Morris Proctor's Tips & Tricks

As mentioned in a previous blog Logos recently released The John Piper Sermon Manuscript Library. Here's how to locate sermons on a particular topic or passage from library:

• After installing the sermon library click the small black arrow next to the Home icon on the toolbar
• Choose Sermons from John Piper from the list of Home pages
• When his Home Page opens click the Browse tab

Now you can browse his sermons by Series, Topic, Occasion, or Scripture!

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Logos recently released The John Piper Sermon Manuscript Library. Someone e-mailed me asking how to get these sermons to show up in the Passage Guide. Here’s what you need to do:

Create a Collection

• Choose Tools | Define Collections
• Click New
• Name the Collection
• Type Piper in the Find box
• Click,one at a time, the three volumes of Sermons from John Piper
• Click Add
• Click OK
• Click Close

Add the Collection to the Passage Guide

• Open the Passage Guide
• Click Properties on the Passage Guide
• Click the box next to the Collections section
• Click the box next to your Piper’s Sermons Collection
• Click OK

Now when you generate a Passage Guide John Piper’s sermons for your passage will be listed in the report!

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I have received several e-mails recently asking various questions about the Theological Journal Library (TJL). So today I’ll show you how to search them for an author.

Author Search

The authors of the journal articles have been identified in a separate field so you can easily perform a field search for all of the articles written by a particular author:

• Open the Basic Search dialog from the Search menu
• Set the In list to desired journals
• Type this text for a Field search: Author: Carson or Author: Grudem
• Click Search
• All of the articles written by your author are listed

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I have received several e-mails recently asking various questions about the Theological Journal Library (TJL). So today I’ll show you how to search them for a phrase.

Phrase Search

I don’t encourage you to do simple word searches in journals because you’ll receive a large number of results that are difficult to go through. Phrase searches, however, may prove to be very helpful:

• Open the Basic Search dialog from the Search menu
• Set the In list to desired journals
• Type your desired phrase in the Search box and make sure to enclose it within the double quotation marks like: “replacement theology” or “open theism”
• Click Search

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I have received several e-mails recently asking various questions about the Theological Journal Library (TJL). So today I’ll show you how to search them for a biblical passage.

Bible Reference Search

As with all Libronix resources you can search the journals for every time a specific verse is mentioned:

• Open the Reference Browser from the Go menu
• Set the In list to desired journals
• Select Bible as the Type
• Type a Bible reference in the Find box like 2 Tim 3.16 or Romans 7:9
• Select your desired Match option
• Click Search
• All of the occurrences of your passage are listed. Click one to jump to that location.

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I have received several e-mails recently asking various questions about the Theological Journal Library (TJL). So today I’ll pass along a couple tips on searching the journals.

Search Collections

First, when you install the TJL, Libronix collections are created for each journal as well as a complete collection of all the journals. To see these collections:

• Open the Galaxie Software Home Page in Libronix by clicking the small black arrow next to the Home icon on your Libronix toolbar (opening this home page one time after installation is what creates the collections for you)
• Open the Basic Search, Topic Browser or Reference Browser and click on the In drop down list to select which journals to search

Of course you can create your own search collections of journals at Tools | Define Collections.

Topic Search

There are several helpful ways to search the journals including by topic, Bible reference, phrase or author.

The journals are topically indexed so you can easily search them with the Topic Browser:

• Open the Topic Browser from the Go menu
• Set the In list to desired journals
• Type a single word in the Find box like redemption or inerrancy
• Click Search
• All of the Topics containing your word are listed
• Click a specific topic from the list to display all of the locations for that topic

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As I explain in Camp Logos, not all Libronix books are created the same. Some Libronix e-books are indexed according to topics while others are not. Topically indexed books imply that somehow, some way the pages of the books have been tagged according to the subject matter on them. Such books can be searched with the Topic Browser yielding more specific results than those books merely searched by word with the Basic Search dialog. In other words, would you rather find every occurrence of the word “suffering” in your library or where that “subject” is discussed in a meaningful way?

Resources such as the Early Church Fathers, Theological Journals and Max Lucado books have all been topically indexed. Does this mean that non-topically indexed books are useless? Obviously not. It just means we have to employ some creativity in searching them. I like using a proximity search. With this proximity search we simulate topics on the page. For example, RC Sproul’s book Surprised by Suffering is not topically indexed. So we need to search for multiple words close to one another. Here’s how to do it:

• Open a non-topically indexed book like Surprised by Suffering
• Choose Search | Basic Search
• Set the In box to your book
• Type a query like this in the box: suffer within 7 words purpose
• Click Search

This search finds all the places in the book where suffer (suffering, suffers, etc.) occur within 7 words of purpose. In essence we’re looking for the “topic” the purpose of suffering.

To get really powerful type this in the Search box: suffer within 7 words (purpose,goal,reason)

Now we’ll find every time suffer occurs within 7 words of purpose or goal or reason all with one search!

The proximity search is not quite as powerful as a topic search but it is much better than just searching for a single word.

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As you probably know, the goal of Bible study is to transport ourselves back to biblical times seeking to understand a passage the way the original author intended it for his original audience. This can be difficult at times because our culture is different from the biblical culture. Obviously they lived, spoke, and wrote differently than we do.

One book that helps bridge this cultural gap is New Manners and Customs of the Bible which appears in most Logos base collections. As with all manners and customs books, this resource explains the lifestyles of people in the Bible. Here, however, is one point you may not know. This book is versified not topically indexed! This means you can link it to a Bible so that if your verse under study is mentioned in Manners, it will jump right to it! Also, as you scroll through your commentaries with the left and right arrow keys this book is included in the loop!

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