Morris Proctor's Tips & Tricks

If you have secured the Sermon File Addin (SFA) these upcoming blogs will help you get the most out of it. If you don't own the SFA please visit logos.com to purchase your copy.

To understand the SFA please remember you'll always work with three files, documents or sources of information:

1. The original source material. This could be a lesson manuscript or outline in Word or an article on a web page or just a quote floating around in your head.
   
2. The Sermon File document. This is the document you create inside Libronix from File | New that takes your original source material and "places" it your SFA books.
   
3. The Sermon File books. The SFA creates two and only two new Libronix resources or books entitled "Sermons of Your Name" and Illustrations of "Your Name".

In this blog I'll show you how to get your original source material into a Sermon File document. Let's say we're at a web site that has an interesting article that would make a great illustration for an upcoming lesson so we want to save it in our SFA illustration book.

• In Libronix choose File | New | Sermon File
• Name this document (I usually name the document the same as the material going in the book. For example, if our web page story is called Cat Gets Stuck in a Tree then name the Sermon File document the same thing)
• Click OK

When the sermon File document opens please notice several sections:

Author

This is the author of the SFA book not the content going in the book. Your name and e-mail should appear here.

Details

Two circles, Sermon and Illustration, are located at the top. These represent the two SFA books. Which book is this content to be placed? Click the correct circle. In our example, click Illustration.

Indicate the Language of the content. Most often it will be English.

If you want to upload a copy of this content to Logos for possible future use then check the box Publish to Logos database.

Title

Type a title for the content being placed in the book. In our example the title is Cat Gets Stuck in a Tree.

Topics

What subject matter is dealt with in the content? Is it an illustration or lesson about heaven, grace, hope, etc? Assign as many topics to the content as you like just separate each with a semi-colon.

Sermon / Illustration Text

In the lower left hand corner is the box labeled Sermon / Illustration Text. This is where you type or copy / paste text that is to be included in the book. In our example copy / paste the article from the web page right into this box.

Compile

Each time you click Compile Libronix reads all of your Sermon Files labeled Sermon and places the content in the book Sermons of "Your Name" and reads all of the Sermon Files labeled Illustration and places the content in the book Illustration of "Your Name". By clicking Compile you rebuild the two books.

In future blogs we'll cover more features located on this Sermon File Document window. For now please notice that for every different sermon, illustration, outline, quote, etc. that you want in the books you have to create a Sermon File document at File | New. Also, do NOT delete these Sermon File documents. If you do the content on each deleted file will be removed from the SFA books the next time you click Compile.

Open the Book

Once you have compiled the books you can go to My Library, type in your name and open your new SFA books to see the content you've placed in them!

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For the next several blogs I'll acquaint you with the somewhat recently released Sermon File Addin (SFA). Here I'll give you a brief overview.

First, of all the SFA is designed to create two and only two new books for your library: Sermons of "Your Name" and Illustrations of "Your Name". The good news is you get to supply the content for the books. You can place whatever text you desire in these books by typing or copying / pasting. The SFA becomes a very easy way to place your documents into your e-library.

Perhaps you're thinking, I'm not a preacher with sermons and illustrations so he SFA is not for me. That's understandable, but don't let the title fool you. If it helps, call it "My Own Stuff" Addin. You can place whatever you want in these books not just sermons and illustrations. The SFA is really a personal filing system so you can easily archive and retrieve your documents within the Libronix Digital Library System itself.

For example, all of your Sunday school lessons, homeshool lesson plans, sermons, journal entries, news stories from the web, etc. can be added to you library via the SFA. The SFA saves you from having notes with quotes all over your desk or Word Documents with your favorite but hard to find stories or filing cabinets full of file folders stuffed with lesson outlines. All you have to do is place all of that information in the SFA and with the click of a mouse you can easily locate what you're looking for.

Check out the SFA at logos.com and in the next few blogs I'll show you how to use this incredible tool.

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A recent e-mail from a Logos user prompted this tip. In the Bible Reading Plan she wanted to be able to read a Psalm from five different groups of Psalms and a Proverb every day. For example, on Day 1 she wanted to be able to read Psalms 1,31,61,91,121 and Proverbs 1. On Day 2, Psalms 2,32,62,92,122 and Proverbs 2 and so on. Believe it or not the Bible Reading Plan will produce such a plan.

• Choose File | New | Bible Reading Plan to create a new plan.
• Type this in the Passage box: Psalm 1-30 | Psalm 31-60 | Psalm 61-90 | Psalm 91-120 | Psalm 121-150 | Proverbs

You'll notice the "pipe" ( | ) between each grouping. This is the all important key. For each day's reading Logos takes a passage from each group sectioned off with the "pipe" symbol.

• If you just want to read a Psalms and a Proverb a day type this : Psalms | Proverbs.
• To read from the Pentateuch and gospels each day type this: Genesis -Deuteronomy | Matthew-John

You get the idea. Have fun and create whatever specialized plan(s) you need!

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Normally when we're in a Bible we use the right mouse Speed Search This Resource to locate every occurrence of a word or phrase in the specific Bible. You can, however, use this feature for any resource. For example, let's say we're reading Word Pictures in the New Testament in John 1.1 and we come across Robertson's discussion on ?????. Now we want to find every time he mentions this word in his commentary:

• Right click on the word of your choice in this case ?????
• From the right menu select Selected Text: your word | Speed Search This Resource

A window opens listing every occurrence of your word. You have an instant concordance for every book in your library!

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No doubt as you thoroughly study a passage of Scripture you find yourself using various reports and resources. Some of these you'll need to return to during the course of study. Why not save them all in Favorites folder? For example, currently I am studying Colossians 1.24-29 for which I generated a Compare Parallel Bible Versions report. I've found myself referring back to this report several times so I decided to save it as a Favorite for quick access:

Choose Favorites | Organize Favorites

• Click New Folder
• Type a specific name for the folder in the New Folder box such as Colossians 1.24-29
• Click OK

When you want to save the location of the active window:

• Choose Favorites | Add to Favorites
• Click the folder in which to place the new Favorite
• Type a name for the Favorite in the Title box or just leave the default name
• Click OK

To open this Favorite:

Choose Favorites

Navigate to the desired location from the menu

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Sometimes when you hyperlink text in a note file the hyperlink feature stays on. In other words, after you hyperlink text and then start typing additional text, it too is hyperlinked. To turn off the hyperlink feature:

• Select (highlight) the text you do NOT want hyperlinked
• Press the Remove Formatting icon (abc icon) on the note file toolbar

This removes the formatting from the selected text as well as any new text you type.

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As you probably know, when you have any Libronix resource open you can press the Page Down key on the keyboard to simulate turning the pages of a book. Did you know the Space Bar does the same thing? Also, it is much easier to find and press!

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