How do I add and manage personal books?

 

While the library available in Verbum is extensive, you can also add documents you have written or public domain works into your Verbum library. Creating a personal book in Verbum is a two-step process. The first step is to compose the document in Word and save it as a .docx file. The second step is to build the resource from that file using the Personal Books tool in Verbum.

Note: Personal Books are only supported in the desktop environment - not mobile or web.

Did you know? You can find many user-created personal books on the Logos Wiki. You can also find some open-source books, such as those in the Perseus Classics Collection, in the Verbum store.

 

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Compose the Source Document(s)

Build the Personal Book in Verbum

Delete a Personal Book

Edit a Personal Book

 

Compose the Source Document(s)

IMPORTANT: The .docx source files need to be preserved in order to make any future revisions, following the same two-step process.

1. Create the Word document(s) that you will use to build your Verbum resource.
2. The Personal Book Builder requires particular attention to section and page breaks in order to compile your book properly. Before finalizing your document and saving it as a .docx file, set your view option in Word to Outline.

   

    

3. Search the section and page breaks in your document for anything that looks like this:

   

    

   The  on the section break shows that an empty heading has been included with the break. This will cause errors in the compiling process. To avoid this, navigate to the  with your mouse or keyboard and delete it. Failure to do will result in a message like the following:

    

   

    

   The log file (pictured below) provides additional information that can be difficult to decode, so taking the time to ensure the document is properly formatted before compiling will save time and energy in the next step of the process.

    

   

    

4. Save the document(s) to your hard drive as a Word Document (.docx).

 

Build the Personal Book in Verbum

1. In Verbum, click Tools > Utilities > Personal Books.

   Open Personal Books tool in Verbum

2. Click Add book on the panel toolbar. An Edit dialog will open to enter the Library Information (or metadata) for the book and to add the file(s) that will make up the body of the book.

   

    

3. Type a name for the book in the Title box.
4. Fill in Library Information. All personal books must have a title. Click Monograph to change the Type associated with the book. Click English to change the Language. Click Add field to add the following optional metadata for the book
5. Type the appropriate information for each added field. To delete an added field, hover over a field heading, such as Series Title, and click the X which appears on the right.
6. Click Change... below the book cover image to add a book cover (optional). In the Open dialog browse to and select an image file (.jpg or .png) and click Open.
7. Click in the Description box and type a brief description of the book (optional).
8. Click Add file....
   

   In the Open dialog browse to and select the .docx file(s) which will make up the book, and click Open. Each of the added files will be listed in this section.

   Files can be reordered by dragging and dropping one file above or below another file. This will change the location of the file’s contents in the book.

   To delete a file, right-click on it and choose Delete.

9. Click Build book.
   

   Note: The Edit dialog will close and a progress bar will appear showing the steps in the process (which may go by too quickly to see if the document is short): Starting to build book, Converting, Compiling, and Discovering. To stop this process, click on the Stop button.

   When complete, if there were no errors during compilation, it will indicate Build successful and the personal book will open. If there were errors, the book will not open, and it may indicate that the Build failed.

   Click View log file… for more information on the compilation errors.

10. Click Finished in the Personal Books panel. 

    When the build has successfully finished, you also have the option to upload your personal book to Faithlife's servers. This makes your personal book accessible in Verbum on all of your other machines without having to rebuild the book. However,

    IMPORTANT: Once your book has been uploaded, it cannot be removed from the library entirely, nor can it be edited. It can be hidden from the library, but it will always be listed in the Personal Books panel.

    

 

Example 

If you have just finished a preaching series, and you would like to compile all your homilies from that series into a book that is fully integrated with the rest of your Verbum resources, you simply need to follow the steps described above. 

Fill in the relevant metadata fields, click Add file. . ., and select all the sermon documents you want to compile. Once the documents appear below step 2, you can drag the files into the order you want them to appear in. Click Build book and let Verbum compile your new book. If there were errors, follow the steps above to address them. If there weren’t, click Finished to add the book to your Verbum Library.

 

Notes on the Process

• You will click Finished even if there were in errors in the compilation process.
• If you need to fix errors in the document, reopen Word and edit the document as necessary. (To troubleshoot error messages different from the one pictured at the beginning of this article, visit the Logos forums and Logos wiki.)
• Once you are ready to recompile your book, hover over it and select Edit from the right side of the panel. Note: Follow this process if you edit the Word document at any point and want your version in Verbum to reflect the most recent changes.
• If the location of the source document has not changed since the book was first compiled, click Build book to recompile the book.
• If the source document has been moved, the existing body file must be deleted and added again from the new location prior to recompiling.
• Books are listed alphabetically in the Personal Books tool panel. To filter the list for a particular book, press Cmd+F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows) to open the Find box and search for your title.

 

Delete a Personal Book 

IMPORTANT: As is mentioned above, once your book has been uploaded, it cannot be removed from the library entirely, nor can it be edited. It can be hidden from the library, but it will always be listed in the Personal Books panel.

1. To remove a book that hasn't been uploaded from the Personal Book list and from the Library, open the Personal Book tool and right-click the book in non-edit mode. Then choose Delete from the context menu.

2. To close a book that is in Edit mode, click the X in the top right corner of the panel.

 

Edit a Personal Book

To edit a personal book, open your personal books tool (click Tools > Utilities > Personal Books).

• Hover over any book title and click Edit.
• Edit the book information. Change any of the information for the book. To update the content of the book, change the .docx file, click Add file… and select your updated .docx file. 
• Build the book. Click down and choose Build book to rebuild the book with your edited information. 

 

Additional Resources

• Open the Personal Books tool in Verbum
• Verbum Help: Personal Books