If you are doing exegesis on a text, you'll certainly want to take notes. You can take notes of course by writing them in a notebook, or in a word document, but at some point you may want to share your notes with other consultants. Paratext already has a good system for sharing notes between team members, now we will look at the notes system designed specifically for consultants.

The consultant notes in Paratext are attached to verses and can be accessed when you're looking at that verse in any translation of of the Bible or in any resource. That way, when you are consulting with a team, or when you are preparing for a checking session, you always have access to your personal notes. These notes, however, are stored in their own project and as a result may be shared between consultants.

In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create consultant notes and how to work with them.

Close all your Windows. Now click on Windows, and then on the saved arrangement that you made in the previous lesson. This will arrange the Windows the way you had set them up previously.

Take the NIV window and switch places with the Handbook by dragging and dropping.

Open Paratext From the File menu, select New Project at the top

Click on edit to give a name to your project, 

use your name and some indication that it is your notes. In the example here we use “Doug Higby notes”

For the abbreviation, it will be used to identify the project in the drop-down list. You can customize this to your liking provided the abbreviation is not used elsewhere.

For language, choose English or the language that you will be writing notes in. You can always change this later.

For versification, choose English unless the resources you work with use a different versification.

For Type of Project, choose Consultant Notes

For Based on, leave it blank.

Now click on OK to create your consultant notes project. An empty window will display because you have not created any notes yet.

When inserting consultant notes, you can select several words or a phrase in the text. From the insert menu you have the option to insert consultant note.

Remember that consultant notes are available to all projects, not just the project they were created from.

Go to Matthew 2:1 and click on the lemma Ἡρῴδης which is highlighted in yellow.

Click Insert on the menu, then choose Consultant Note. A window opens where you can write your comment. Write: “This indicates Herod the Great” To insert the Greek word into your note, right click on it, choose Copy then paste it (Ctrl-V or right click and choose Paste) into the note text.

Click OK and the note will be saved

Next, go to the word μάγοι in the same verse and select it. again click Insert: consultant note.  Write: The wise men who studied the stars. Click on OK.

Now, click anywhere in the NIV window to activate it. From the View menu, choose Show Consultant Notes. If you have more than one consultant notes project, you will have to select which of them to display. Choose the notes from the project you just created.

You'll see a small blue + attached to the beginning 2:1. If you over your mouse over the + a message will appear indicating that there are two consultant notes available for this verse.

Click on the File menu and select Open Notes…. You should see your new notes project listed. Open it.

Place the window where you want to use it.

Now you should be able to see your notes while you work.

Save the combination of Windows as a new combination in the Window menu.

Now your desktop consists of five open Windows: the source text, the NIV, your notes, a text collection, and the handbook. There are three windows on the left and two on the right.

Personally, I prefer to have two windows on the left and three on the right. This is what you would do to rearrange them:

Go to the window menu and click on Unstacked. Now you can change the size and placement of the Windows manually, by dragging their borders or moving the whole window from its title bar. Do this to set the desktop up the way you like it. You may open additional windows if desired.

When you are finished, save the new combination as in the previous exercise from the window menu. Give this combination a new name.

You just completed the second lesson successfully. Please make sure that your neighbors have understood and are making good progress. Thank you!