Morris Proctor's Tips & Tricks

Libronix consists of two primary types of e-books: versified and topically indexed. Versified books are organized according to Bible chapters and verses. Bibles and commentaries are examples of versified books. Type a Bible reference in their Current Reference Box to navigate through them. Topically indexed books are organized by topic. Dictionaries and lexicons are primary examples. Type a word like Paul or Rome in their Current Reference Box to move through them. Other books however may possess topics. It's very helpful to know if an e-book has been tagged with topics because if it has it can be searched with the Topic Bowser, which is more effective than a simple word search. To discover if a book possesses topics, open the resource and click the Active Index icon on its toolbar. If Topics is in the list, the book contains topics. Some books that you may not realize contain topics include the Early Church Fathers, Max Lucado's books, Logos Deluxe Map Set, and Daily Study Bible Series. Try searching any of them with the Topic Browser.

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Most of the time you don't want to search all of your e-books at once because you'll be overwhelmed with information. Instead you want to search smaller collections of books that you create. Choose Tools | Library Management | Define Collections. Click New and name the collection. Now add the books from the left that you want in the collection. When you open a search dialog or browser, look in the In drop down list to locate your collections. Create collections around your favorite author like Oswald Chambers, RC Sproul, or Norm Geisler. Also create collections for various subjects like Theology Books, Church History Books, or Sermon Illustration Books. Using collections you can zero in on what a certain author or category of books has to say about a verse, word, or topic.

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Most open Libronix e-books have a Current Location box that allows you to navigate through the book. Click the cursor inside the box to activate it. Now type a location, press Enter and your book moves there. For example, in Bibles and commentaries type a Bible reference. In dictionaries, lexicons and encyclopedias type a word. Moving the cursor inside the box each time you want to move is tedious so try this keystroke shortcut. Press Ctrl + G or Tab to activate the Current Location box!

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Wuest's Word Studies in the Greek New Testament is great resource for word study if you can ever find the information. The four volume print edition doesn't have a master index. In print you spend most of your time just trying to find the definitions of words. Watch how Libronix enhances the book's value.

1. Open Wuest's Word Studies in the Greek New Testament.
   
2. Choose Go | Topic Browser. Set the In box to Wuest.
   
3. Type grace in the Find box. Click Search.
   
4. Click grace in Topics list.

Now you'll see all of Wuest's information about grace in the Articles with Topic list! Click an article to open it.

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The Libronix linking feature is most often used to link versified books like Bibles and commentaries. You can however also link topically indexed books like dictionaries and lexicons. For example, open a couple of Bible dictionaries like Easton's Bible Dictionary and New Bible Dictionary. On each window's toolbar click the Links (chain link) icon and select Set A. Type Moses in one Current Location box, press the Enter key and both books jump to the article for Moses. This tip saves you time when you're conducting topical studies from multiple resources. Also, try this with your Hebrew and Greek Lexicons!

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I'm constantly asked, "Morris, do you spend a lot of time just reading books on the computer screen? If so, don't your eyes get tired?" The answers are yes and no! I do read a lot but my eyes usually don't get tired. Here's what I do when I have to read a lot of text from the same resource. Open an e-book like Edersheim's Bible History: Old Testament. Maximize the window so that it fills the screen. Using the Zoom icon on the main toolbar significantly enlarge the text size. Now use the Page Up and Down keys to "turn the pages" as you read. I think you'll discover you may be able to read even faster from the screen rather than the printed page.

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If you haven't yet discovered The Message by Eugene Peterson, I encourage you to spend some time with it. It's a modern paraphrase of the Bible. Use it like you would a devotional commentary. You'll notice however, there are no verses in The Message only chapters. You can change that. With The Message as the active window choose View | Bible Text Only. That's what we call Instant Versification!

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