrade now to take advantage of the extra savings. In the meantime, you can even enjoy the majority of your new resources in Logos 3.

Option 2: Base Package Crossgrade

If you can’t afford moving up a couple of levels in your base package or you feel that you’re already at the base package level that’s right for you, the next best option is to crossgrade your current base package to the new Logos 4 version. So if you own Scholar’s Gold for Logos 3, you can move over to Scholar’s Gold for Logos 4. You won’t get as many new books or quite as good of a deal as upgrading, but in a couple of cases you’ll get more than 100 new titles for less than $2 each! Crossgrading your base package is a great option for those on a tight budget.

Option 3: Minimal Crossgrade

The next best option if you don’t really want to add new books to your library is the Minimal Crossgrade. The Minimal Crossgrade gives you just the core essential resources and databases necessary to move your existing library over to Logos 4 and take advantage of many of the cool new features. We highly recommend that you purchase at least the Minimal Crossgrade to get the true Logos 4 experience.

Option 4: Free Core Engine

The last way to move to Logos 4 is to download the free core engine. The free Logos 4 core engine without a Logos 4 base package or the Minimal Crossgrade will be lacking many of the new databases and resources necessary to use features like Biblical People, Biblical Places, Biblical Things, the new reverse interlinears, many of the sections of the Guides and the Home Page, Logos controlled vocabulary database of synonymous terminology, and a few other things. You also won’t be able to use your current library of books on the iPhone app. If you want to have the best experience with Logos 4 and access your books on the iPhone app, choosing the free core engine is not the right choice. But if you’re just looking for very basic functionality, it’s hard to beat the price. :) Remember, though, that the free core engine option will always be around, but the extra special upgrade discounts won’t last forever.

To sum it all up, here are your 4 options laid out in a table.

¹ Plus your current resources, which will move over to Logos 4 at no additional charge.

² Numbers are estimates and will vary depending on what you already own.

³ Depends in part on which base package level you’re at.

⁴ With special, limited-time discounts.

The first significant update to Logos 4 is now available as a free download to all Logos 4 users. Version 4.0a adds tons of new features and tweaks and includes numerous bug fixes. If you have automatic updates turned on (screenshot), which is the default setting, Logos 4 should have already notified you that updates are ready to be installed.

When you see the balloon tooltip window, right-click on the Logos icon in your system tray and choose to “Install update” (screenshot). If the update hasn’t been downloaded yet and you just can’t wait any longer to get your hands on the latest release, just type Update Now into the command bar (screenshot). This will force Logos 4 to check for any available updates (screenshot) and begin downloading them.

What’s New in 4.0a?

Below you’ll find a list of many of the new features and improvements we added in 4.0a. To help you learn about some of them, I’ve taken several screenshots. Click on the links below to see the corresponding images. In the coming weeks, we’ll discuss some of these new features in detail here on the blog.

• Search Analysis grid in Bible and Morph searches (screenshot)
• Bible Text Only visual filter (screenshot)
• Ctrl+Alt+B opens Copy Bible Verses from any Windows application (if Logos 4 is running) (screenshot)
• Help > Explain the screen (F9) (screenshot)
• Index Merging reduces the time it takes to build a full library index when adding new books.
• Redesign of the Cited By tool (screenshot)
• Commentaries section in Bible-reference-based guides supports custom collections of commentaries (e.g., Favorite Commentaries) (screenshot)
• Added more Highlighting styles (screenshot)
• Added hit counts to concordance results in Bible Word Study sections with a ring graph (screenshot)
• New look for Topics and Important Words in Passage Guide (screenshot)
• Home Page ribbon can be customized (screenshot)
• Search: My Content shows results from saved guides
• Ctrl+H opens History
• Alt+P opens or closes the Help menu
• Added two new handout styles
• Added new styles for the Ctrl+Drag distance calculation in Biblical Places maps
• Added searching indicator to Reading Lists searches
• Added Visual Bookmarks settings
• Added Resource Panel Background settings
• Added “rebuild index” command
• Added “merge index” command to force index merging (when possible)
• Added a “Copy” option to the context menu for the reading plan reference range selector
• Improved performance in many areas of the application

To see a list of some of the main bugs we squashed, check out “What's New in Logos 4.0a.”

Time to Upgrade to Logos 4?

Many of you have been cautiously watching from the sidelines, waiting for the right opportunity to make the switch to Logos 4. As you can see, Logos 4 is now better than ever. It’s had nearly two months of extensive testing by thousands of users, and our team of developers has been fixing bugs, listening to user feedback, and adding some really cool new features.

But 4.0a is just the beginning. Work has already begun on 4.0b. We’re in the process of adding these additional features, as well as many others that we can’t tell you about yet.

There’s never been a better time to upgrade to Logos 4. It’s a powerful, stable, cutting-edge piece of software that just keeps getting better all the time. And best of all, these updates come to you free of charge.

The window of time for taking advantage of our upgrade discounts is getting smaller. Don’t miss out on your chance to move to Logos 4 at our special introductory discount prices. What are you waiting for? Upgrade today.

What’s Your Favorite New Feature?

After you’ve updated to 4.0a, drop a note in the comments and tell us what your favorite new feature is. I think I’m most excited about the search analysis feature—virtually endless ways to explore and organize biblical data. The ability to use custom collections of commentaries in guides is also pretty sweet. What’s your favorite?

What about Logos 4 for Mac?

The Mac version of Logos 4 is also making some nice progress with a new build coming out about once a week on average. The latest release, Alpha 8, is coming together quite nicely. If you’re ready to help up test it, you can either upgrade your base package or download core engine.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

“Late in time behold Him come/Offspring of a Virgin’s womb”

Between singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” listening to sermons, and doing advent readings with my daughter, I can’t help but think about the significance of the virgin birth.

I thought I’d take the opportunity to show how to use Logos 4 to study the virgin birth. Typing Matthew 1 or Luke 1 into the box on the Home Page and clicking “Go” is a great place to start. Doing a Bible Word Study on parthenos (παρθένος) is also a useful exercise. You can launch a Bible Word Study from the Guides menu by typing g:parthenos or by right-clicking on virgin in a verse like Matthew 1:23, selecting “Lemma παρθένος,” and choosing “Bible Word Study.”

Another direction you might take is a systematic or theological one. I started by doing a search of my entire library for “Virgin Birth.” I instantly received over 7,500 hits. Awesome, but I wanted to make my search a bit more focused.

In order to narrow it down, I made a collection of my Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias. Searching only those books yielded a more manageable 565 results. I started by looking at the article “Virgin Birth of Jesus” in the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Of its theological importance I learned, “From the very beginning the doctrine of the virgin birth became the foundation of a high Christology. Many have pointed out that the earliest church fathers stressed this more perhaps than any other event as proof of the incarnation and deity of Christ” (2126). And in New Bible Dictionary I read about Biblical evidence for the virgin birth outside of Matthew and Luke. It turns out those books aren’t the only place to go for allusions to the virgin birth. Paul makes a possible reference in Galatians 4:4.

The next thing you might do is ask, “What have Christian writers throughout the centuries had to say about the virgin birth?” I quickly made a collection of all my systematic theology books and discovered over 1,000 potential targets!

The first thing I checked was G. C. Berkouwer’s chapter in The Work of Christ entitled “The Great Mystery.” In it he dealt with the virgin birth at length and connected it with a doctrine of original sin: “In confessing the virgin birth we do not attempt to exclude Christ from the original sin which supposedly would be derived from a human father, but rather from the original guilt of all who are born of Adam” (129). Clearly that’s food for thought!

In Church Dogmatics I/2, Karl Barth called the virgin birth the “Miracle of Christmas” and described the coming of the Son of God in flesh through the Virgin Mary as a “new thing” outside our normal experience as humans. And because Jesus Christ came for us and our salvation, the exclusion of an earthly biological parent excludes the possibility of us humans contributing to our salvation in any way. The virgin birth is a sign of God’s total grace towards us.

However you celebrate your Christmas, Logos 4 is an excellent tool for understanding the significance of this important season.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

This post is aimed specifically at those of you who have never posted on, or perhaps, have never even read the forums. That’s right noobs, I am looking at you!

As Phil stated in his recent blog, Getting the Most Out of the Forums, the forums are an important place to learn great new tips, get your questions answered fast, and join a wonderful community of people who—like you—are using Logos Bible Software to help facilitate their Bible study.

Maybe you have checked out the forums and you were a little confounded by some of the tech talk there. You might have thought to yourself, “Hmmm, this is a little overwhelming.” Let me assure you, with more than 10,000 people posting on the forums, statistically speaking, you cannot be the least tech savvy person there! There is a need for people of all skill levels to be chiming in, asking questions and building community. It is a way to facilitate becoming more technologically astute and, at the same time; helping to encourage discussions that others of your skill level may need to see.

Getting involved in the forums is so easy. It is simply a case of signing in. You will use the same email and password that you use to sign in to Logos.com and Logos 4. If you don’t have a Logos.com account yet, you can easily create one.

If you are brand new to our forums I would like to help propel you forward. I have started a thread on the forums expressly entitled, Newbies!! It is a nice place to jump in and get your feet wet. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved with Logos Bible Software.

I can promise you that there is no entrance exam and no learning curve. You just have to make that initial jump. You will be glad you did.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

It is that time of year again—the time where we celebrate Jesus, the greatest gift we have received, by giving gifts to those closest to us. This year as you are looking over your Christmas list, consider giving the gift of Logos 4 to that special someone. In fact, we would like to offer a discount of 25% off any of our base packages through Christmas! Simply use the coupon code blessing to save.

Whether they are a pastor, a seminary student, a Bible study leader, or they are in need of an incredible tool for their personal devotion and study time there is a perfect package available for them. You would be hard pressed to think of a better present than one that will immerse your loved one in God’s Word, helping to lead them in a deeper appreciation of God’s character, attributes, and ultimately, His profound love for them.

Logos 4 is a resource that is user-friendly enough to keep up on Bible and devotional reading; but powerful enough to be a personal research assistant in sermon preparation, dissertation writing, and in-depth Bible study. The intuitive nature, coupled with the adaptability of Logos 4, makes it a resource that is both capable and convenient.

When you add the benefits of Logos 4 to the mobility of our free iPhone/iPod Touch app things go from great to amazing. Imagine having many of your resources available to you wherever you are, synced to the last place you closed them on your desktop, access to many of the Bibles featured at Bible.Logos.com, and Logos’ search functionality to quickly find relative verses in an instant.

Remember, purchase any of our base packages through Christmas at 25% off using the coupon code blessing or pass this blog on to a loved one to do so for you! If you want to get yourself a great Christmas present simply login or create a Logos.com account so you can check out the Upgrade Discounter for your personal tailor made discount.

Another great gift idea for yourself or a loved one is a subscription to Bible Study Magazine. At a low cost of $14.95 (almost 50% off the cover price) you simply cannot go wrong. And over the course of the year they will get six issues featuring further tools for Bible study as well as interviews and insights from respected voices in the Church and biblical scholarship.

Logos Bible Software, providing gifts that truly keep on giving.

(Don't forget about the Twelve Days of Logos. Check out today's deal on the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary)

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Most of the new Logos 4 base packages have upwards of a dozen reverse interlinears, all the way up to Portfolio, which has twenty. However, if you search in My Library, you won’t find any of them. So where are they?

Logos 4 takes a new approach to reverse interlinears. They are no longer separate resources, but they’re now integrated into many of the English Bibles in your library. To access the reverse interlinear for the translation you’re reading, all you need to do is click the Interlinear button. When you click it, the reverse interlinear panel appears at the bottom of the pane you’re reading.

With the panel, reverse interlinears are built directly into many English Bibles, allowing you to see the Greek or Hebrew behind your text. All your information is now in one pane for quick and easy reference.

Logos 4 also introduces a brand new feature called Sympathetic Highlighting. When you highlight a portion of text in one interlinear, the corresponding text in your other open English Bibles that have interlinears will also be highlighted.

You can try it right now: open up two English Bibles (the ESV and NRSV, for example) to the same passage. Then highlight in one to see the equivalent text highlighted in the other.

There are more features and new interlinears coming soon, including the ability to view the reverse interlinear data in the primary, wrapping text window, as well as in the strip below. We’re also working on English–Greek and English–Hebrew reverse interlinears for the NIV and the NLT. We have not yet set release dates for the new interlinears, but if you own Bible Study Library or higher, these files will download automatically as soon as they are complete.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

All of our Logos 4 base packages are packed with new content. If you crossgrade from Gold version 3 to Gold version 4, you’ll add almost 200 new resources to your library. If you upgrade to a higher-level base package—from, say, Leader’s version 3 to Silver version 4—you’ll likely pick up even more new resources.

Did you know that you can use the vast majority* of your new Logos 4 resources in Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1? Although Logos 4 is intended to replace our previous generation software, some of you may want to continue to run both versions side by side for a little while.

1. If you’re a Mac user, you may want to continue to use Logos for Mac 1 as well as Logos 4 for Mac until the latter comes out of testing and is more reliable for daily use.
2. If you’re a Windows user, you may want to continue to use Logos 3 alongside Logos 4 until you learn the ropes of Logos 4 or until your favorite feature gets added.

One of the great things about Logos 4 is that it installs right alongside of Logos 3 and Logos for Mac 1, so you can continue to use both as long as you’d like without any problems.

Maybe you’re on the edge about upgrading because you aren’t sure if you’re ready to learn a whole new program, or you’re not sure if your computer can even handle Logos 4. The good news is that you can still take advantage of our incredible introductory base package and base package upgrade discounts without having to commit to switching to Logos 4 entirely or at all. When you’re ready to make that transition, you’ll be all set. In the meantime, you can add a ton of new books to your existing Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1 library at some of our lowest prices ever.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Purchase a Logos 4 Base Package

Purchase one of our base package upgrades by going to our customized upgrade discounter. Even if you’re not going to run Logos 4 exclusively or at all (for now) and you just want the books, you’ll still want to purchase a Logos 4 base package or base package upgrade so you can use those books on Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1.

Step 2: Sync Your Licenses

After you’ve purchased, installed, and logged in to your new Logos 4 base package or base package upgrade, the next step is to sync your new licenses back into Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1. You can do this in Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1 by going to Tools > Library Management > Synchronize Licenses. This will guarantee that all of your new Logos 4 licenses are in place so your books will show up as unlocked when you copy them over.

Step 3: Load Your Books

Now that you’ve updated your licenses on Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1, the next step is to load your books.

Loading Your Books from a Media-Only Disk or Disk Set

Logos 4 uses a new and improved resource format (.logos4) to enable some cool new functionality, so you won’t be able to load the resources from the Logos 4 DVD. Instead, you’ll need to purchase one of the new media-only disks, which have Logos 3 and Logos for Mac 1 versions (in .lbxlls format) of the new Logos 4 resources.

• Logos Bible Software 3 Media Only (LE) [DVD-ROM] (comes on one dual-layer DVD)
• Logos Bible Software for Mac 1.2.2 Media Only (LE) [DVD-ROM] (comes on two single-layer DVDs)

If you need a CD set (on 12 disks), it’s available for special order by calling 800-875-6467.

When you get your disk or disk set, open Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1 and insert the disk. You’ll be prompted to copy the new resources to your hard drive. If you’re not, you can load them by going to Tools > Library Management > Location Manager on Windows or Tools > Library Management > Resource Installer on Mac. After Logos has copied all of the files over, be sure to repeat the process with the remaining disks.

Loading Your Books via Download

If you’re a Windows user, you’d rather not spend the money for the media-only disk or wait for it to arrive, and you have a fast internet connection, you can load your new books on Logos 3 by running a resource update script. Just click the link for your base package below, and Libronix Update will download all of the available resources from our server that are missing from your computer.

• Christian Home
• Bible Study Library
• Leader’s Library
• Original Languages Library
• Scholar's Library
• Scholar’s Library: Silver
• Scholar’s Library: Gold
• Scholar’s Library: Platinum
• Logos Bible Software 4: Portfolio Edition
• Minimal Crossgrade

Warning: This could be a very large download—up to 6GBs of files. If you can’t handle large downloads, your best option is to purchase the media-only DVD.

Building Your Library

Another question that comes up from time to time from people using our old and new software side by side is if they can continue to purchase Pre-Pubs and other books and get them to work in both versions.

All of our add-on products will work in Logos 3, Logos for Mac 1, and Logos 4 unless otherwise stated. We’ll make sure to put a clear note on the product page if it won’t work on all four platforms. So you can safely purchase for any or all versions of our software that you use.

Disk or Download?

We’re moving in the direction of delivering our products via download. It’s easier and less expensive for us and for you. When you purchase the downloadable version of an individual title or collection, we’ll provide you with instructions for loading the books on all of our platforms. You’ll be able to add your new books to as many platforms as you use.

The disk method, which is usually a CD-ROM, requires that you’re using (or are willing to install) our previous generation software: Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1. If you choose the CD-ROM option, you’ll need to load your new books into Logos 3 or Logos for Mac 1, sync your licenses, and then launch Logos 4. Logos 4 will see the new license and will automatically fetch the files from our server and download them.

So there you have it. Enjoy using your new books on whichever versions of our software you have.

*Some books in Logos 4 are not able available in .lbxlls format for technical reasons (e.g., Logos 4 Media Resources and the new reverse interlinears).

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Logos Bible Software 4 is a professional-level power-tool. Ultimately, it exists to help us facilitate the most worthy pursuit in the universe—God—knowing, glorifying, enjoying, worshipping, and telling others about Him. If you were blessed enough to obtain it, would you want anything less than a professional-level power-tool to even scratch the surface of this inexhaustible and monumental task?

Just like other professional-level software packages that say, for example, run nuclear power plants, you can imagine Logos Bible Software 4 is going to take more than 30 seconds to download, install and get set-up... a lot more. It's not a toy after all, it's a professional-level power-tool.

Logos Bible Software 4 is exciting and we know you'll want to play with your new purchase right away, but remember this one time investment in the proper process will pay dividends for years to come. Here's what to expect.

So, you just purchased or upgraded to Logos 4 and, being confident in your internet connection, you chose the download option. What should you expect from the whole process?

There are three steps to getting set up to use your new software, and the entire process can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days (worst case scenario), depending on (1) the speed of your internet access, (2) the speed of your computer, and (3) the size of your library.

Step 1: Installation and Downloading

After purchase you will be prompted to download Logos4Setup.exe, which is a small (322KB) installer. Once the download finishes, double-click the file to install Logos 4. When installation is complete, you will be prompted to log in to your Logos.com account. Logos 4 will then begin downloading the resources for your package.

Installing a base package is going to require the downloading and installation of many resources and, depending on the number of resources you have in your pre-existing library, could mean many GBs for you to download. Your internet connection and download speeds are going to affect the downloading process and you might want to start the installation process in the evening and leave it to run overnight.

• TIP: Remember, if you are upgrading from a previous Libronix installation your licenses need to be synced in order for Logos 4 to know to transfer and install books that you already have in your collection! This can be done by simply going to Tools > Library Management > Synchronize Licenses in Libronix. If you do not have this option you are running an older version of Libronix DLS and should update to the latest version or call Customer Support at 800-875-6467 for assistance.
• After you sync your licenses, enter your Customer ID (found under Help > About Libronix DLS) in your Logos.com account.

Step 2: Preparing Your Library

After your resources are downloaded, Logos 4 begins preparing your library. During this procedure, Logos 4 is involved in finding files from your Logos 3 installation on your computer (if applicable), copying them to your resources folder, importing data into your Library Catalog, preparing Interlinear management, as well as a host of important processes.

Step 3: Indexing

When Logos 4 is done preparing your library, the program itself will open and you can begin exploring the wealth of tools and resources in your new base package. However, it's not quite ready for full use yet. You'll notice that an icon in the system tray indicates that Logos 4 in now indexing your library to enable you to do amazingly fast searches (more about the indexing process can be found here).

You will begin to enjoy the layout and ease of Logos Bible Software 4 during the indexing process but indexing is an integral part of installation. The power of Logos 4 is not realized until all of your resources are fully indexed. When the indexing is complete you will begin to see exactly what Bible study reimagined looks like.

So, once your computer starts indexing, go enjoy the holiday season by spending time with your family or go bake some cookies (and send some to the Logos office). Once indexing is completed, we are confident you will find that the wait was well worth it!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Based on feedback in the Community Forums, we have made several changes to the Upgrade Discounter. We’ve added new functionality, interactive tools, and an expanded comparison chart that lists even more features in each of the Logos 4 base packages.

The new Upgrade Discounter contains expanded interactive features to help you see what books you already own*, and what new books you’ll get with an upgrade to Logos 4. As you click the different Logos 4 base packages, new rows in the comparison chart are highlighted which show you exactly what new resources you’ll get with an upgrade. Remember, when you upgrade, you keep all of your existing books, plus you get all the new titles that are highlighted.

You’ll also see a savings calculator which changes along with the base package you select. This calculator displays the value of the total content, the approximate value of new content between your old base package and your new Logos 4 base package, plus the upgrade price calculated specifically for you.

Exclusive upgrade discounts are tailored to each individual Logos user. Your upgrade price takes into consideration the limited time introductory offer, the base package you already own, your Pre-Pub purchase history, your overall account history, and more. Using these variables, we calculate the best possible upgrade discount for you. Although we can’t reveal the “secret sauce,” we can assure you that the prices you see in the Upgrade Discounter represent the best upgrade discounts you will see anywhere.

Head on over to the new Upgrade Discounter to play around with the new tools and check out your upgrade options.

*The comparison chart shows you the difference between Logos 3 base package content and Logos 4 base package content. The upgrade calculator takes into account additional resources you may have purchased.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

In Ryan’s helpful post yesterday, he forgot to mention the one other helpful source of information about Logos 4—the growing number of user-created videos showing Logos 4 in action. Even if you’ve already watched our demo video and all our training videos, you’ll definitely want to check out what some of our users have put together.

Mark Barnes, LaRosa Johnson, and John Fidel have all done some very helpful tutorials and reviews of Logos 4. Whether Logos 4 is on your wishlist, you’re new to Logos 4, or you consider yourself a power user, there’s a wealth of helpful information for everyone in these videos.

• Moving from Logos 3 to Logos 4, 14:11, by Mark Barnes
• Introduction to Resource Prioritisation, 17:00, by Mark Barnes
• Advanced Resource Prioritisation, 13:00, by Mark Barnes
• Creating Advanced Dynamic Collections, 16:14, by Mark Barnes
• Creating Nested Dynamic Collections, 10:25, by Mark Barnes
• Preparing a Sermon with Logos, by Mark Barnes
• Getting Started, 15:50
• Note-taking, 15:55
• Exegesis, 17:03
• Writing a Sermon Outline, 15:27
• Logos Bible Software 4 Overview, 59:36, by LaRosa Johnson
• Logos 4 Workflow Ideas, 8:47, by John Fidel
• Studying OT in NT Using Logos 4, 4:50, by John Fidel
• Logos 4 Prepositional Use, 4:27, by John Fidel
• Logos 4 Search Layout, 6:43, by John Fidel
• Logos 4 vs. Logos 3: Part 1, 8:14, by John Fidel
• Logos Bible Software 4 Reading Layout, 3:02, by John Fidel
• My Favorite Things in Logos 4: Clippings, Biblical People, and Power Lookup, 3:52, by John Murphy
• My Layout, 4:18, Justin

If I missed your video, I apologize. Please post a link in the comments, and I’ll make sure to add it.

If Mark, LaRosa, and John have inspired you to make a video of your own, please let us know so we can share it with other users. If you’re looking for a free screen capture tool, I’d recommend Jing.

Who knows? We might just have to give out a prize for the best video!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Like many companies in the US, Logos will be closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday. While we may be closed, we realize that many of you will be using, buying, or simply wanting to learn more about Logos 4. Since we won't be in today to answer your questions, I thought I'd put together some links that might help you out.

• First, for those of you who are browsing Logos.com today and thinking about buying Logos 4, you might want to start by viewing the Logos 4 demo. This 4 minute video gives you a brief demonstration of what Logos 4 is all about.
• After that, if you're interested in seeing more footage, head over to our video page where we have over 50 videos highlighting many of the new features of Logos 4.
• With videos behind you, visit www.logos.com/products to take a look at all our base packages.
• After viewing those pages, you'll want to stop by our special discount page to see what sort of sweet offers we have for our new and existing customers. When you visit the page, be sure to login or create a Logos.com account so you can see a custom price tailored just for you.
• Once you have a good idea of what all your options are for Logos 4, read through the special FAQ we created for people considering the purchase. This will help answer some of the question you may have, or didn't even know you had.
• Finally, if you're looking for more information, head over to our community forums where there are literally hundreds of conversations about Logos 4. Join in the discussion and ask any questions you may have. The community is more than happy to help you out.

• As I mentioned in the above section, you should head over to www.logos.com/upgrade. Whether you are an existing user or new to Logos, this page will give you the best price for all our base packages. Be sure to login or sign up for a Logos.com account to see the best price.
• Before completing your purchase, be sure to read this FAQ. We outline some important information that will help make your purchase and installation run more smoothly.
• If you're looking for something to do while you wait for Logos 4 to install, check out our videos and visit our community forums.

• Our customer service department has been pulling extended hours and weekend shifts for the last 3 1/2 weeks to help all our users get used to their new software. While they are getting their well-deserved rest today, our community forums are here for you 24 hours a day.
• If you haven't seen our training and feature tutorial videos, be sure to check them out.
• Be sure you catch up on all our Logos 4 blog posts from the past couple weeks. There is a lot of great information in there.

So, there you have it. I hope that this information helps you out. If you need further assistance, we'll be in the office bright and early Friday morning. Wait, who am I kidding, we live in Bellingham, WA. We'll be in the office dark, cold, rainy, and early Friday morning.

Finally, from everyone at Logos, we truly hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Logos Bible Software 4 is a powerhouse of tools to help facilitate the deepest of Bible studies. Whether preparing for your personal Bible study or using Logos 4 to work on your doctrinal thesis, you can rest assured that you have the most effective ally in Logos Bible Software. But Logos 4 is not just a great resource for research and study, it is an immersive environment for getting the most out of simply reading from your growing library.

One great aspect of Logos 4 is that, while the in-depth study capabilities are amazing, the simplicity and layout of the program itself is refreshing as well. Logos Bible Software is perfect for analysis, research and your personal devotions. You will find yourself drawn towards pursuing your personal Bible reading and devotions with Logos 4.

Imagine, you wake up in the morning, go through your normal routine and, with your favorite morning beverage, sit down and open Logos 4. Right there on the top of the Home Page is your Reading Plan. Your reading plan is entirely customizable by you.

If you want to see more, simply click on the Bible reading for the day and your customizable Passage Guide open up with your favorite references and commentaries to the passage from this day’s Bible reading. If you want to continue on in your Bible reading F11 puts you into Reading view which maximizes your browser and clears everything but the text that you are reading. The simple, clear layout encourages you to read chapter after chapter.

From the Home Page you can also read today’s passage from your daily devotional which can also be put into reading mode.

There is so much in Logos 4 that enables, not only study, but your ability to get into the word. You can walk away from your desktop and pick up right where you left off from your laptop thanks to the incredible syncing ability of Logos 4. You can arrange your books in whatever format is most helpful and Logos 4 automatically saves a snapshot of your layout so that you can pick up where you left off.

Logos 4 is a clean, intuitive, and adaptable Bible software that invites you, not just to study the Bible for information’s sake, but to fall in love with simply reading the Scriptures again.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

This past weekend, I had a few conversations with some friends from seminary about Logos Bible Software 4. One of them described his compulsive tendency to regularly check for Libronix updates in the old version of the software. I explained to him that one of the great benefits of Logos 4 is that it updates itself.

In the previous version of Logos, you needed to manually check to make sure you had the latest books and features. If we made an update to a resource, you didn’t get it unless you ran the update. If you unlocked a book, you needed to update Libronix to see it.

With Logos 4, manual updates are a thing of the past. No more syncing your licenses or manually downloading updates to your software. Logos 4 updates while you sleep. It’s always synced with our servers to make sure you have the latest build of the software. New releases, resource updates, and other features are delivered automatically and downloaded the moment they become available. Once updates are downloaded, you'll see a message that asks if you want to install the updates. This means you’ll always have the latest and greatest.

Even better, all of your content is backed up. You can have the peace of mind that all your documents—notes, clippings, custom guides, and more—are safely stored on our servers. If your computer crashes, simply reinstall Logos 4, and all your data will be restored—right where you left it. You can even see exactly when Logos 4 is syncing to the servers.

We’re adding lots of features to Logos 4 in the near future. We’re constantly rebuilding many of our resources to make them even better. And we’re fine-tuning the software and making improvements around the clock based on customer feedback and discussion in the Logos Community Forums. You’ll receive all of these updates the moment they’re available—automatically and effortlessly.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Today's post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos training seminars.

Congratulations on securing Logos Bible Software 4! This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the world’s most powerful AND easy to use software. If you're not already, you will soon be studying the Bible in ways you never thought possible.

Many of the features are obvious and self explanatory. For example, to launch a Bible study from the Home Page just enter a biblical reference in the passage box and click Go. In mere moments your computer screen transforms into a desk or kitchen table with numerous reports and resources open ready for your investigation!

To insure that you have an enjoyable and profitable experience with Logos Bible Software 4, we’ve prepared various means for you to get help when you need it.

First, click the question mark (?) icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to access quick reference Help files. The search feature allows you to jump just to the article you need.

Also, in your software sleeve you’ll see a disk labeled PC Videos containing instructional videos prepared by my company, mp|seminars. You can watch and listen as you learn to execute numerous Logos features.

In addition, these same videos as well as numerous other tutorials are located at Logos.com.

For more in-depth training materials and seminars you can visit mpseminars.com for additional information.

Enjoy your Bible study with Logos!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

...use the Logos Community Forums!

With the launch of our most significant product ever—Logos Bible Software 4—there are bound to be some questions. As you can imagine, our phone lines are busier than ever with excited callers trying to either order the brand new collections, upgrade to the new packages, or get answers to some very common questions on this completely "new to everyone" product.

We’ve tried to answer some of the most common questions on our product pages, in our Technical FAQ, and in our General FAQ. As always, we are happy to try to answer any other questions you may have over the phone, but our lines are so busy right now (even with extended hours until 9:00 PM Pacific, additional staffing, and lots of overtime) that wait times are much longer than normal.

We want to be completely honest and up front about this new release: it's not just new to you, it's new to us, it's new to everyone. As we all know, "new" is exciting, "new" is scary, "new" is different... "new" will initiate many questions that may require some trial and error, patience, experimentation and hanging out in the user forums, tutorials, and support pages to learn more. Yes, our sales and support staff have seen the product and received training on how to handle the typical support issues related to installation and indexing, but we are finding that many of the calls that come in are more related to training than support or service issues. Typically these are calls from customers that have upgraded to a completely new software platform and their questions are related to how they would do things in the new software, where their favorite feature is located now, and typical new user training on a brand new platform after years of experience with the old one. Since our "service and support" staffs are only set up for "service and support" it can be frustrating for everyone involved when the only answer that we can give after an hour on hold is, "that's a training issue".

In order to provide the best possible service and training we place as much information as possible on the web. We are putting up more content, videos, and support all the time. The sales and support staff are so busy answering the flood of phone calls, that they actually have less time than you to read the information we are adding to the web daily. In other words, right now, you may be more of an expert on the product than any one random representative is (don't worry, as soon as we can come up for air, we'll pass ya').

If you don’t want to sit on hold for a very long time only to discover that just five minutes on the web could have answered all your questions, there’s a much faster way to get help. We have an active group of users in our community forums who do an amazing job helping new users and answering questions.

The quickest and best way to get your problem solved is to click on Forums in the top left-hand corner of any of our websites and search for the answer. Chances are someone else has already asked your question.

Here are some things you might have questions about that the forums could give you quick answers to:

1. How long will it take to download my base package?
2. How long will it take to install and index my base package?
3. Where is my favorite feature?
4. How do I do x, y, or z?
5. How do I install my base package on a new or additional computer?
6. How do I get Logos 3 versions of my new books so I can run both platforms side by side?
7. What’s the best way to uninstall Logos 3?
8. I’m getting an error. What does it mean? How can I fix it?
9. How do I get my books to show up on the iPhone app?
10. I thought Logos 4 was supposed to be super fast. Why does it seem to be slower for me?

Questions like these and many, many more are discussed and answered on the forums by some of our most knowledgeable users. Logos staff make appearances as well. The answer to your question may even come from our president, Bob Pritchett.

If you’ve searched but can’t find the answer to your particular question, feel free to start a new thread. You may be surprised by how quickly someone answers your question.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Almost everyone choosing to continue reading this post after such a stern warning, still won't be in the market for this collection. It is so massive and out of reach for the average consumer that we almost didn't tell people about it at all. Think of it like the super-secret Centurion Card. Only a handful of people will ever own this package—and that's okay—it is not for everyone.

We realize we are taking a big risk even telling people about this package at all. It is sure to be misunderstood and criticized for stereotypical American extravagance, excess, greed, pride, or [insert preferred accusation of evil here].

The reason we are taking the risk to even discuss it, is because we tried to hide it from the beginning and when people heard about it later, they complained that we never let them know to begin with. As you will see in the following description, the Portfolio Edition is the best way to get the largest library of quality content at the lowest possible price. You'll read more later, but to give you a preview, it contains over $31,000.00 worth of print titles (more than 1,550 resources) all for pennies on the dollar. Don't let the price-tag fool you—it is actually the most economical way to build the largest library we have ever offered.

Base packages always offer the best chance to get the most content at the lowest price, and bigger base packages are better deals. Since the biggest base package is always the best deal, some customers just want the biggest and best. It affords them the chance to save the most on their books and resources.

Until recently, our largest base package had always been Scholar’s Library: Gold. It’s a great deal, packed with hundreds of Bibles, commentaries, reference material, and lots of other resources. But with the release of Logos Bible Software 4, the time was right to introduce a bigger base package—much bigger.

Portfolio is by far the largest library we’ve ever offered. It represents a major milestone in the publication of biblical and theological reference books, with more than 1,550 resources. Here are some highlights:

• 450+ Volumes of Bible Commentaries.
  The Pillar New Testament Commentary, the New International Greek Testament Commentary, the New American Commentary, the Baker New Testament Commentary, the UBS Handbook Series, the JPS Tanakh Commentaries, Keil & Delitzsch, Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae, the Holman New Testament Commentary, and several more sets are included in Portfolio.
• Greek and Hebrew Helps.
  100+ volumes of grammars, lexicons, and more for Greek and Hebrew study. You’ll also find dozens of original language texts, including the major Greek and Hebrew texts.
• Preaching and Ministry.
  Portfolio comes with over 100 resources on preaching, teaching, and ministry, including 10,000+ sermon illustrations, quotations, and other helps. It also includes an 80-volume ministry resource library, with resources on everything from youth ministry to small groups.
• Theological Study.
  Nearly 300 resources from the church’s most influential theologians, such as Wolfhart Pannenberg, Lewis Sperry Chafer, A. W. Pink, Carl F. H. Henry, Charles Hodge, John Piper, R. A. Torrey, and dozens more. You’ll also find volumes on topics such as baptism, creation, election, ecclesiology, sin, and more.

To put this in perspective, if you were building a print library this big, you would need to buy a book every week for the next 29 years, and you would spend more than $31,000 for the print editions (not adjusted for inflation). To store all your books, you would need over 160 feet of new shelf space—that’s a dozen new bookcases. With print, however, you wouldn’t have any of the high speed search functionality, Passage Guides and Exegetical Guides, media resources, Word Studies, customization, or any of the other new features in Logos Bible Software 4.

The price of Portfolio is similar to what you would pay for only a few of the print commentary sets, except with Portfolio, you’ll get the commentaries you want, plus over a thousand additional books, all for the same price. Better yet, spread out the cost over the next year with a payment plan. You can apply your monthly book budget to each payment to begin using your entire library right away.

If you’re a power user, and you want a lot of new content at some of the best prices you’ll ever find, consider upgrading to Logos Bible Software 4: Portfolio Edition.

We want to make sure it is crystal clear once more—this is probably not for you.
If you are happy with your existing library and never plan on buying a book again, just move along, there's nothing to see here. However, if you are like a lot of book lovers, and you realize that you are already spending your book budget, your travel budget, your kids education fund, your entertainment budget, and your milk money on more and more books—and have already spent thousands of dollars on books in the past few years—you would be crazy not to get this.

Take this "kitchen sink" now to end your book purchasing habit once and for all, then start saving your money, give your money away, be more hospitable, care for the poor, bless your church, family and friends, take your wife/husband/kids on a trip, buy Logos for someone that can't afford it at all... "Love God, and do as you please."

If you already have a Logos base package, we have some limited time introductory offers available for upgrades to the Portfolio Edition. Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for.

Not ready for the Portfolio Edition, but looking for something smaller?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available on all of our base packages.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to the brand new Logos 4 base packages.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Prior to Logos 4 launching, I had the opportunity to sit in a number of meetings where Bob would show us many of the new features and functionality being built into the program. I remember in those meetings hearing people in the room say "wow" over and over again as Bob described all that Logos 4 would do.

One "wow, that's cool!" moment for me was when I first saw the power of the collections tool. Specifically, I was blown away by the ability to enter some simple rules and that Logos 4 would automatically include any new resources I add to my library that meet the criteria. In fact, I think one of the first things I did when I finally got a pre-release version of Logos 4 was to set up a collection that included my favorite authors. Now, not only is it quick and easy for me to search through all my resources written by my favorite authors, but whenever I add a new title (like the upcoming Calvin 500 collection) these resources are automatically added to my collection. I don't have to do anything!

To see the power of dynamic, rule-based collections in action, watch this video:

See more videos at http://www.logos.com/videos.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
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To have a grasp on the biblical languages once required years of study. For those who wanted to dabble in understanding some Greek and Hebrew works they might add a Vine's Expository Dictionary or many of the other print helps available to give one a rudimentary understanding of key Greek and Hebrew words.

Maybe you have studied Greek and Hebrew in seminary but your skills are just not what they used to be. With the Exegetical Guide in Logos 4, your passage of Scripture is analyzed for you, word by word, in its original language, and definitions are displayed from dictionaries. You can also get insight from leading grammarians, see where biblical manuscripts differ, and observe the structure of the text.

The Bible Word Study gathers extensive information on any word in the Bible, whether Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, and shows you how the word is translated and how it functions. It also shows you where else it is used in ancient literature.

Reverse interlinears are built right into many of Logos 4's English Bibles which allows you to see the Greek or Hebrew behind your text. Simply highlight a portion of text in one interlinear, and Logos 4 will highlight the corresponding text in other open Bibles. You can see immediately how the Greek and Hebrew was translated in other translations.

Logos Bible Software 4 is not just powerful for language studies. Search your resources with its lightning fast search engine which can scan your whole library in a second. Print brand new, high-resolution infographics that are PowerPoint ready to illustrate some of your major points in sermons, essays or Bible studies. This can all be done in an interface that is completely intuitive and adaptable to your study needs.

If you haven't upgraded to Logos 4 yet, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to streamline your study and work smarter, not harder.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

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The 3.0 version of Logos Bible Software has been out in the marketplace for several years, and it works pretty well. Still, it was built on an underlying technology that was better suited to 1999 than 2009, and has been starting to show its age. That, and I've always thought it could use a little more design.

So, four years ago, we embarked on a ground-up rewrite of the software and a ground-up redesign of the user interface. Yes, we re-used some of the code that shows a book on screen, some of the searching internals, and so on. But the user interface, the part that users see and interact with, is completely new.

My role in the Logos 4 rewrite was "designer", which means I spent a lot of time making pages like this:

I like to think of it this way:

• If a software project is like a construction site, then I'm like the architect. I drew the plans. I didn't build anything, and the core ideas weren't mine. Still, I made a thousand tiny decisions every day, pondering such imponderables as: Link or button or link button? What happens when you click it? Where best to put it?
• Bob (the President of Logos) was like the owner/client. It's really his baby. He has ideas, lots of them. Sometimes he scribbles them on my whiteboard. My job as designer is to translate his ideas, along with customer feedback, marketing input, and a thousand other streams of information and opinion into workable designs.
• The lead developers are like engineers. If an architect says, "We're going to build a 10,000 square foot room with no support columns" the engineer is there to tell him that it can't be done. Or that it can, but not with the budget we've been allocated. When it comes right down to it, the designs are just suggestions of what could be; once you get out to the job site and start sinking knee deep in the mud, your pretty blueprints may not count for much.
• The other devs are like the tradesmen and craftsmen who actually do the work. Like carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and painters, they are all highly skilled at making wonderful things. The Logos team is the best. I'm sure Google and Microsoft have great teams, but the Logos dev team is a highly motivated, highly intelligent, highly worthy group of men and women.

In the process, I tried to adhere to three design principles that I shamelessly stole from the Shakers:

(1) Is it necessary? This is all about prioritizing the design goals, and not getting carried away with the client's/user's/marketeer's exuberance. You try not to build the bad ideas, but given that you've only got so much time and effort, sometimes you can't even build all the great ones, either. So the first question boils down to: Can we ship without this? We were relentlessly minimal about the design of Logos 4; it's fully featured, but nothing on screen is wasted. At every turn, we asked ourselves: What's the simplest thing that could possibly work? One of the mottos we used was: "What you need, when you need it."

(2) Does it suit its purpose? This is really the hard one, because you have to know what goals a given feature is trying to accomplish, and then you have to figure out how to measure whether or not they were, in fact, accomplished. You can fail at either end: Identifying the right goals won't help much if you build something that doesn't accomplish them. Testing a product to death won't help much if you've identified the wrong goals. "Yes, it does the wrong thing entirely, but it does it really well!"

(3) Can it be beautiful? I don't do final art, and I don't make pixel-perfect specifications, but I do try to make sure my mockup screens and specification documents look as good as possible. Why? Because I find it's not that much harder for me to do, and it gives everyone, from client to developer to art designer a better vision of what we're trying to accomplish.

If those three goals can be achieved, then you've hit that sweet spot we designers like to call "elegance." With Logos 4, I think we did. (I may be biased, of course.)

The design work doesn't stop there: Parallel to Logos 4, we designed an iPhone app for Logos library resources, and we're working on several other projects that I can't tell you about. Yet.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

The new Logos Bible Software iPhone app has totally revolutionized "Bible study on the go." There have already been more than 10,000 downloads within the first few days of release—all from a simple Twitter announcement that it was available. Seconds later, a flood of "re-tweets" and social networking word-of-mouth lit up the Internet, and that's just the beginning. So what is this incredible app that has taken off like a rocket? A whole new way to access Bible study on the go.

At its most basic level, this free download from the App Store will give you immediate access to more than 30 Bibles* from http://bible.logos.com—Bibles including great translations like the ESV, NLT, NASB, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

...but wait, there's more!

When you sign up for a free account with Logos you will gain access to about another 30 free books!

...but wait, there's more!

When you register your account with Logos.com you will be able to access any free books from publishers that want to showcase new titles, or random books that we offer from time to time on free preview. You never know what might show up in your Logos Bible Software iPhone library some day. Imagine picking up your iPhone and seeing the hottest new title available in your library for free preview! One book per month, week, day? Who knows!

...but wait, there's more!

Add any Logos 4 base package and watch your resources grow as much of your library is synced with your iPhone or iPod Touch; the resources are available and your favorites, bookmarks and settings are transferred from one platform to another. Walk away from your desktop or laptop and your location is saved in the books you are using so that you can pick up where you left off on your iPhone.

The Logos iPhone app is so much more than a simple Bible reader. Mobile Bible study is transformed with multiple versions of the Bible that can be read, searched, cross referenced and compared. You can set-up reading plans that are synced from your desktop or laptop so your Bible reading is always on schedule. In addition, finding a passage is as easy as typing in the reference, using the book navigator, or dragging the scrollbar to the right location.

This application was created with the desire to bring the functionality of Logos Bible Software 4 to your iPhone. In particular, the ability to dig deeper into Scripture with the Passage Guide. Enter a verse and click “Go” to receive a report linking directly to commentaries referencing your verse. The Passage Guide also provides cross references, media resources, topics, and interesting words—all linked to resources in your library.

Do an in-depth Bible Word Study from anywhere by a simple "tap and hold" on any word, in a Bible with a reverse interlinear, and a pop-up will display the English word along with all the original language information. From this pop-up, click Bible Word Study to see the definition, pronunciation, translations, and example uses of the various translations.

Right about now you should be getting the idea that you need this app, you need it now, and you need to register it right away. There is simply no other Bible app that is this intuitive, intelligent and easy to use.

For more information check out some great screenshots and information, read our FAQs, and check out some customer reviews at the app store!

If for no other reason than to fully integrate your Bible study with your iPhone, you need to get a Logos 4 base package today. If you are a new user, check out the detailed information we have just posted about the most advanced Bible software in the world at our Logos 4 mini-site and if you are an existing Logos customer check out the limited time upgrade discounts available for you today.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

* The list of e-books that can be read through Logos Bible Software is changing constantly as we secure rights and convert resources. Not all Bibles are linked word-for-word to the Greek and Hebrew yet.

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Thomas, married father of four, is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute with a BA in Pastoral Ministry. He has pastored Fame Evangelical Church in Moweaqua, IL for eleven years. For the last five years Pastor Black has travelled to Haiti to teach a two week seminary module on Spiritual Warfare at the Emmaus Biblical Seminary (carrying his Logos Bible Software with him.)

We touched base this morning via Windows Messenger about his experience.

Logos: When did you start using Logos Bible Software?

Thomas Black: I picked up my first copy of Logos 2 just after starting ministry. It came with just a few resources—I don't recall the level. I don't recall being wowed by the interface but I used it a bit.

Logos: Were you with us for the switch to 3.0?

Thomas Black: Around that time I went into the local bookstore to pick up some Sunday school materials, and the bookshelf had one book which included a copy of Libronix on it. That's when I first heard there was a version 3. I couldn't resist it. I picked it up, and ran home. I'm a bit of a computer geek and couldn't resist a new bit of software. It was the newness that caught me—rather than the resource itself. Once I installed it, I thought, "This is what Bible software should be like!" I snapped up a few more resources after that and it wasn't long before I bought the Scholar’s Library package and then moved up to Scholar’s Library: Silver, then to Gold.

Logos: Was it difficult to keep Logos 4 a secret during the beta testing?

Thomas Black: Keeping Logos 4 a secret almost killed me. I host a blog and occasionally someone would ask me and I just had to keep quiet. Several times I or one of the other beta testers would accidentally post something in the wrong forum—thanks to sharp eyes we managed against the odds to keep the secret.

Logos: What were your initial feelings about Logos 4 as you began to interact with it?

Thomas Black: At first, I was one of the detractors to the interface. I hated the home page. That's not an overstatement. After a few days, and listening to responses from Bob, I started settling in. I saw the logic of introducing all kinds of new information to us. It was like the "book of the day" section on the Libronix 3 home page had grown to many books of the day, and I saw that as a good thing. I started to understand that the newspaper-like layout was meant to pull me in to areas I might not look at otherwise—and it worked. I've rediscovered many resources I forgot I had.

Logos: Did you find that Logos was responsive during the beta-testing?

Thomas Black: I thought the whole crew at Logos was amazing. I was really impressed with the attitudes of Bob, and all the programmers and others as they kept responding not only to bug reports but sometimes to some pretty strong criticism. Occasionally plans were changed midstream in response. The whole experience was quite positive. I know that you were all listening to us as beta-testers. We didn't always get our way but we all knew that our voices were heard.

Logos: How did the Logos 4 experience change as updates started to come?

Thomas Black: There are two answers to that one: first, it was partially frustrating especially as multi-gigabyte updates came down the pipe. Those were tough. Second, the experience continually improved. Every update of the program was better, smoother, faster and always there was an impressive batch of bug fixes. My hat is off to the programmers at Logos. They were working long hard hours at a feverish pace for two months. The evidence of their labor is on my desktop right now waiting for me to continue my studies.

Logos: Did you feel that camaraderie was created with you and the other beta-testers through the experience?

Thomas Black: I had a blast with those guys! Several of us already knew of each other from the former newsgroups, but I really felt like during the beta, due to our frequent interactions, that our relationships grew quite a bit. There was quite a bit of good natured ribbing going on, and despite that, no one, that I can recall, got their feelings hurt. They were a great group of people to work with.

Logos: If you were showing Logos 4 to someone unfamiliar with using Bible software for study and devotion what items would you highlight for them and why?

Thomas Black: Great question . . . first, I'd begin with pointing out the obvious things. Enter your passage and click go still applies. It's simple and yet quite powerful due to the built-in (and customizable) Passage Guide. After that, I'd work them through the library, just learning how to find out what you have in there is powerful. If they don't learn how to use the library, they're not going to get everything out of the software. Beyond that, I think the software can take even the novice where they want to go almost naturally.

Logos: Thanks so much for giving me some of your time this morning and I appreciate your candor.

Thomas Black: You're welcome. Thanks to you and the whole Logos crew. This has been a great experience.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

We are merely hours into the release of Logos Bible Software 4, and while many of you have already waited for your massive libraries to index, you may have caught yourself thinking, "I thought Logos 4 was supposed to be fast. What happened to 'What You Need, When You Need It'?"

Logos 4 takes searching to a whole new realm with faster, smarter searching. And unlike most search engines, Logos 4 provides matches for synonyms! For those missing the significance of this, if you are searching for articles on communion, no search engine is going to bring results back for synonyms like the Lord's Supper or Eucharist. Nor will the other search engines ask you if you wanted a closely related topic like fellowship. This is the difference with Logos 4. We have gone through hundreds of topics and manually connected them to relative terms.

In order to do such searches, however, every word and every term in the thousands of books available for Logos needs to be indexed during installation. This allows Logos 4 to search a library of 10–10,000 books and return thousands of results in under one second—less time than it takes to pull one print book off your shelf! Nearly 63,000 hits for communion in 35,951 articles in less than 1 second means more time studying and less time searching.

It's true, this functionality takes a significant amount of time to install—an investment of your time in the beginning—but what you get in return later on is a fulfillment to what we promised from the start, "What You Need, When You Need It." Indexing your entire library allows the time consuming hindrances to be removed so you can get right to the task of serious Bible study.

Indexing. Think of it as if you were waiting for UPS to deliver your Amazon order. A little patience and investment of time up front—during installation—means that later on, whether you're preparing for next Sunday's sermon, working on your dissertation, or having your daily devotional time, Logos 4 will deliver thousands of relevant results —fast!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

In the history of our company, Base Package Upgrades have generally been the best way to get a tremendous amount of new content for minimal cost. The release of Logos Bible Software 4 is no exception.

Upgrading your base package gives you all the benefits of Logos 4—a revolutionary tool for Bible study. Logos 4 has a brand new Home Page to get you started, powerful (and fast!) new search tools, an intuitive and easy-to-use design, plus lots of other new features.

When you upgrade, you get a tremendous amount of new content for minimal cost. You could potentially get hundreds of books for up to 95% off. We’ve added lots of new content to every base package—new Bible translations, reverse interlinears, commentary sets, reference material, preaching and ministry resources, and a whole lot more. Depending on your situation, you could easily double or triple your current library at minimal cost to you. Take a look at the comparison chart on logos.com/upgrade to see the sheer number of new books we’ve added to our collections.

With an upgrade to Logos 4, you can take advantage of today’s most advanced tools designed specifically with Logos Bible Software 4 in mind. Visualize the Bible with new people, places, and things databases. Zoom into the Holy Land with interactive, topographical maps linked with coordinates to Google Maps. Get an additional perspective on the place you’re exploring with thousands of images and photographs—all viewable with the new media resource functionality of Logos 4. You can also interact with the stories of Scripture with high resolution Infographics commissioned specifically for the release of Logos 4. Logos 4 also comes with new one-of-a-kind databases, stunning graphics, and a whole lot more.

You have nothing to lose. Literally. You will retain all of your current resources when you upgrade. When you buy an electronic book from Logos, you will never lose your book. And we’ll never make you buy the same book twice. That means if you’ve recently purchased new books, and now decided to upgrade, you won’t lose the resources you’ve purchased. You’ll simply add a significant amount of new content at a fraction of the cost. You keep everything you’ve purchased in the past—and you'll gain dozens, hundreds, or maybe over a thousand new books at a significant discount, depending on your situation.

For the initial release period, we’re offering discounts on all upgrades. Visit the custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a new Logos 4 base package. If you’ve been thinking of expanding your library, the release of Logos 4 presents you with the perfect opportunity. Upgrade today!

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Today we are announcing the all-new Logos Bible Software 4, designed from scratch to accomplish our goal of helping more people do more and better Bible study.

The leading Bible software products available today (including our own Libronix DLS 3.0) are powerful tools designed 10-20 years ago. Most Bible software companies were started in a day when users owned screwdrivers for opening their computer case and knew what a DIP switch was. Our software was designed for people who liked technology and were comfortable with it.

Today everybody has a computer, and everybody isn't a computer-geek. A computer is just one more tool in your life for doing whatever it is you want to do, from Bible study to photography to water skiing.

While technology has moved into the mainstream, it hasn't stopped improving. We re-invented Logos Bible Software repeatedly to stay on the cutting edge of technology and user interface. But the edge keeps moving.

Our last product couldn't anticipate the incredible inter-connectedness of today's users, with widespread broadband, wireless, and mobile-phone Internet. Today's leading programming language didn't even exist when we designed the Libronix DLS. Apple and Microsoft have changed processors, operating systems, and more. And, most importantly, the customer base has changed: today's Bible student with a computer isn't a computer hobbyist. We are appliance users who expect power, elegance, and simplicity. We want computers to be like our toasters, TV's, and cars. Turn them on and they just work.

This generation needed yet another back-to-the-drawing-board approach to Bible software. And we were glad to do it. Because only by starting with a clean slate can you leave behind mistakes and poor choices. Only facing an empty whiteboard can you design an architecture that isn't constrained by the limitations of long-gone hardware and operating systems. Only by abandoning your existing product can you truly hear what your users want in a world unconstrained by yesterday's designs.

Throwing it all away and starting over is incredibly rare in the software world. It is considered a dangerous business decision. It puts years between major releases and increases development costs. And the better your existing product is, the more your new product upsets existing users, many of whom just wanted a few small improvements.

But it is the only way to take advantage of the latest technology. It is the only way to design for today's users, and their expectations about elegant design, powerful features, and Internet integration. It is the only way to keep some of the world's finest software developers interested and engaged. (It's no fun maintaining a decades-old codebase.)

Starting over takes courage, but it is the only way to do something extraordinary.

Logos Bible Software 4 is not an upgrade. Logos 4 is Bible software re-imagined. To help you do more and better Bible study.

Already a Logos Bible Software user?
Visit our custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Want to be a Logos Bible Software user?
New customers should visit http://www.logos.com/4 to learn more and see what discounts are currently available.

You should follow us on Twitter here.