Record Your Insights Using Notes

Note: This feature is available to all users.

Skip ahead to:

Create Notes

Navigate the Notes Tool

Organize Notes

View Notes

Edit Notes

Share Notes

Note: Notes and Highlights are closely linked in Verbum. For more information on Highlights, see this article. 

Create Notes

There are several ways to open the Notes Tool and create a note in Verbum:

Selection Menu

Select a word or phrase to open the Selection Menu. Click the Add Note icon to open the Notes Tool and create your note. 

Context Menu

Right-click a selected word or phrase to open the Context Menu. Click Add Note   in the menu's right-hand pane to open the Notes Tool and create your note.

Notes Tab

Navigate to the Notes tab of your book's Dynamic Toolbar to access note-taking shortcuts. Click Add note  to open the Notes Tool and create your note. 

Tools Menu

Click the Tools icon in your toolbar and select the Notes Tool. Click New note to create a note without an anchor (learn more about anchors here). To anchor your note to a specific word, phrase, or verse, select the text, click the dropdown beside the New note button, and click New note on selected text. 

Open the Notes Tool in Verbum

Create a note in a Notebook

Notebooks are collections of notes you create. Learn more about creating and using Notebooks below.

To create a note within a notebook:

1. Select the notebook in the Notes Tool.
2. Create the note using the New note button in the Notes Tool. 

You can also create a new note within a specific notebook through the Context Menu. Right-click your selection to open the Context Menu, expand the Add note section, and select the Notebook to which you want to add your new note.

Shortcuts

With your text selected, use the following keyboard shortcuts to quickly add or remove annotations:

• N – Creates a new note and opens the Notes Tool.

• H – Applies the last used highlighting style (You can also use CTRL+K on Windows or Cmd+K on Mac).

• R – Removes annotations.

Navigate the Notes Tool

The Notes tool is made up of a toolbar, a collapsible sidebar, a search results panel, and a note editor panel.

Toolbar

The toolbar at the top of the Notes Tool houses five functions:

Sidebar: Access the Sidebar.

Search: Search your notes by keyword(s). The results appear in the Search Results Panel. 

Share: Share a notebook publicly or with a Faithlife group. 

New note: Create a new note. When text is selected in an open book, a dropdown will appear next to the New note button allowing you to anchor the note to the selected text. 

More Actions Menu: Access the Notes Tool's More Actions Menu to adjust the way the panel displays, share your notes, get help using the tool, and more. 

Sidebar

The Sidebar has two tabs:

Filters : Use the Filters tab to view notes grouped by: Type, Bible Book, Reference, Tags, Author, Anchor, Modified, and Created.

Notebooks : Use the Notebooks tab to manage your notebooks.

Search Results Panel

Results from a Search Bar search or a Filters search will appear here (if you have not performed a search, all your notes will appear here).

You can sort your notes based on a range of different criteria. To do so, click the Sort dropdown and select the desired sorting method.

Note: Available sorting options depend on what filters you have active. For example, in order to sort your notes by reference, you must have either a biblical book filter selected or have specified the Reference filter Bible.

Hovering over a greyed-out sorting option shows a tooltip displaying the required filter.

Note Editor Panel

When you have selected a specific note, it will appear in the Note Editor panel. Each note features its own toolbar offering options for adjusting the note icon and color, assigning a highlight style, and applying a specific Palette.

Below the note’s toolbar, a full set of rich text controls are available to customize the note text. You can enter and edit notes in the text entry field. Although there are no icons for cut/copy/paste, you can do so using standard keyboard shortcuts, or by right-clicking in the note’s text field.

See this section of the article for details on how to edit your notes. 

Organize Notes

Notebooks

Notebooks are groups of notes gathered together based on highlighting style, palette, topic, or other feature.

Note: It’s possible to have notes that are not connected to a notebook, just as it’s possible for notebooks to be empty.

Create a Notebook

Create a new notebook by selecting the Notebook tab in the Sidebar.

Click the plus icon , enter a unique name for your notebook, and press Enter.

Find a Notebook

Your notebooks are stored in the Notebook tab of the Sidebar. When you select a notebook, all of its notes will display in the Search Results panel.

Add Notes to a Notebook

From the New Note Button

Create a new note from the New note button. At the top of your new note's Editor Panel, select the dropdown to choose a notebook.

From the Context Menu

You can right-click a portion of text and add a note from the context menu. Open the Add note dropdown and select from the five most recently used notebooks. If you select New Notebook, this will add the note into that notebook and open a new instance of the Notes Tool with its tab named to match the notebook selected.

Existing Notes

To assign an existing note (or group of notes) to a notebook, clear all Notebook filters and find the target notes in the Search Results Panel. Click one of the notes you want to move and then add any others by holding Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (macOS) while clicking, or by holding Shift while clicking to select a contiguous set of notes. Select the notebook from the dropdown in the editor panel, just like you would for a new note. Click Apply Changes.

Alternatively, you can drag the note(s) to the target notebook.

Delete a Notebook

Select a Notebook and then click its More Actions Menu icon to Rename, Delete, or Share it.

Tags

You can also assign tags to your notes. Tags allow you to find notes that may have things in common but are not in the same notebook. Browse your tags by scrolling down to the Tags section of the Filter tab, or use the Filter find box to quickly limit the displayed notes to those that match a specific tag.  You can assign tags to the note by clicking in the Add tags… field at the bottom of the panel. Begin typing and select from suggested options or finish typing your entry. Press Tab or Enter to complete the tag entry.

Labels  

Labels work similarly to tags, but they allow you to specify even more what the content of the note entails with three categories: Name, Attribute, and Value (the Attribute and Value fields are optional). For example, you could create the label "Name: Scripture; Attribute: Genre; Value: Poetry." Click the Add Label icon to the right of the Add Tags field to add a label. 

Metadata

Verbum automatically assigns metadata to a note. This includes:

• Biblical book (if the note is anchored to a biblical passage)

• Resource (the note is anchored to, e.g. the ESV)

• Data type

• Date created

• Date modified

• Author

Use the filter view in the navigation panel to search for notes by their metadata.

View Notes

In the Notes Tool

To view all your notes in one place, open the Notes Tool.

In an Open Book

Two options in the Notes tab of your book's Dynamic Toolbar allow you to view your notes directly in the book:

Show Notes and Highlights

• Show Note Indicators: Shows all notes and highlights linked to your open text.
• Notebooks: Choose to only show notes from a specific (or no) notebook.
• From other books with corresponding text: Shows notes and highlights from other translations of your open book (if applicable). 
• More Actions Menu: The More Actions Menus for each option allow you to Select/Unselect All, Show in All Appropriate Books, or Do Not Show in Any Books. 
• Open Notes Tool

Notes Filter

Click to open a sidebar that allows you to categorically filter the notes within your open book, displaying only those places where you've taken a note or made a highlight. Select your desired filters to narrow your search. You can further control display options from the dropdown to affect how much surrounding context is shown.

Edit Notes

The most direct way to edit a note is by opening the note in the Notes Tool and using the Editor Panel.

Editor Panel Toolbar 

Access the following options in the Toolbar at the top of the Editor Panel:

• Note Icon
• Highlight Style
• Notebook Dropdown
• Refresh
• Full Screen
• More Actions Menu (Close, Show Anchor Text, Send to Homily, Add Anchor, Delete)
• Formatting Toolbar

Anchors

Anchoring a note or highlight links it to one or more locations in a resource.

To add an anchor to a note, click the More Actions Menu in the Editor Panel Toolbar and select Add anchor.

Verbum provides two options to anchor your note: to the Selection or to the Reference. Anchoring your note to a Selection limits your note to the open translation, while anchoring it to a Reference makes it visible in any translation via the Corresponding Text view option.

Add an Image to a Note

1. Click the Insert media icon in the Editor Panel Toolbar.

2. Select an image from one of the tabs—Your Media, Faithlife Stock, or Unsplash. 

   OR

   In the Your Media tab, click Upload.

3. Verbum opens a dialog box from your operating system. Select an image from a location on your computer and click Open.

4. Click Insert.

Delete a Note, Notebook, or Highlight

Select the note, notebook, or highlight. Click the note More Actions Menu icon and select Delete this note.

Undelete a Note, Notebook, or Highlight

You can click Trash at the bottom of the Filter tab of the Sidebar to display notes, highlights, and notebooks that have been deleted. Clicking any deleted item displays options to Permanently delete or Undelete the selected item at the bottom of the panel.

Share Notes

Share Publicly or with a Group

Share whole notebooks, either publicly or with a specific Faithlife group, by first selecting the notebook in the Notebook tab of the Sidebar and then clicking Share. 

Print Notes 

To print an individual note, open the note's More Actions Menu and select Print/Export to view available options. Alternatively, hit Cmd+P (macOS) or Ctrl+P (Windows) to view the options.

To print an entire notebook, make sure you don't have any notes selected, then open the relevant notebook and click the Notes Tool More Actions Menu icon followed by Print/Export without selecting any of the notes within it.

Export Notes

To export notes or a notebook, follow the directions for printing your notes and choose an export option in the Print/Export popup. 

Skip ahead to:

Create Notes

Navigate the Notes Tool

Organize Notes

View Notes

Edit Notes

Note: Notes and Highlights are closely linked in Verbum. For more information on Highlights, see this article. 

Create Notes

From the Notes Tool

While in an open book, tap the More Items Menu icon , scroll down to Tools, and select Notes . In the Notes Tool, tap the Add Note icon to create a new note. 

From the Text

Select a word, phrase, or reference. The Insights Panel will appear, then select Note .

Write your note and, if desired, set the notebook and add more anchors. Tap Done and the icon for your new note will appear in the text.

Navigate the Notes Tool

Open the Notes Tool

While in an open book, tap the More Items Menu icon , scroll down to Tools, and select Notes . Within the Notes Tool, you can search your notes and notebooks, view deleted items, and create a new note. 

Search your Notes

1. Tap the More Items Menu icon .

2. Scroll down to Tools and select Notes.

3. Select All Notes to search and view all of your notes. To search and manage your notes by notebook, select Notebooks.

Organize Notes

You can assign tags to the note by tapping a note's More Actions Menu icon and selecting Edit Tags.  

View Notes

View Notes in the Notes Tool

While in an open book, tap the More Items Menu icon , scroll down to Tools, and select Notes . Within the Notes Tool, you can view individual notes, notebooks, and deleted notes and notebooks. 

Display Your Notes in the Text

Tap the More Actions Menu icon , scroll down the menu, and select View Settings. Then, In the View Settings menu, toggle Show Notes/Highlights "on" and tap Done.

Your notes will display as an icon adjacent to the word, phrase, or reference where it’s anchored. To display the contents of a note, tap the note icon.

Edit Notes

Edit a Note

In the Notes Tool, tap a note to open the Edit mode. While in this mode, you can choose a notebook, choose the note icon, edit the note anchor(s), edit tags, and edit the text of the note. 

Delete a Note

To delete a note, tap the note you want to delete to open it. In the Notes tool, tap the More Actions Menu icon . Tap Delete Note.

Another way to delete a note is to select a word, phrase, or reference where the note is anchored. The Insights Panel will appear. Tap Notes & Highlights, and then tap the More Actions Menu icon  on the relevant card. Tap Delete.

Restore a Deleted Note or Notebook

1. Tap the More Items Menu icon .

2. Select Notes.

3. Tap Trash.

   

4. Select either Trashed Notes or Trashed Notebooks.

5. Tap the More Actions Menu icon , then tap Select.

   

6. Select the notes or notebooks you want to restore and then tap the More Actions Menu icon at the bottom of the tab. Then tap Restore to restore the notes.