by
Sandrine Zerbib
Step 1: Getting Started with NVivo
This page is designed to help you understand tools that will assist
as you
analyze your own data (personal interviews, newspaper archives, surveys
with
open ended questions) or any qualitative data that you intend to dissect,
classify, organize and theorize about. NVivo is a particularly user-friendly
program and you can learn more about this program by clicking on the
tutorial button (available as soon as you load the demonstration version
of
the NVivo program on the CD attached to your textbook). Using that
demonstration version you can follow the steps described here to set
up a
project, and make and print reports on what you have done.
If you have the full software, you can then go on to build up your project,
using the tools for asking qualitative questions, writing memos, reviewing
and rethinking data, searching and analysis. These tools are explained
in
the tutorials.
Picture 1
The first step after you learn more about this software will be to create your own project. It means that you will import into the NVivo program the document file(s) you want to analyze. Typically for instance, social scientists record face-to-face interviews and transcribe them into computer files. Each interview, field notes or article must be transformed into a text or a RTF (Rich Text Format) file. In creating your research project using NVivo you will import each document file and save your project. Consequently, after this process, you will have bundled together your raw data and the coding and analysis you will generate. The advantage of converting/saving your files into RTF files is that you will be able to keep intact the formatting of your documents intact such as font size and style, italic and bold formats. You can also format files while using NVivo.
Step 2: Creating a New Project
You have just opened the "New Project Wizard" window. This is the beginning step to organize your data in one big package You should choose the "typical" set up (shown in Picture 2 above). Only if you need to set up passwords for several research teammates should you select the "custom" option. Be careful to not make things too complicated before you have more of a sense of what you are doing (this is a problem that a lot of us have, including me). Click on the "next" button and go to the next step.
Step 3: Naming your Project
Naming your research file is a pretty simple step but you need to be careful to replace the default name "My project" with a new name. In this case I just used my first name. If I was working on a new project, I could simply call it "Sandrine’s Project 2." This step is important because you do not want to overwrite previously set up projects. You can add a description to your project by simply typing into the small window called "Description." For instance, I could have typed in "Interviews with female filmmakers." Click on the "next" button and go to step 4..
Step 4: Setting up your Project
In this step, you can verify that the information you added in the previous step has been integrated in your new research project. As you can see, by default, the project I just created is stored under the folder I chose to install NVivo. Your project will be located where you chose to install the "QSR projects" folder. You can modify the chosen location by simply clicking next to the "folder" box and typing in your new location. If you are not familiar with the computer configuration, I suggest you do not modify this window but simply store this information on a paper. You may need to locate your file at some point. For instance, you may need to make a copy of your project on a disk. Use "My computer" or "Windows explorer" to copy the entire research project folder (in this example "Sandrine’s Project"). If you are using someone else’s computer with NVivo already installed, you may want to save your project on the drive that contains your floppy or zip disk.
Also, by default, NVivo selected the option "Not Required" password. You can easily modify that by typing in a new password. Be careful though, if you forget your password, you will not be able to open your project.
Step 5: Importing Documents to your NVivo Project
Picture 5 shows the main menu window that you will need to familiarize yourself with. In this particular case, the "Documents" submenu has been selected. Within this menu, the "Attributes" submenu has also been selected. The window is almost identical when you click on the Nodes submenu except of course that you are focusing on nodes except of documents. It will take sometime for you to get familiar with each of these combination (Documents, Nodes, Attributes and Sets). At this moment, you don’t need to know much more to set up your project. Remember that nodes are simply themes or categories you can categorize your data with. See step 12-18 for setting attributes and step 19 to 31 for creating nodes.
Step 6: Locating and Importing Files
In this step, you have just opened the "New Document Wizard" window. You are ready to import the text or RTF files that contain your data. In theory, each file should contain only one interview or field note. Because, you are a new NVivo user, only part of this window will be explained. By default, the "Locate and import readable external text file(s)" button has been selected. Simply click on the "Next" button and go to step 7. The other buttons of this window allow you to create internal documents, which are always attached to your NVivo project. Instead, you are going to import files previously created, which are perceived as external to your project file. Nevertheless, after you import your document files, they will be duplicated in your project and you will not need to redo this step.
Step 7: Selecting Files
In picture 7, the "Select file to read" is automatically open. You will have to locate your document file from your own computer. In this example, I saved my interview with Ulma as an RTF file under the "Interviews" directory. I select this file by clicking on the file icon and clicking "Open". Make sure you have selected the appropriate type of files. For instance, if I had saved my file as a text file, I would not have seen it appear in this window. You may have more than one file to import. In this case, you can import one file after another by restarting this process (step 6 to 8). Or, if all the files you desire to import are grouped together, click on the file at the top of your list of documents. Simultaneously click on the "shift" key and click on the last file you wish to import. This process should allow you to highlight all files ready to be imported all at once.
Step 8: Naming Files
Because NVivo will integrate your file(s) into your project, it is asking you in this step how you would like to name these imported files. I usually choose the first option, which means that my "Ulma" file will be imported and saved as "Ulma" within "Sandrine’s Project." It saves time only if you have named your files properly before getting to this process. If not, the other options may be valuable. See picture 8 above.
Click Finish and wait for NVivo to process your file(s). Go to step 9.
Step 9: Browsing Files and Creating Document Sets
I have successfully imported the "Ulma" file and it is listed by default in the "All Document" folder. You can always double-click on this folder to see its content. Later, if you have many document files you need to group in separate sets, you can simply select the "Tool" option and select "New Document Set." An untitled set will appear under the "Sets" icon. Simply click once and type in the name of the new set you just created. If you want to include documents from the "All Documents" to your new set, click on the document file and drag it to your new set. Remember though that you will still have the same document file in the "All Documents" folder. You have simply duplicated your document file. Whatever coding you do on this file, it will be saved on these two locations. Double-click on the document icon to open it or click once on it and then select "Browse" from the top menu. Go to step 10 to learn how to format your document.
Step 10: Formatting Documents
If you had stylized your file before importing it, it should remain as so when you open it with NVivo. In my case, I had not formatted my document. My interview with Ulma was fairly long, at least 30 pages. I decided here, but it is really a matter of preference, to make my document visually more structured. I selected "Heading 5" for formatting the opening question to my interview. It is also helpful since the font separates this passage from the rest of the document. I will not be coding my introductory question since it is not part of my data. I decided then to use "Heading 4" for each of my questions to Ulma. Again, I am less likely to code my own questions unless the wording of my question was leading the answer of Ulma. If you decide to format your document, simply click once on the particular passage and then select your format type as shown in picture 10. You can also change the font style and size by highlighting a passage and then choosing a style from the top menu
Step 11: Creating Attributes
As you can see in picture 11, it should be easier to focus on Ulma’s answers when I proceed with coding. Let’s move to creating attributes.
Step 12: Creating Document Attributes
Creating attributes has at least two main advantages: it helps you keep track of demographic information and it allows you to do some basic frequency analysis. Each document will be attached to a set of values for attributes you have created. The next steps will illustrate the process of managing attributes and their values. In picture 12 above, I have clicked on the Attribute Explorer icon. I have to create each attribute by selecting "New Attribute" from the "Attribute" menu in the "Document Attribute Explorer." Go to step 13.
Step 13: Entering Attribute Data
The "Create/Edit Attribute" window appears and the "Create new Attribute" is already selected. Type in the name of the attribute and the description of the attribute. It could be tedious to type in the description but it is also a good way to keep track of the rationale behind creating each attribute. The value types can be string, Boolean, number, year, etc. Select value types carefully. If you choose a number type and later want to write a word, NVivo will not let you do so. In the next picture, for instance, creating the attribute age with a number value type will prevents me from typing "30’s" in the value box. If you want to change any of the attribute setting, simply click on the attribute and select "Edit selected Attribute." Make sure you click on the "Apply" button after each attribute creation.
Step 14: Choosing Value Types
In picture 14 above, I have created an age attribute. I have selected the number type since I intend to associate a specific age number to each interviewee. Each attribute you create will serve for all documents imported and saved in your project. Only the values chosen for each document can be different. You can click on the value menu to add or edit values for each attribute. Be careful though, unfortunately NVivo cannot rank your attribute values alphabetically. Values will be organized per attribute in the order you created each of them. See next picture for learning how to attach values to attributes.
Step 15: Creating a New Value
In this picture, you can see a table with a single document and a single and two attributes newly created. You can add and remove documents and attributes from your bivariate table. Simply select "all" documents and attributes and then click the "+ Add" button to generate a complete table or by clicking on "Explore all Document Attributes" in the main menu wizard. Eventually, when all attributes have been created, and all values have been attached to attributes, you can ask NVivo to generate a crosstabulation with each interviewee on the X axis and each attribute/variable on the Y axis.
You can easily add values by right-clicking in the attribute/document cell and then scrolling down to either a value already available on your submenu or a new value. Go to step 16.
Step 16: Assigning Values to Document Attributes
Type in your new value and click OK. This value is now available for other documents under the same attribute. Each time you open a document and click on the "Attribute Explorer" icon, a table will appear with all attributes previously created. You can sort them by name for convenience. Simply click on "Sort attribute" from the "Attribute" menu and then select "By name."
Step 17: New Values
In the beginning stage, you will have to use mostly the "New Value" command. After attributing values to the first document, you should be able to mainly left-click on a particular attribute and right-click to select a previously created value. For instance, "Los Angeles" will now appear after my default values as you can see in the next picture.
Step 18: Opening Several Documents at once
You can open multiple Document Browser windows. Simply reduce the window size with your mouse. If you want to compare two of your interviewees in terms of their answer to a particular question, this option might be useful. You could even compare what they said about the same organization to which they belong. In this case, I wanted to compare these two filmmakers who has entered the field of film directing at about the same time period.
Step 19: Coding Documents
In picture 19 above, I have opened the interview with Berta. I have previously coded other documents, so I already have a list of nodes available for Berta’s document. I can simply click on the "Coder" button at the bottom of my document browser window and the organized list of nodes appears. I then drag the coder on the right side in order to facilitate the coding process.
In order to attach a passage of my document to a node, I can highlight the particular passage and drag it to a node. When the node changes color, I can let go of my finger. Remember that free nodes are unrelated to each other whereas tree nodes are structured. It is also easy to transform a free node into a tree node by clicking on the particular free node and dragging it under a particular tree node. This modification of your coder will be adjusted for all documents you already coded.
Also, another useful feature is that, each node you have attached to a document by highlighting and dragging turns bold. If you can click on any of the bold node in your coder, passages coded with this node will be automatically highlighted in blue. As you can see in picture 19, the passage is now highlighted because the "verbal consent" free node was selected.
Step 20: Coding Stripes
To see the colored brackets (stripes) you will need to activate the "Coding Stripes" option. Each bracket symbolizes a link between a particular passage and a particular node. Of course, you can code the same passage with several nodes. You will have to highlight a passage and then drag it to the nodes consecutively. The different nodes associated with the same passage will be separated by commas on the right side of the stripe.
Step 21: Changing Documents
In picture 21 above, you can change document by simply selecting another document from the box shown above. All the documents you have imported in your project are available in this window. The document browser window will then be the same but with a different text to code. I suggest you use this feature in order to start coding a new document. Opening a new document browser will force you to rearrange setting of coding stripes and coder.
Step 22: Highlighting a Passage
In picture 22 above, I have opened the interview with Ulma and I am ready to proceed with the coding. I highlighted the beginning of the first passage and coded it as "family background" by dragging the passage to this node. Because I have activated the "coding stripes" option from the view menu, a blue stripe labeled "family background." The next passage has to do with experiencing physical abuse from teacher. I start by highlighting the passage. Go to step 23.
Step 23: Creating New Tree Node
I then create a new tree node in order to create an "abuse" node (see step 24). Picture 22 to30 will illustrate the process of creating nodes. I use the right side of the mouse to create new nodes or child and sibling nodes. If you just started your project you will have to create many nodes using this command. To create a free node start clicking on "Free" and then right click and select "create node." To create a tree node, do the same process but from the category "Trees" as showed above in picture 23. The number in parenthesis represents the number of nodes already created. Start by creating some broad tree nodes and then create child nodes attached to these tree nodes. If you are not sure yet how to arrange your nodes, don’t worry, you can move nodes around very easily by dragging them inside or outside other nodes. It is actually expected from a social scientist analyzing qualitative data to constantly rearrange the organization of data for a better fit with theory (see chapter ?).
Step 24: Naming the Node
By creating a new tree node, a label called "Tree Node" appears on my coder under "Trees." I then click once on the new node and type in the new node name. I will have to repeat this process for every node I create. Another option is to highlight a passage and then type in a tree node in the In-Vivo fast coder box at the bottom of the window. It is a very fast process when you create free nodes but it requires that you type in the tree organization of the node when you create a new tree node. For instance, you may have to type in "tree/schooling/film school" in order to create the "film school" tree node. Then you will have to click on the Code icon to link passage with node. The nodes you create with this feature are then available for you to select instead of typing them in.
Step 25: Creating a Child Node
In picture 25 above, I decide to create a child node from my newly created "abuse" tree node. I select the passage I need to code and click on the "abuse" tree node. I then right-click to open the "create" option, and then, select the "child node" category.
Step 26: Renaming the Node
Once again a new node appears. By clicking once on "Tree Node" as shown above I can rename it as "school abuse."
Step 27: Dragging a Passage
I have now created a child node called "school abuse" and I drag the highlighted passage to this new node.
Step 28: Node Descriptions
I can type in a description for each node created. Simply right-click on the node you want to add information to. In this example, I selected the "school abuse" tree node and when I right-click I can "Browse/code node" this node to see all the passages from all documents coded with this node. See picture 31.
I can also select the "Inspect/Change Nodes Properties" option and picture 28 appears. I typed "Mental and physical abuse inflicted by school authority" under the description box.
Step 29: Creating a Sibling Node
You can also create a sibling node to a tree node using the method showed above. It is simply a matter of preference. Here again, the nodes will be ranked in the order you created them. Your option is to change the number associated with the node by opening the "Change/edit nodes properties" window as shown in step 28. You will have to do this for each node you create and then your nodes will be eventually all alphabetically ordered.
Step 30: Report of Nodes
In picture 30, I have generated a report of all the nodes I have created. They are organized by parent node. You can get this report for your project by opening the "Node Explorer" from the main menu. Select the Node menu, then click on "Explore all nodes." This window will appear. From the "Tools" menu select "List the nodes" and choose the "Titles and Addresses only" option. You can then print your report if you choose too or save it on your disk. The method is almost identical for a list of your documents. Instead of selecting Nodes select Documents from the main menu.
Step 31: Browsing a Node
You can also browse a particular node. Here I right-clicked on the "gender discrimination" tree node and selected the browse option. I can scroll down and read all the passages coded with that node. Each passage is organized under the name of the document it comes from. If I need to see the context in which these narratives were made I can open the document and browse it or select other options in the "View" menu such as the "In Enclosing Paragraph" or "In Enclosing Section" options from the "Passage Contents Displays" submenu. You can also activate the "Coding Stripes" feature from the View menu. You can process more coding if you choose to proceed with more in-depth coding and analysis. NVivo will save these changes to the documents you have chosen to re-code from this node browser window.
Step 32: Closing the Project
Warning: the disk that comes with your text is a Demo version. If you
are
working with this Demo version, you will not be able to save your project.
But before you close it, explore the many ways of making reports on
what you
have done. Go to the Documents and Nodes menus, and try making reports
on
the nodes you have created and coding done, or memos you have written.
These
save as rich text files and you can open them in your word processor
to do
more work on them. Or just print any window from the screen.
After you have saved or printed any reports you want, click on "Close
Project" from the main menu.
If you or your school has the full software and you have been working
in
that, you can of course save your project and reopen it. Click on Close
Project, and NVivo will automatically ask you if you want to save the
project and the changes you have made to it. Don't forget to click
on "Yes"
unless you do not want to overwrite your previously saved file. (NVivo
also
autosaves your project but it is not a permanent saving option.)
Step 33: Reopening a Project
The demo version provided with your book does not allow you to save changes to your project. However, if you have the full version of NVivo, you can return to the project and pick up where you left off. Instead of clicking in "Create a Project" select "Open a Project." The paths to your project should already be saved in the NVivo setting.
You can simply select your project and click "OK." If you save your project in a different directory using Windows explorer or My Computer, you may have to click on the "Choose" button and locate your file before you can open it. Continue to explore NVivo and share your discoveries with your peers.