MAXQDA 2018

Adding variables and working with them is a key function in MAXQDA that can help you organize and work with your data. 

To Add Variables:

• Go to  Variables on the top menu.
• Then go to List of Document Variables.

• Once you are here, you can add variables through clicking , the New Variable tab.

• Once you do that, a box appears for you to add a variable.
• Let's add the variable Education:

• Click OK.
• Education is now added as a variable:

• To add values to the variable of Education, you click on the Data Editor icon, .

• This takes you to the Data Editor for Document Variables.
• A value is a characteristic of a variable. So here, for example, the variable is education and the values are university and high school.
• To add a value: double click on an empty box and add your text.

• Here you can see that the value university has been added.

Activating by Document Variables allows you to to see all the documents that have one or multiples variables attached to them. 

To do this:

• Go to Mixed Methods.
• Then go to Activate by Document Variables.

• Once you do that, this box pops up:

• You want to drag and drop a variable or variables into the middle box. The variable chosen here is gender. To work with this variable, you need to choose a value. You do by using the the drop down Value box on the right. The options you entered for that variable will appear there.

You then want to click activate.

All the interviews done with men are activated in red in the Document System.

• You can now work with these activated documents.

One of the options besides activation by variable is to create a Document Set by variable.

A Document Set is a folder that holds copies of your documents in various configurations.

• You can create as many document sets as you like.
• When you code a document, the codes will show up in the original document and all its sets.
• You can delete sets without altering or deleting your original document.

Here, we are going to create a Document Set of everyone who is thirty-years-old in this study.

To create this Document Set:

• Go to Mixed Methods 
• Then go to Activate by Document Variables, as we did above.
• Then drag and drop into the middle box the variable Age. Choose the value you want, here thirty.
• Then check the box that reads Activate and create set.
• Click Activate.

• A new Document Set is created of people in the study who are thirty. The red signals that these documents are activated.

• You can now work with this Document Set.