Here we will regularly post tricks & tips for the use of software in qualitative research. Hints and guides by Christian Schmieder (www.squaremethodology.com).
Guides & Hints
Importing timestamped transcripts into NVIVO
Data Prep: When you transcribe your data for import into NVIVO, make sure that the timestamps have the following format features: they need to be at the beginning of each paragraph you need time stamped they need to be in the format HH:MM:SS they can be separated from your data by either a empty …
Interview Question Generation & Qualitative Data Analysis Software. A modularized Curriculum
About the curriculum With this curriculum, participants can generate a question guide for open and semi-structured interviews while actively using basic functions of a qualitative data analysis software. The idea behind this curriculum is to facilitate the meaningful, critical, and task-centered integration of qualitative data analysis software into methodology teaching. This approach is grounded in …
MaxQDA Tips
MaxQDAtips (PDF) including General Layout, Prepping Texts in WORD, Contextual Windows: doc and code browser, Activate by Variable. Christian Schmieder
QDA Intro Videos
In this video series, Research Consultant Christian Schmieder is providing an overview over the general functionality of QDA software, the academic discourse around the tool, and he gives some hints on choosing the right software for your project. PART 1: General Functionality In this 12-minute video, Christian talks about the general functions of QDA …
QDA Software: Frequently Asked Questions
On this page, we’ve collected some of the common questions about QDA software. Please don’t hesitate to contact Christian if you have additional questions! What’s the best QDA software? There is no best software – only the software that fits your data and your needs as an analyst. When you are shopping around for a …
Choosing the right Software
Evaluating which specific software to use (and, in extension, how to use it for what) is not a trivial process. While larger commercial programs offer a wide variety of tools, they are still profoundly different in terms of detail. That is to say: There is no ‘best’ software, only a software that works best for …
NVIVO, MAXQDA, ATLAS.TI, Dedoose: a brief comparison
EDIT (11/16/2015): PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMPARISON & TIER REPRESENTATION IS OUTDATED DUE TO RECENT SOFTWARE UPDATES AND NEW VERSIONS. AT THIS POINT, IT REPRESENTS A HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT. This comparative table is most useful for people who have already worked with one of the programs, or who are familiar with the general functionality of QDA …
What QDA software can and can’t do for you – an intro video
In this 8-minute video, we’ll show you what Qualitative Data Analysis software can and can’t do, and we’ll discuss the major functionality of QDA software.
Handling PDF files
Using PDFs in QDA software is not a new feature, but working with this particular type of file is still somewhat tricky. In this overview I’ll outline general issues with the use of PDFs in QDA software, and I’ll briefly compare import/linking options of PDFs in different QDA packages. A general note on using PDFs …
Inserting Consistent Line Numbers in NVIVO
In NVIVO, documents and excerpts can be exported with paragraph numbers. However, these paragraph numbers are not visually represented in the software itself. If the printout has detailed paragraph numbers, and you refer to these numbers in your analysis, you will not find the same paragraph enumeration in NVIVO. The inconsistency in enumeration of exported …
Transcribing: How Voice Recognition Fails
By David K. Woods, Ph.D. Researcher at WRCU & Lead Developer of Transana Originally posted on www.transana.org On March 18, 2010. Dr. Paul Dempster, a Research Fellow at University of Leeds, did an experiment with voice recognition software, trying to get it to transcribe two audio files. He used one of the top-name commercial voice …
Video Analysis – Choosing a General Software or a Specialized Tool?
In this guide, I will briefly discuss how general QDA packages (such as NVIVO, MAXQDA, or Dedoose) differ from specialized software designed for the analysis of videos. As an example for the latter, I will use Transana, which is delevoped by David K. Woods at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at UW-Madison. The …