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Coding Files
- Coding is the process of associating concepts (or codes) to your files. The codes leave the files unaltered, and selecting a code will bring up all associated references to files.
- The sample project contains files that have already been coded. To see the existing codes and associated text, enable Coding Stripes from the toolbar at the top (the Document tab, PDF tab, or tab for whatever type of file is displayed.
- When there are a lot of codes, specific nodes can be selected instead. Most Coding under Coding Stripes is also a good option.
- To code a piece of text, first select the text to code (highlighted above). Then, there are several ways to code the text.
- Below the document is a toolbar. Type the name of a node following "Code At." You can also code cases and relationships from the left hand side of that toolbar (expanded dropdown box above).
- Right click and click "Code..." Then select the code or codes to associate.
- Click Code from the toolbar at the top.
- Tip: if a complex coding structure is present, it might easier to code files in two or more waves, each wave focused on a few related codes that are easy to remember.
- Tip: Codes can overlap, and coding narrowly increases the value of your work. For example, there may be a 4 sentence paragraph concerning economic development, but if the third sentence is focused on tourism, for example, and the second focused on agriculture, coding those two sentences as both economic and subcategories of economic development helps to identify specific examples.
- Tip: Codes can be removed by selecting text and using the uncode command.
- The coding tools that are available will depend on the type of file being coded. In this example, a transcript in spreadsheet form is coded (in pink). In addition, the timeline at the top is also coded so that the video can also be searched based on code.
Autocoding
- The autocoding wizard in the toolbar at the top allows for rapid coding of well structured data.
- In the interview transcript above, data were structured in Microsoft Word to identify the names of the speakers. Paragraph styles can also be used to identify different types information, such as questions and replies.
- In this example, the case "Barbara" is attached to each of her responses automatically, saving coding time. Question numbers could also be attached, so each response to question 1 could be looked at, for example.
