The Ultimate Logos Shortcut List, Part 2/5 – Practical Tips for Efficient Bible Study

Don't Read, Listen

Shortcut 23, found under the Tools menu in any book, lets you hear the text read aloud. You can adjust the reading speed, use a 30‑second rewind button, pause, or stop the audio. In resources such as the ESV Bible a word‑by‑word indicator may appear, though it is often grayed out in other commentaries. Listening while you read reinforces retention and keeps your focus on the biblical text, especially when you’re working through a commentary or a dense passage.

Paralleling Your Books

Shortcut 24 (View ► Add Parallel Text) lets you line up two or more resources vertically—preferred by Dr. Fallahee—or horizontally. You can add the MacArthur Study Bible alongside the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC) or the DACA Annotated Reference Bible, search for a specific book by typing its abbreviation, and reorder the entries by dragging. The speaker recommends keeping the list to 2–4 books to avoid visual clutter, and the order in which you add them determines how they appear on the screen.

Clean Layout with ‘Close All’

Shortcut 25 is the “close all” button—a small X icon that instantly removes every open tab. After clearing the workspace, you can open a resource such as “Speaking to God” from the library, switch the library view from detail mode to relevance sorting by clicking the carrot icon, type a search term like “speaking to God,” and click rank to bring the most pertinent result to the top. The resource then expands to full‑screen for focused study.

All the Commandments of the Law

Shortcut 26 opens an interactive list of the 613 commandments, complete with filtering options for categories (negative, idolatry, displaced nations), books of the Bible, or specific references (the “P number” links to rabbinical commentary). This tool is useful for exploring how individual commandments relate to broader theological themes, such as how divorce laws connect to “bad meals” in certain commentaries. While these external commentaries are not biblically authoritative, they provide valuable historical context.

Overcoming Babel – Translation Comparison

With Shortcut 27, you can translate a Latin text (for example, a work by John Calvin) into English using Tools ► Translate. By linking two resources—such as the Latin edition and its English counterpart—through a “link set” in the library, you can view them side by side. You can also search for books by language (e.g., “French”) and translate them to English, demonstrating Logos’ built‑in translation capability without needing external tools like Google Translate.

Fast Recent History

Shortcut 28 (the “+” icon next to the tab) displays a history of recent activities—opened books, menu selections, and more—up to 50 entries. This mini‑search engine lets you quickly reopen a resource you accidentally closed. The speaker advises clearing the history when you first launch Logos so that only fresh activity populates the list. You can also drag the “show history” (clock) icon onto the shortcut toolbar for one‑click access, with the newest items appearing at the top.

Quick Outlines for Study

Shortcut 29 (Tools ► Outline) opens the “Bible Outline Browser.” Type a passage reference (e.g., “John 3, 16”) and Logos generates a structured outline for that section. This feature is a fast way to organize study material without manually creating an outline, and it works well for both personal study and sermon preparation.

Pulling and Managing Book Outlines

When you open an outline—such as a commentary or the “Bible Outline”—Logos links verses from the underlying resources, indicated by a spinning icon. Clicking the triangle expands the outline; if the expanded view contains only biblical text, the outline is complete. Some outlines are “descriptive” (e.g., Harold Wilmington’s Outline Bible) while others are more basic. The speaker recommends using an outline to get a high‑level overview of a book before diving into the text.

Recommended Outline Resources

1. Outline Bible (Harold Wilmington) – a comprehensive, preaching‑friendly outline; the speaker often starts at the end of a book.
2. Preacher’s Outline Study Bible (POSB) – provides a detailed outline on the left side of the text, with sub‑points for passages such as Matthew 28:16‑20.
3. Gingrich (Roy Gingrich) – a mid‑level, cost‑effective outline/commentary that sits between the Outline Bible and POSB.

Practical tip: Use the Outline Bible for quick, high‑level preaching outlines; choose POSB for deeper, verse‑by‑verse study; select Gingrich when you need a balanced, affordable option.

Sermon Manager for Organized Preaching

Access the Sermon Manager via Tools ► Sermon Manager. You can import a sermon schedule as a CSV file or load a document such as a sermon manuscript. After selecting the file, click Open then Done to add the sermon to the manager. Right‑click the floating window and choose Dock to keep it permanently on the right side of the screen. Sort by date (e.g., “6/14”) to locate sermons quickly, and use the information (i) button to add details like description, topics, main passage, speaker, occasion, and church. Enter only the primary passage in the “main passage” field to avoid duplicate hits when searching verses.

Creating a Custom Topic List of Verses

Start a Topic Guide by going to Guides ► Topic Guide and typing a term such as “fasting.” To build a Passage List, select Guides ► Documents ► New ► Passage List, name it (e.g., “fasting”), then drag a dictionary like *Fastings* onto the list and select the relevant text to add. You can repeat this with other dictionaries (Lexham, Anchor Yale) to capture diverse references. Clicking Sort automatically removes duplicates, yielding a clean list (for example, 148 unique passages). Toggle between Compact and Full view, and use headings (right‑click ► Insert Heading Above/Below) to group verses by theme, then drag verses into the appropriate sections. Sorting reorders the list into canonical biblical order.

Highlighting Cross‑References and Finding Similar Concepts

Right‑click a word and choose Lemma to see its lexical entry in a dictionary such as *DBL Hebrew*. To display all verses that reference the same concept, enable Formatting ► Emphasize, check “Current references,” and use the three‑dot menu to Show in all appropriate books. In Psalm 3:3 this highlights Genesis 7:17, showing where the same idea appears elsewhere. The same workflow works with commentaries and dictionaries.

For broader concept searches, right‑click the word, pick a sense such as Purpose, and choose Search Bible. Logos returns verses that share the underlying Greek or Hebrew idea, even if the English word differs. For example, searching for the English word “planned” (purpose) reveals passages that convey the same theological notion across the Old and New Testaments.

Reformat Bible Text Layout

Shortcut #34 lets you reformat how Bible verses appear. Open the Reformat dialog, enable “Bible text format” to preserve italics and bold, and keep “Chapters and verses” checked so verses remain easy to locate. You can uncheck “Footnotes” to hide them or re‑check them later. For non‑Bible text, uncheck “Headings” if they distract, but they are useful for navigation. To switch between paragraph mode and one‑verse‑per‑line mode, simply check or uncheck the “One verse per line” option and toggle the change.

Research Now & Review Later (Clippings)

Shortcut #35 helps you capture a specific study point for later retrieval. Open a commentary, turn off parallel text, navigate to a verse (e.g., Philippians 4), and create a new clipping via Documents ► New ► Clipping. Name the clipping, specify the exact verse, select the paragraph you want to capture, and click Add Clipping. Add tags and bibliographic notes in the Notes pane, then export the clipping as a bibliography (choose “Bibliography only” or include notes). The exported file retains tags and can be printed for papers or personal study.

Copy‑Paste with Hyperlinked Citations

Configure Tools ► Program Settings ► Copy Citations to enable “Hyperlinked copy citations” and disable “Footnotes.” Select the commentary text you want, copy it (Ctrl/Cmd + C), then paste into Microsoft Word. The footnote appears as a clickable link that jumps to its location in the original resource. In the desktop version of Logos, holding Ctrl (or Cmd) while clicking the link opens the exact spot in the desktop app (requires a Logos login). Web‑based Logos does not jump to the specific location when not logged in.

Find All Biblical Questions

Shortcut #37 uses the Propositional Outline to expose every question in a passage. Press Ctrl F to open the Find box, type a question mark (?) to locate the first question, then right‑click the verse and expand “Literary Typing” to see the question marker. Open Formatting ► Reformat ► Propositional Outline, right‑click the question, and choose Search Bible. You can narrow the search by book (e.g., “Job”), by speaker (e.g., “Jesus”), or by other filters, producing a clickable list of all questions in the selected context.

Auto‑Highlight Words and Create Visual Filters

Shortcut #38 lets you automatically highlight a word (e.g., “worshipped”) and keep it visible while you read. Right‑click the word, choose the sense from a dictionary such as *Londita*, then click Search Bible to see all occurrences. In the results, use the three‑dot menu to Save as Visual Filter, give the filter a name and choose a formatting style (blue underline, for example). Enable the filter via Show Visual Filters and toggle it on. The same process works for “prompt of attention” markers (Londita 91.13); create a purple‑foreground filter named “Prompters of Attention” and any such marker will be highlighted automatically.

Finding Images Within a Book

Shortcut #39 helps you locate all images—maps, photos, illustrations—associated with a term. Open the target book, click the chain‑link icon to link books so they stay synchronized, then use the search box to type #image (pound sign plus image). Inline search (click the inline box, type #image) shows results in a side panel as you scroll. Add a keyword after the pound sign (e.g., “#image Jericho”) to narrow results to images linked to that term. You can also perform a library‑wide search for “#image” to discover pictures you might have missed.

Practical Take‑aways

• Reformat your Bible text once and keep the settings; they apply to all verses, making study more comfortable.
• Clippings keep research organized, allow tagging, and produce ready‑to‑print bibliographies.
• Hyperlinked copy‑paste maintains footnote integrity and speeds transfer of material to Word or other apps.
• Propositional outlines reveal every biblical question, supporting deep thematic studies.
• Visual filters keep key terms front‑and‑center, reducing the time spent hunting for related verses.
• Image search using “#image” turns any book into a searchable picture index, helping you locate maps, photos, and illustrations instantly.

By applying these shortcuts, you’ll streamline sermon preparation, academic writing, or personal Bible study, keeping your workflow efficient and your focus on the text itself.