New Gospel Library

Today, when I went to the scriptures from a talk I've been studying, I received a "Welcome To The New Gospel Library" message with a quick product tour. I don't know what I think of it yet, but it's exciting to see this make an official appearance. I'm guessing it's just on the scriptures right now, as the talk I opened has the old interface.

Yesterday I tried the new gospel library and found that much of it didn't work yet. All I could do was highlight. Notes and tags didn't work, nor could I see my existing notes and tags. They had a switch to go back to "classic" mode, which I did for my study. They did have a feedback popup, too. Today I don't even have the option of trying out the new stuff. Maybe they're doing random testing?

The online version of Gospel Library is available at https://www.lds.org/languages/eng/lib. The toggle basically just lets you switch between the two different URLs.

Thanks for the link. It came in handy this morning, since "classic mode" notes seem to be broken for me today.

Today it looks like I can now add notes, which wasn't working two days ago. Tags still don't work.

Since the feedback popup isn't there today, I'll leave some feedback here:

The side bar with references looks good.

• Side bar notes: I like how my own notes are now mixed in with the regular footnotes. This might facilitate more spiritual discovery.
• The notes on the side bar should scroll as I scroll the chapter so that the notes for what I'm reading stay with where I'm at in the chapter. Right now I have to scroll them separately. It might be tricky to get this done correctly, as I see potential for a sync to be annoying at times. Maybe there's a control to enable/disable sync between the two panes? Generally, I think I'd much prefer it if the panes stay in sync and it would be much more useful.
• From the main screen, if you go to the Mark or Notes screens, there's no "back" arrow to get back to the main screen. Instead I have to click out of the window I'm in and then click the marked area again. It's a lot more clicks to get things done than in the "classic" mode. I understand you're probably trying to make things work better for people with touch screens, but several of us have mice or other pointing devices that are more precise than a finger. Don't forget about our usability. Many people with a touch device will be using an iOS/Android version of the Gospel Library anyway.
• The scriptures show my existing "classic" highlights, but they aren't all incorporated into the right side bar. Sometimes they are shown and other times they are not. So the right side bar isn't properly picking up existing notes. Since classic mode is broken for me today, it's a little difficult to compare what's going on between the two.

Only annotations that include notes, tags, or links will show up in the sidebar – not plain highlights – which is by design. Is that what you're seeing in your last bullet point? Or are there annotations with notes, tags, or links that aren't showing up in the sidebar? Maybe one of the types of annotations isn't fully supported yet.

If you don't see the feedback popup again, you can try submitting feedback using the link at the bottom of LDS.org – though the feedback popup is probably more direct, if you see it again (I'm guessing they're watching feedback through the popup closely since it's new).

Didn't want to hijack, but the feedback link isn't at the bottom of the scriptures subdomain anymore. I might suggest adding that back. I don't really have a suggestion on where to put it... maybe as a link at the bottom of the navigation pane on the left side?
I prefer scroll not being synced to notes, but I can understand that many, perhaps a majority, might prefer it, and I could probably deal with it (I do on mobile) if scroll did sync.
I agree that the notes window appears to be optimized for touch screens, which annoys me and my keyboard. Is there any way for the desktop version of the website to behave in a way more intuitive for desktop users?
And I can't figure out navigation back from the 'Notes' section. When I click on Notes from the https://lds.org/languages/eng/lib homepage, I am taken to https://www.lds.org/notes, and I don't see a way to navigate back out. I use the back button on my browser, but even that can take multiple tries. Has that simply not yet been integrated, yet?

I will have to spend more time at it, but my immediate response is that I don't like it. One major thing I liked about the now termed "classic" version was that I felt I had all of the scriptures available to me with search tools at my ease and the ability to switch between books. If that ability is still there, I don't immediately see it.

I like the similarity between the Gospel Library App and the on-line version. A couple of other points I've put into feedback entries, but perhaps routing here is more visible.

- I don't see a way to order my notes within a Notebook the way I can in the LDS Library App. That would be helpful to have the same functionality on the web.

- There are times when I paste data into the title of Notebook, and it disappears. It was happening frequently two weeks ago.

- I would like to be able to place pointers to other notebooks inside of notebooks, to daisy chain them. It would allow me to build up larger topics through notebook usage, without having to duplicate material.

It would also be nice to be able to use different colored text in the headings and in the body of notes.

Another feature I notice is missing on the new Gospel Library is the "search scriptures" search box that lets me type in a scripture reference and finds it. Instead, there's "search library," which I think may be the standard LDS search tool. I find that tool to be very frustrating. If I type in a scripture reference, it can never seem to find it. It finds all sorts of things _except_ the scripture reference I typed in. The "search scriptures" box on the "classic" site actually works.

I would like to propose that scriptures or verses "clicked on" be captured and cataloged so that when users search for keywords within the "scriptures" area of lds.org, the most "click on" scriptures come up first in the listing with some sort of "relevance" rating. This could be a good sort criteria. Someone may, for example, like to find "relevant" searches that are among the least often verses selected...maybe for a talk or for further study.

mcclinto wrote:I would like to propose ...

To do that you will need to submit your recommendation through the feedback link found on most LDS.org pages. The forum is user to user support and what we discuss here is generally not seen by those with authority to consider what is discussed here.

I frequently click and/or select text as I'm reading things online, to keep my eyes focused on the correct line when there are distractions – so I don't think clicking would be the best way to track popular verses. However, you could leverage the annotation tools, to track which verses are most highlighted.

Lessons elders quorum

One of the things that bothers me about the LDS Gospel Library is that all my notes/tags/etc. are no longer accessible when I die. The Ward clerk will note my decease in the Church records and then my signon and password are disabled, so my family will no longer have access to all my work and efforts.

Has the Church given any thought to a LDS Family Scripture Tool type that would allow all those family members to share notes/tags and important scriptures?

Thanks

Michael Lantz
American Fork

mikelantz wrote:One of the things that bothers me about the LDS Gospel Library is that all my notes/tags/etc. are no longer accessible when I die. The Ward clerk will note my decease in the Church records and then my signon and password are disabled, so my family will no longer have access to all my work and efforts.

Has the Church given any thought to a LDS Family Scripture Tool type that would allow all those family members to share notes/tags and important scriptures?

Your LDS Account becomes disabled soon after your membership record changes. However, your Gospel Library annotations are not immediately deleted. The spouse or the executor of estate of the deceased member can send a message to the support team (through in-app feedback, for example) and request that the annotations be copied to a new account that the family can access. The process takes a few weeks (approval from legal; verification of relation to the deceased).

The ability to share Gospel Library annotations more easily while living would be a great feature. I'd recommend sending it in as a feature request through in-app feedback (under Settings).

sbradshaw wrote:Your LDS Account becomes disabled soon after your membership record changes. However, your Gospel Library annotations are not immediately deleted. The spouse or the executor of estate of the deceased member can send a message to the support team...

That's interesting to know. I'm surprised the church would do this, as it sounds like a manual task. It doesn't sound very sustainable in the long run, especially as the rising generation uses technology more. Family sharing options sound like they could be interesting. Maybe you could have shared notebooks and share those with others, then enable/disable whether you're looking at particular notebooks when viewing content.

sbradshaw wrote:If you don't see the feedback popup again, you can try submitting feedback using the link at the bottom of LDS.org – though the feedback popup is probably more direct, if you see it again (I'm guessing they're watching feedback through the popup closely since it's new).

I've never seen the Feedback popup again and the "new experience" is usually quite broken. I can never view the scriptures with it. I managed to study a general conference talk for a bit, but now just get a blank screen. There do seem to be a lot of usability issues with the "new experience" when it works. It would be nice if they had direct feedback (kind of like LCR at times has direct feedback).

I tried submitting my problems using the "Feedback" link at the bottom of the page a long time ago and I got somewhat of a canned answer of things to try when things don't work. I responded that I was trying to submit bugs regarding the new features, but I'm not sure my feedback went anywhere. I know the "Feedback" people there are trying to be as helpful as they can and may not completely understand some of the technical things that are happening; however, I also don't want to spend time trying to provide detailed feedback, bugs, reproduction scenarios, etc., if that's not what the team is looking for at this time.

sbradshaw wrote:

mikelantz wrote:One of the things that bothers me about the LDS Gospel Library is that all my notes/tags/etc. are no longer accessible when I die. The Ward clerk will note my decease in the Church records and then my signon and password are disabled, so my family will no longer have access to all my work and efforts.

Has the Church given any thought to a LDS Family Scripture Tool type that would allow all those family members to share notes/tags and important scriptures?

Your LDS Account becomes disabled soon after your membership record changes. However, your Gospel Library annotations are not immediately deleted. The spouse or the executor of estate of the deceased member can send a message to the support team (through in-app feedback, for example) and request that the annotations be copied to a new account that the family can access. The process takes a few weeks (approval from legal; verification of relation to the deceased).

The ability to share Gospel Library annotations more easily while living would be a great feature. I'd recommend sending it in as a feature request through in-app feedback (under Settings).

How do I send my idea in as a feature request through in-app feedback?? Thanks for your help.

Michael Lantz
American Fork

mikelantz wrote:How do I send my idea in as a feature request through in-app feedback?? Thanks for your help.

You can use the "Feedback" link at the bottom of most pages on LDS.org, or I believe there is an in-app feedback mechanism in the Gospel Library mobile app.

mevans wrote:

mikelantz wrote:How do I send my idea in as a feature request through in-app feedback?? Thanks for your help.

You can use the "Feedback" link at the bottom of most pages on LDS.org, or I believe there is an in-app feedback mechanism in the Gospel Library mobile app.

Yes, in Gospel Library, it's under Settings > Send Feedback.

Is there a way that the notes and markings stay if I switch languages?
This would be helpful for missionaries who go to a foreign language.

It wouldn't be possible to show the same highlight in multiple languages without sophisticated machine translation. Currently, when something is highlighted, Gospel Library knows (for example) that the highlight is in verse 7 and that it goes from word 13 to word 17. If you were to highlight the phrase "I will go and do" or just "go and do" in 1 Nephi 3:7, then switch languages, somehow the app would have to map the English "I will go and do" (words 13–17 in the verse) to the Spanish "Iré y haré" (words 10–12 in the verse). It becomes even more difficult if you highlight a vague word or phrase that doesn't translate exactly.

sbradshaw wrote:It wouldn't be possible to show the same highlight in multiple languages without sophisticated machine translation.

Does it indicate that there's a highlight or note on that verse? Not perfect, but better than hiding it completely. So, in your example, when you go to 1 Nephi 3:7 in Spanish, you'd see an indicator that you used a yellow highlight somewhere in this verse.