MAXQDA 2018

Coding:

• The act of transforming raw data into workable order.

• In coding, you look for patterns. You are creating manageable and relevant categories for yourself.

Codes in MAXQDA:

• Can consist of one or more letters, and can go up until 63 characters. 
• Can be assigned a color. This can be useful in visualizing your code system easily. For example, if all your codes that have to do with gender are yellow, you can look at a document and see this easily.
• Can also have subcodes.

Some suggestions for coding in MAXQDA:

• You want to code more than one word or phrase.
• You want to code enough that you have some context to understand what is going on in a segment, so when you retrieve it/run reports that include it, you can understand what is going on without having to return to the original document. This will make your use of MAXQDA more efficient.

To code with a new code:

• You want to highlight the text you want to code and then click on the code with a new code tab,  .

• The new code box will appear, where you will write in the new code name. You can also choose a color for your code, here purple.

• Click OK.
• You now have coded with a new code. Family Dysfunction is a new code in the document open in the Document Browser.

• This code also appears in the Code System at the top.
• The number one next to the code Family Dysfunction lets you know that there is one instance of that code. 

To code with an existing code:

• You first want to highlight the text you want to code.
• Because this code already exists in your Code System, all you need to do is to to drag the highlighted text into the Code System window and into the code you want. (You can also drag the individual code into the text you have highlighted.)
• Once the code is dragged into the Code System, it will show up in the Document Browser.

•  You want to highlight the text that you want to code. You can draw a box around images and code them too. 
• Then drag and drop into an existing code or create a new code.

To organize your codes, go to the Code System window on the lower left hand-side of the screen, and right click on the Code System.

This box will appear and then you can sort by frequency or name. 

To merge codes:

• Right click on the first code.
• Select "Move coded segments."
• Right click on the second code.
• Select "Move coded segments from (name of first code").
• The codes have now been merged under the name of the first code. You can always change the name of the code by clicking on its name.

To create a subcode:

• Right click on the parent code.
• The new code box will appear and you enter the details the same as you would for any new code.

To change a subcode into a code:

• Drag the subcode up into the Code System icon.

To delete one code from a document in the Document Browser, you need to:

• Go to the one instance of the code.
• Right click on it, and a box will pop up. One of the options in this box is Delete.

• Once you click on Delete, a confirmation box will appear that will ask you whether you want to delete coding.
• Once you click OK, the one instance of that code will be deleted.

If you want to delete a code from the Code System (deleting all instances of the code in all your documents):

• You right click on the code and a box will appear where one of the options is Delete Code Inc. Subcodes.

Once you click that, a confirmation box will pop by. Here it is asking if you want to delete the code wife.

To delete the code, you click OK and it will be deleted from the Code System and all instances of it will be deleted from documents in the Document System.  

MAXQDA operates through activation. Activation is your most basic search function.

• You activate the codes and/or documents that you want to work with.
• Whatever you activate turns into a red arrow sign.

To activate:

• Click on the circle next to the name of the code. 
• Or right click on a code and activate it that way.

Here the first three codes in the Code System have been activated and have changed into red arrows:

• If you want to reset your activations, you click on the Reset Activations tab,  , on the top of the Code System menu. 

Activating documents works in a similar way. Below, the top two documents are activated. The activated documents have red arrows.

• On the top row of the Document System, the Reset Activations tab,, resets the activations. 

In order to use the Retrieved Segments window:

• You need to activate at least one code and at least one document. 
• Once you do that, the relevant coded segments will appear in the Retrieved Segments window.
• Below, S's interview has been activated, as well as the code African culture. All the coded segments are now visible in the Retrieved Segments window.

• You can click on any of the left hand boxes with the blue bands in the Retrieved Segments window and be taken to that coded text in the Document System.
• You can always export the results of your activations in the Retrieved Segments window by clicking on the Excel button.

You can now work with this material or share it with your team. Each entry gives you the name of the document, the code name, the entire coded text, who made the code, and where it starts and ends. 

When you run the analysis of your codes and documents, you want to make sure that you are activating what you need to. An easy thing to do is to Reset Activations, which resets across all windows.

To do a reset:

• Go to the Analysis menu.
• Then go to Reset Activations.