Adding Variables
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.
Creating Document Sets
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.
To create a Document Set:
- Go to Mixed Methods.
- Then go to Activate Documents by Variables.
- This box will appear.
- Then drag and drop into the middle box Conditions the variable you want. Choose the value you want. Here the variable gender has been chosen and the value male.
- Then click New Set.
- A new Document Set is created of people in the study who are male. The red signals that these documents are activated.
- You can now work with this Document Set.