William Cross Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 After reading through the forums on this subject and using Accordance for years I still find myself wanting a more consistent, organized workflow when preparing to teach or preach. While I know how to use Accordance and I know how to use my word processor Pages and I know how to use the many books I own, I am lacking in the ability to take all of these tools and information and come up with a flow of study that can process it all in a consistent way. Each time I prepare I end up doing it different because I was not satisfied with how the workflow went before. I have ended up with some sermons in an Accordance User Tool, sermons as Pages documents, sermons as PDF's, reference lists in Accordance, reference lists in Pages, outlines in Accordance, outlines in Pages, notes in the User Notes sometimes, Notes in User Tools, Notes taken in Pages and even notes taken on Stickies. Also the way I go back and forth between Pages and Accordance is not very efficient. Sometimes I split the screen half Accordance and half Pages, sometimes I put them in different Spaces. In Pages sometimes I create an unformatted document of info and then go back and try to sift it and format it into a new Pages document, other times I create and format as I go. At one point I posted stickies all the way around my screen with a Pages document in the center, then as I collected thoughts and info I would paste them into Individual stickies to create a mind map of sorts since I struggle thinking in a linear way. This allowed me to see all of the info at once in an attempt to simplify grabbing the bits and pieces and creating a final Pages document. Going back and finding information proves time consuming and often I forget about certain User Tools or Reference Lists I started to create in Accordance in a previous study. I am looking for a clear, succinct way of preparing to teach or preach that centers on the text and is easy to record using the tools I have. The abundance of information is great, but my lack of a clear system to use it all effectively is becoming a problem. These are the materials I work with: Accordance Bible texts A huge number of Accordance Resources and User Tools Personal Library of books organized by Topic Personal Library of PDF articles organized by Topic Pages 09 Could anyone out there who preaches expositorily verse by verse explain how they go about recording their study and sermon writing? I am mainly looking for an organized system of recording thoughts & information and then formating those notes with an outline and then a manuscript of sorts. Right now my eclectic approach is just too haphazard. I know I will just have to decide how I am going to do it and then stick with it, but up until now I have not been happy with the various ways I have attempted. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Hall Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 William, I am relatively new to Accordance (1 year or so) but have been preparing expository sermons and Bible studies for more years than I like to admit to. For myself I work best with an outline. I will typically think through the passage I am preach on or teaching on (using Accordance - comparing multiple translations, Greek & Hebrew) and lay out the main points that speak to me (I do this in Word, NeoOffice, or Open Office). From there I will use my commentaries, articles, dictionaries, etc. to challenge my thoughts on the points I want to make. Most of the time the other resources strengthen my convictions, some times the commentaries change or alter my convictions. After reading through my secondary sources, I will finish flushing out my outline & add illustrations (in Word, NeoOffice, or Open Office). I will copy and paste liberally here (ensuring I cite appropriately ). I am intrigued by your thought of using stickies as a mind mapping tool - that might be something I will try out. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davesalyer Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I think this is an interesting question and hope that some more people chime in. I have some of the same questions, but I'm still in seminary so I haven't had the chance to really practice sermon prep and develop a particular method. So I don't have anything to contribute but hope some others do. Right now when I do exegesis and writing I mostly cmd+tab between apps in different spaces (Accordance, Pages, Preview, Firefox). I wish I had a way to view more of it at the same time or cut down on the apps but haven't figured that out yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Hall Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Daveslayer's thoughts prompted me to expound on what I shared earlier. As for the mechanics of how I write: Space 1 - Firefox Space 2 - Accordance Space 4 - word processors This allows me to have multiple programs open, but my desktop is not cluttered with multiple windows. To switch between programs I will use Command + Tab or my keyboard command to switch between spaces - I have this set up as Alt + 1,2,3,or 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Cross Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 I have tried using Spaces but it gets too confusing for me. I use Quicksilver to hotkey my Apps. They are all in one window and just come to the front when needed. When I am not using certain Apps I just Command-H to hide them. It ends up being similar to Spaces I guess, but without the sliding around. Any thoughts on the process or steps of recording and organizing your study information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Hall Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Any thoughts on the process or steps of recording and organizing your study information? I will simply write down my thoughts, quotes, etc in my outline. I have in the past used a user notes file, but then I had to copy and paste from my notes into my word processor and it felt like adding an extra step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Matousek Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 ..... I struggle thinking in a linear way...... Any thoughts would be much appreciated. William, A. An Iterative Process Works Best for Me I mainly teach verse by verse. I have found a strictly linear process, while logical and promising, generally disappoints and limits re-orientation of thoughts. The process of beginning a new document/phase several times is constructive to the cumulative end. Only open tools (able to import/export) are useful to me. I use a single MacOSX Space with iKey hot keys to launch applications, macros, etc. The study process positively yields multiples types of documents. I generally leave all the multiple raw documents in one folder for that study. Final document output format will always be Keynote, HTML, & PDF . 1. Preview a. Read, read, read, read, read the original language text in all four phases -Use Accordance and original language texts in book format 2. Analysis a. Outline the original language text -Use Accordance, Inspiration, OmniOutliner Pro b. Textual Criticism -Use Accordance, a few books c. Word Studies -Use Accordance, a few books d. Maps -Use Accordance, web, a few books e. Timelines -Use Temporis, Accordance, a few books f. Diagraming -Use Accordance g. Consult Textual Commentaries/Articles -Use Accordance, FoxTrot Pro, books, web 3. Synthesis a. Create Presentation slides -Use Accordance, Keynote, OminOutliner Pro, OmniGraffle Pro, b. Create Paper -Use Inspiration, Pages, Nisus Writer Pro 4. Postview a. Review Commentaries/Articles -Use FoxTrot Pro, Accordance, books, web b. Review Synthesis, Modify as Needed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Cross Posted March 14, 2009 Author Share Posted March 14, 2009 William, A. An Iterative Process Works Best for Me Do you record any of your study in Accordance User Notes/Tools or is it always recorded in your other programs. This thought process is very helpful for me. It is like seeing each others Accordance Workspace and window layout. I would love to see how others go about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Matousek Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Do you record any of your study in Accordance User Notes/Tools or is it always recorded in your other programs. My accordance user notes are mostly reading notes. I have a regime of constant reading in which I jot notes as I read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davesalyer Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Thinking more about your question... I uploaded a screen shot (below) of my basic set up right now. On the left is an Accordance workspace with all the tools I use for exegesis already opened. Since it is a workspace it always opens that size and on that side of the screen. On the right is a Pages file that I set up with a template that opens to that size and on that side of the screen as well. I changed the formatting palette (not shown) so that I can easily highlight text pasted into Pages and change it to a specific Hebrew or Greek format regardless of how it comes out of Accordance (i.e. make it black and a standard size, rather than red or if it was a search hit or 24 pt size if I had increased the size) and back to English with a single function key. Also, behind pages is another Accordance window (not visible in the picture) for comparing two texts in Accordance. The nice thing about this is that I can see both Accordance and Pages at the same time and scroll up and down on either without leaving the active window. If Pages is active, I can click on the left Accordance window and work there without loosing Pages. But, if I cmd+tab to actually switch to Accordance, the second Accordance window comes to the front as well (with the toolbar which is not visible when Pages is active) so I can access it when I need it but the rest of the time Pages covers it. Your post has intrigued me and I am reconsidering how I do this. I would like better integration and to have everything, including a place for less organized thoughts, notes, outlines in the same program and all visible, but don't know how that is possible. Accordance isn't really designed for that kind of word processing power understandably. Perhaps there is a third program that facilitates something like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Matousek Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Your post has intrigued me and I am reconsidering how I do this. I would like better integration and to have everything, including a place for less organized thoughts, notes, outlines in the same program and all visible, but don't know how that is possible. Accordance isn't really designed for that kind of word processing power understandably. Perhaps there is a third program that facilitates something like this? There are a few like full featured software applications like DevonNote or lessor utilities like Together . But I have concluded that this is exactly what the MacOSX Finder does. It allows me to file organized thoughts (clippings or files), notes, outlines, graphics, etc. simply and easily. The only needed utility was a more robust search utility like FoxTrot Pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Cross Posted March 15, 2009 Author Share Posted March 15, 2009 Here is my screen setup using Accordance, Accordance and Pages and the Finder to organize folders of PDF Articles. It is all in a single Space that uses hotkeys to bring the programs to the front. I think I will stop entering notes into Accordance since I have never been consistent with it and just stick with Pages for writing. I guess the only thing is that once I have finished a study it would be nice to have access to that info in Accordance during a search. Especially if it is a few years later I have forgotten about some of my previous work. If I had it all in Accordance and was doing a global search it would pop up in the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Matousek Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 ....that once I have finished a study it would be nice to have access to that info in Accordance during a search. Especially if it is a few years later I have forgotten about some of my previous work. If I had it all in Accordance and was doing a global search it would pop up in the results. Why not simply Select All in Pages, Copy, Paste all into an Accordance note ? I think you'll get everything except photos. Your folder organization is exemplary. How do you handle when an topic item pertains to two or three or more folders ? Reading a blog last night, I ran across two thought provoking articles pertaining to information storage, organization, & retrieval. #1 and #2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Cross Posted March 16, 2009 Author Share Posted March 16, 2009 Why not simply Select All in Pages, Copy, Paste all into an Accordance note ? I think you'll get everything except photos. I have done this in the past. It's just another step to keep up with. Your folder organization is exemplary. How do you handle when an topic item pertains to two or three or more folders ? I put it in the one I think it most relates to. Sometimes I use Quicksilver to add Tags to it. Usually if I don't know where a specific article is right away, I will search for an article setting Finder to only look in my Article folder and search the contents of all the PDFs. This almost always finds what I am looking for. Sometimes I will search for specific tags as well. Another option is making an Alias and putting it into all the folders it relates to. Reading a blog last night, I ran across two thought provoking articles pertaining to information storage, organization, & retrieval. #1 and #2 I agree with the blog in link number two. I have tried all of the extra programs that dump everything together and it just seems like I would be paying extra money to do what Finder already does. It also adds an extra program to manage and import stuff into and remember to use. I don't mind multiple programs if they tie into Spotlights searching ability like Pages, preview, Finder, Mail and so on. That way I only need to perform two searches. One in Accordance and one in Spotlight. I have found one program though that I love. It is very useful for all the books I have that are not in Accordance. It is called Books (http://books.aetherial.net/). It is free and it is great because it uses your iSight camera to scan the bar code and fetch information on the book so you don't need to type it all in. It also allow you to tag the books and organize them with smart folders. You can export the info into a file that LibraryThing will import. Best of all it will update your Spotlight index with each Books information. That way when you are searching you computer for specific PDF articles on a topic, related books will show up as well without having to search yet another program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Yentzer Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 William I have really enjoyed this thread as I have been facing the same issue, what is the best workflow. There is a lot of good advice here and has led me to my own desire to have a better organization system as well. It has been 6 months plus since this thread was discussed. Have you discovered anything else that would be beneficial to think about and consider concerning Accordance and workflow? I'm very interested in hearing where you are now in this. Thanks, Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Cross Posted September 21, 2009 Author Share Posted September 21, 2009 William I have really enjoyed this thread as I have been facing the same issue, what is the best workflow. There is a lot of good advice here and has led me to my own desire to have a better organization system as well. It has been 6 months plus since this thread was discussed. Have you discovered anything else that would be beneficial to think about and consider concerning Accordance and workflow? I'm very interested in hearing where you are now in this. Thanks, Rick This summer I was preaching through Ephesians and decided to try a different approach that seemed to work better for me, nothing earth shattering though. I just opened my user notes and typed in my study as I went. I put the User Note in a smaller and separate workspace and tied it to my main work space. (see attached). This allowed me to keep from switching back and fourth between programs which becomes a hassle for me. I cannot stand to have windows and palettes all over the screen and I need to see what I am studying while I type, so no switching between spaces. When I felt like I was ready to put the sermon together I would copy the whole note for the particular group of verses I was working on and paste them into Pages.app. From there I would move text around, add to, edit and work out my outline and bring it all to completion. So far this approach has seemed to work best, but I am still trying to learn and look for better ways to do things. I have found that for now when I find articles within the tools I have available that I think relate, I just copy the part I want to refer to and paste it into my User Note with a brief reference. Linking to articles and pdf's just seems to be to much of a hassle to me because if any file or module moves or changes you loose the link. Still I would like a better way of linking information together like a wiki of sorts. There are a few features in Accordance that I would love to see added that would help some (like being able to search the library for actual names, permanently bookmark favorite articles and paste formated text into the Accordance edit windows) but really I just get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available. I struggle to process it all trying to remember where I read a particular article or figure out just the right search phrase to find the info I am looking for. I find that when I am constrained by a few limitations I flourish, but because Accordance is such a blank piece of paper I struggle to know where to go sometimes. Still searching for the best way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Yentzer Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 There are a few features in Accordance that I would love to see added that would help some (like being able to search the library for actual names, permanently bookmark favorite articles and paste formated text into the Accordance edit windows) but really I just get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available. I struggle to process it all trying to remember where I read a particular article or figure out just the right search phrase to find the info I am looking for. Still searching for the best way. I too, would like the ability to permanently bookmark sections of an article so that I could return to it at a later date. The way I currently handle this is to highlight the text with a highlight named "reference" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Lang Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 A permanent bookmark feature is on our list for an upcoming version. In the meantime, one way to collect articles of interest is to create a user tool and add your own hyperlinks to those articles. See this blog post for how to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Olterman Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 First of all, excellent thread. I think that we all need to be challenged when it comes to workflow and how to be released to communicate with God easier by being less distracted by the tools. Have any of you guys tried yep for article organisation, I find it an excellent tool. It will scann all of your hard drive and index all PDF documents. It will then allow you to tag your PDF documents as you feel appropriate but they come pretagged with the name of the folder they are in and thus anyone with a neat organised sytem from the start will benefit greatly and also would not have to change any thing on their hard drive. You can find yep here I store all my finished sermons and articles in PDF so I cannot go back and change them, so I have a proper back archive. If I want to reuse material I have to copy paste and alter a new version. This I find keeps me from rehashing old sermons without recording how my thinking has changed or evolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Matousek Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Have any of you guys tried yep for article organisation, I find it an excellent tool. It will scann all of your hard drive and index all PDF documents. It will then allow you to tag your PDF documents as you feel appropriate but they come pretagged with the name of the folder they are in and thus anyone with a neat organised sytem from the start will benefit greatly and also would not have to change any thing on their hard drive. You can find yep here I store all my finished sermons and articles in PDF so I cannot go back and change them, so I have a proper back archive. If I want to reuse material I have to copy paste and alter a new version. This I find keeps me from rehashing old sermons without recording how my thinking has changed or evolved. I've started a feature request discussion that dovetails nicely with your post relating tagging (YEP) and workflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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