Years ago, I always heard about Logos as an expensive and complex Bible software; I never allowed it to be on my radar. Many may have followed suit with FaithLife ever endeavoring to make its fare more accommodating these days with its latest release of Logos 10. Once I returned to graduate studies, my institution proffered my only way forward was to invest in Logos Bible Software. Not long after I took the plunge, Logos began to offer free versions of their platform, which I have provided to my students. It was no longer out of my reach as it became a necessity, and now I could give my students equal access to its essential tools. We have recently partnered with FaithLife as an affiliate and can offer you news on their latest offering and a discount to purchase its latest release. For the link, see below.
Now Logos 10 comes to continue endeavoring to make the complex “beast” of Bible programs more easily accessible and even speedier. A key focus in Logos 10 that was released on 10/10/22 at 6 AM PST is the much-improved speed with essential upgrades to .NET6 for Window users as well as compatibility for those using Macs to take further advantage of native coding for Apple Silicon in their M1 & M2 chips. Improvements are trending in the range of 35-50%. Indexing has never been so quick! Upgrades to their cloud infrastructure hasten online features significantly.
A fresh UI moves the menu bar to the left, allowing a more streamlined workspace, especially for those like me on the smaller 13” screen laptops offering much-needed real estate to do more work. It is collapsible to allow more experienced users even more space while giving newer users more extensive menus with more help. The search syntax was rewritten to make it much simpler to perform those tricky specific search strings that used to be so hard to remember while maintaining the old styles for those used to those more complex strings [e.g., {Speaker <Person Jesus>} is now just speaker:Jesus]. Bible & Morph searches also got upgrades. A new Favorites tool allows Favorites now to be searched.
One of the often-misunderstood features of Logos over mere eBooks is its extensive tagging that allows the program to make tie-ins so much easier, especially with biblical languages. After revamping the Factbook in Logos 9, version 10 made further strides in amplifying those tags in more extensive connections. Versions are now available in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) paired with the new Auto-Translation feature to offer more research connectivity across the globe. Even languages like Latin can quickly be translated via side bars.
Newer datasets help one find answers to queries in a myriad of biblical, theological, and practical topics. Another adds access to many Popular Quotes even if one doesn’t own those resources, making it much easier to share them. Sermon importing from MS Word has never been more straightforward! Slides and formatting carry over along with one’s biblical references. Additionally, one can dig more into Church History with further help from additional datasets and an updated Timeline. Another concern has been already owning Print Books. Now Logos allows one to integrate them into Logos and help research the very books on one’s shelves.
Along with all of these features, come significant upgrades to both the Web and Mobile Apps. New tablet options can allow in some cases six books and tools at a time on the screen. Both Sermon Manager and Canvas come to the iPad. Apple devices with Draw on Screen allow onscreen annotations with the results saved in one’s notes or the device’s photo album. Both tablets and phones will utilize the Read Aloud feature with text-to-speech turning most resources into an audiobook. Factbook cards in Bibles along with significant upgrades to text selection make interacting with resources much easier and a whole lot quicker. On the web, Instant Translation, Advanced Timeline, Sermon Import, Popular Quotes, All Search and the improved Bible search have all been added to the existing suite of tools. These are just some of the highlighted features appearing in L10 when it releases. More will come as future features continue to come in increments as L10 evolves in the coming months. Hopefully, this short review allows you to see why L10 can be an important upgrade in your desire to grow in God’s Word! Happy studying! All God’s Best! To get your copy click here for a 15% discount plus 5 free resources for new users and 30% off for upgraders.
