Tuesday, November 03, 2009

The Valley of Decision

Decision-making is one of my specialties (as those who know me will surely testify … won’t they?)

Well, here’s the issue: I have BibleWorks 5 and Logos 3 (Gold edition).

Should I upgrade to BibleWorks 8 or Logos 4?

4 comments:

Mark said...

I've never dealt much with Bibleworks...I have Logos 3 Gold as well. How much is the upgrade to Logos 4?

Larry said...

I think it is about $160 (if I am reading the upgrade page right).

I use Bible Works for exegetical work. I haven't figured out Logos on that respect. I like having both.

Dan said...

Bibleworks 8 is easy and fast for exegetical work - I had it and used it briefly before selling it to get Logos 3 (Gold). I wanted to do exegetical as well as commentaries (because of limited shelf space). I'm learning to do them in Logos - still haven't figured out all the features but enough to do the essentials.

The upgrade to Logos 4 Gold is probably well worth the $160 (4-5 extra volumes of NAC, interlinears, etc). You can also get a minimal crossgrade (new maps, people, and things data) for $70 or even try the new Logos 4 program (no new maps, timelines, etc) for free.

This assumes you have 1) a decently fast internet connection, as it will download lots of updates (2-7GB), and 2) a relatively recent computer, as it gets incredibly fast searches but has to create an index first (an hours-long process). After the index is finished, the new interface seems cleaner and more efficient to me. Some user control is lost, but the added features make it worthwhile to me.

Lastly, you could also consider the upgrade to Logos 4 Platinum if you wanted Baker Exegetical, Pillar, the works of Berkouwer, Bunyan, Pink and other key authors, especially if you don't have them in book form. Buying them individually would be $1000+ from Logos, as compared to $350-400 as the upgrade package.

Mark A. Ward said...

We all have Apple computers in our church. I use Accordance. It's pretty awesome. So, can't help you on this issue.

As a fundamentalist, all I can say is I still believe that the old book is good enough for me (just thought I'd throw that line in to stir things up).

So, my Accordance software is pre-programed to default to the 'old book'. Aren't you proud of me?

:)