Improce search (restrict search to parts of a resource, search for citations to resources, etc.)
This post contains a few different suggestions. To help Logos prioritise, if you vote, please also add a comment that explains which of these suggestions is most important.
(1) An IN keyword (to restrict searches to parts of resources that deal with specific references)
e.g. prophecy IN <bible ~ 1 Cor 12-14>
This example would return results containing the word 'prophecy', but only if it appeared in a commentary or other resource that specifically dealt with 1 Corinthians 12-14.
When you're searching, particularly in commentaries, it would often be very useful to restrict your search to those parts of the commentaries that deal with part of the Bible. Although you can create collections to help, this doesn't solve most of the problems because (a) The range you want to restrict the search to is often smaller than the range a resource covers, and (b) Creating collections for each Bible book is very time consuming.
(2) A LINK reference type (to search for resources that link to other resources)
e.g. <LINK = NBD:Page 470>
This example would return all resources that link to page 470 of the New Bible Dictionary.
When you come across a useful section in a resource, you'll want to know what other resources link to it. A simple search criteria (which could be automatically generated from the right-click menu) is essential. At the moment we can only search for reference types, not links. The cited by tool should handle this feature, of course.
(3) Remove the restriction that NEAR results have to be in the same article
When you use the NEAR or WITHIN xx WORDS keywords, Logos insists that the matching words also have to be in the same article (in Bible searches this means the same Bible verse). This is an arbitrary restriction, which does not meet users' expectations — particularly when several resources have article divisions placed at random points just to make them shorter. NEAR should mean NEAR.
(4) Add a TOPIC keyword
Currently, the only way to search for a topic is to search your entire library and use the topic section. If you know you're only interested in topics, this can make the search slow. There ought to be a way of just searching topics, without having to search the whole library. (Bob has said this is planned already.)
Allow users to search for highlighting
e.g. <HIGHLIGHTING = "Red Background">
This example would return all those places you'd highlighted with the red background highlighter.
Whilst we can currently search IN highlighting, we can't search FOR highlighting. The two workarounds are very unsatisfactory (they're use the * wildcard, which is horribly slow and gives OOM errors; or use the up/down arrows which only works if you know what resource to look in).
(5) An an indicator that clearly shows whether you're doing a strict-match or case-sensitive search
It's great to be able to run these searches, but because the setting 'sticks', it's really easy to forget the setting is turned on, and end up wasting lots of time getting bad results. These settings should be visible in the search results, not just on the dropdown menu.
See the following thread for more discussion: http://community.logos.com/forums/t/50353.aspx
Many of these suggestions are available in Logos 6:
1) Use the new WITHIN {Milestone} syntax.
2) Not implemented.
3) Unlikely to be implemented (without a rewrite of some core search engine components).
4) Not sure about this one.
4.5) Use the {Highlight} search extension in 6.0a
5) Not implemented.
You’re welcome to create additional suggestions (one per idea) for the remaining ideas if you’d still like users to vote on them.
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Mark Barnes commented
The ability to use the NOT operator with proximity searches is also vital, so you could perform searches like Holy NOT BEFORE 1 WORD Spirit.
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Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :) commented
Personal prioritization order: 5 (Visual indicators), 1 (IN), 3 (NEAR), 2 (Links), 4 (topics and highlighting). The IN search would be appreciated for Biblia.com usage => http://community.logos.com/forums/t/50340.aspx
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Anonymous commented
I especially like ideas 1 and 3.
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Graham Criddle commented
These suggestions are all excellent - of particular interest to me are 1,2 & 3
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Mark Barnes commented
Sorry about the obvious and annoying typo! There's no edit or delete facility.