“The sidebar” is my term, not Logos’s. You can actually arrange the frames in L4 any way you like, but there are a couple of great new features that work well as a narrow sidebar (this is their default location).
The first is called Power Lookup. It’s probably my single favorite new tool in L4. I’ll show you some – not all – of what it can do. In the screenshot below, you’ll see that I have my favorite cross reference resource, the New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, open and set to follow along with my Bible passage. Power Lookup is open in the sidebar in the right. When I highlight the cross references in NTSK for the verse that I want to study, those verses are immediately displayed in the Power Lookup sidebar. I can skim through them quickly, and the copy button at the top of the Power Lookup window allows me to copy those verses instantly if I want to take them to my word processor.
That alone saves me a lot of time in my Bible study. But Power Lookup is more than a one trick pony! Suppose I want to see places in the NT where pistis has the nuance of faithfulness instead of faith. I open my lexicon, highlight that section of the lexicon entry, and all of the noted references appear in the Power Lookup window:
Ignore the red around the Bible Explorer at the top. I’ll get there in a second. But before we do, here’s another way Power Lookup can help. I’ll open the NET Bible, with its helpful footnotes, and watch how Power Lookup looks up the footnotes for me:
You can do that in any resource: simply highlight the text, and Power Lookup displays the footnote material in the sidebar.
Now let’s look at the Bible Explorer. This is almost like a mini passage guide that follows you around (if you want it to!), displaying information that might be helpful for your current text. Here’s what Bible Explorer finds when I begin looking at Joshua 1:
Family trees, maps, commentaries, cross-references – just glance at the sidebar and click on anything that you think might help your current study. As you saw in the image above (the red highlighting I told you to ignore), Bible Explorer and Power Lookup can be open at the same time, with tabs so that you can quickly flip back and forth.
Both tools can also be added to the customizable toolbar at the top of Logos 4. Simply drag them up to the toolbar and drop – then you’ll have an icon to click on any time you need them.
By the way, you can put just about anything you want up on that toolbar for quick access.
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