Digital literacy training

Introduction to NVivo12 Pro

Project Set-Up & Coding

2019

ANU Library anulib.anu.edu.au/training

digital.literacy@anu.edu.au
 Introduction to NVivo 12 Pro

Table of Contents
Introduction to NVivo: Project Set-Up & Coding ......................................................... 1
Recommended Steps in Setting up an NVivo Project .................................................................. 1
The NVivo Workspace ............................................................................................................ 2
Mac vs PC Versions of NVivo ................................................................................................... 2

FIRST STEPS: Define Cases & Data Files, Create Classifications, Attributes and
Relationships .............................................................................................................. 3
What are Attributes & Values? ................................................................................................ 3
Creating Classifications and Associated Attributes...................................................................... 4
Applying Classifications & Associated Attributes......................................................................... 4

DATA AREA Importing Files ........................................................................................ 5

Importing Data Files into the NVivo Project ............................................................................... 5
Adding External Data Sources ................................................................................................. 6
Importing Social Media and Web Pages NCapture ...................................................................... 7
Web Pages ........................................................................................................................... 7
Facebook/Twitter .................................................................................................................. 7
YouTube ............................................................................................................................... 7

CODES AREA Create Nodes ......................................................................................... 8

What is a Node? .................................................................................................................... 8
Research Nodes and Contextual Nodes..................................................................................... 9
Opening a Node to View All the References Coded to It .............................................................. 9
Reference Tab Information ..................................................................................................... 9
Creating a New Node ............................................................................................................. 9
Using Mind Maps to Create Nodes .......................................................................................... 11
Autocoding Nodes & Case Nodes ........................................................................................... 12
Auto Coding Datasets .......................................................................................................... 12
Auto Coding Using Paragraph Styles ...................................................................................... 12

Coding Your Data...................................................................................................... 13

What is Coding Context? ...................................................................................................... 13
What is "Coding-On"? .......................................................................................................... 13
How to Code a Section of Text to a Node ................................................................................ 13
How to See What Has Been Coded within a File ....................................................................... 14
[OPTIONAL] Coding Audio and Video Data Files ....................................................................... 15
[OPTIONAL] Coding Pictures ................................................................................................. 15
Uncoding Within Nodes and Data Files ................................................................................... 15

Notes Area ................................................................................................................ 16

Creating Annotations ........................................................................................................... 16
Creating Memos .................................................................................................................. 16
Creating Links ..................................................................................................................... 17
Creating Framework Matrices ................................................................................................ 17

Search Area .............................................................................................................. 17

Creating a New Set .............................................................................................................. 18

[OPTIONAL] Creating Transcripts ............................................................................. 18

Transcribe Mode .................................................................................................................. 18
Normal Mode ...................................................................................................................... 18
Dividing Media .................................................................................................................... 19
Custom Fields in Transcripts ................................................................................................. 19

Other resources ........................................................................................................ 20

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Introduction to NVivo: Project Set-Up & Coding

NVivo can do a phenomenal number of things to help you analyse your qualitative data. It can
also help you analyse a large variety of data types: text, audio, video and pictures. This course
will show you how to use the essential tools available in NVivo for qualitative data analysis.
For further information about NVivo’s full capabilities, please refer to the NVivo 11 help
website (NVivo 12 comprehensive is not yet available): help-nv11.qsrinternational.com
This session will cover:
 Recommended steps in setting up a Research Project in NVivo.
 How to set-up Case Classifications, Attributions & Values to use as break-down
variables (a.k.a. independent variables) for future analysis.
 How to set-up Data File Classifications, Attributions & Values to use for bibliographies
and refining searches and analyses.
 How to create, view and organise coding schemes in the Codes area.
 How to Import Data Files.
 How to create Cases and apply Attribute values.
 How to Auto Code to create contextual Nodes and Cases.
 How to manually code and uncode text, sound, picture, and video.
When you open NVivo it will ask you to create a user ID: enter your Initials (must be unique to
the Project) and (optional) your name. This is important when you’re collaborating with others.
Open the sample project to explore how NVivo can be used to analyse your data. When you
open NVivo, on the Start Screen in the New section click Sample Project. This is a two-year
study (2008-2009) documenting community perceptions of development and land-use change
on coastal communities in the Down East area of Carteret County, North Carolina, USA.
NOTE: Saved Projects can be opened on any computer only if it has the same version of NVivo
(e.g., NVivo 12 Pro for Windows) and can be altered by any collaborator (a record of who
changes what is kept according to User ID). Windows Projects can be converted to Mac to
view on Apple computers, and vice-versa. Please be aware that Mac versions do not have
the same capabilities as Windows versions of NVivo (e.g., you cannot Auto Code on
Macs).

Recommended Steps in Setting up an NVivo Project

It may seem counterintuitive, but setting up an NVivo Project is more efficient if you create
your research project variables BEFORE importing any data.
The recommended steps are as follows:

1. Identify what your Cases will be (your units of measurement, such as people/ reports/ organisations).
Then set up your Case Classifications, Attributes and Values (e.g., “independent” or grouping variables)
for later analytical comparisons in the Cases Area (e.g., age groups, gender, states/territories).
2. Set up your Data File Classifications, Attributes and Values to keep track of bibliographical information
and help refine future analyses (e.g., analyse survey data separately from interview data) in the Data
File Area.
3. Import your Data in the Data Files folder and create Cases and assign Classifications simultaneously.
4. Open Classification Sheets and assign Attribute values to your Data Files and Cases.
5. Create Contextual Nodes if needed (e.g., a Node each survey question) using Auto Coding.
6. Set up your Research/Thematic Variables in the Codes Area, and other Contextual Nodes
(e.g., Attitude: positive, negative, neutral).
7. (Optional) Prepare your project for collaboration, in Sets and/or Memos.

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The NVivo Workspace

The Navigation View is where you can easily navigate the different Areas of your NVivo
Project. When you click on an Area in the Navigation Pane, a list of folders in that Area
appears at the top of the pane. When you click on a folder, the list of items it contains is
presented in a window to the left called the List View. When you open an item in the List
View, its content appears in the Detail View. The Ribbon contains commands in tabs. The
Find Bar is a shortcut to search for items your Project. The Quick Coding Toolbar has
shortcuts for coding your data. The Status Bar provides information for the Project Item you
have open.

1. Ribbon 5. Find Bar

2. Navigation 6. Quick
View Coding
Toolbar
3. List View
7. Status Bar
4. Detail View

Note: Throughout using NVivo you’ll find that your best-friend is Right-Clicking: it gives you
a context-dependent short-cut menu with all the appropriate options for the space/object
clicked. This way you don’t have to remember which menu tab has the function you need.

Note: The Navigation View can be hidden to make more room on the screen by clicking the
arrow symbol at the top right-hand side of the View.

Mac vs PC Versions of NVivo

If you are intending to use the Apple Mac version of NVivo, please note that it does not have
all the capabilities of the PC version and the user interface can be quite different (e.g., The
Mac version cannot Auto Code). In newer versions of NVivo, the interface is becoming more
similar, however the older versions are vastly different. These notes apply to the PC version
only, so if you are working on a Mac and have trouble finding what you need please refer to
the online NVivo 11 Help for Mac:
help-nv11mac.qsrinternational.com
If you are working on both PC and Mac versions, you will need to convert your Project files to
the appropriate format to the platform you are working on, each time you work on a different
computer. More information on how to do this can be found on the above website.

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FIRST STEPS: Define Cases & Data Files, Create

Classifications, Attributes and Relationships
Defining the higher-order information about your Data Files and Cases.

HANDY HINT: By defining the Case and File classifications, their attributes and values FIRST,
you are able to classify your data DURING the import process. This saves a lot of time,
particularly because it has the added benefit of ensuring you plan your project thoroughly
before you start coding.

What are Cases?

Technically, Cases are the units of measurement for your research. They can be individual
people/reports/articles (or other special instances you wish to be able to measure) in your
project design. For example, if you want to be able to say: “N number of People said Y”, then
People will be your Cases. You can have multiple types of Cases if you have more than one
unit of measurement (e.g., a Case type for Person and a Case type for Organisation).
In order to help NVivo identify individual Cases for analysis, you need to create a Case Node
for each one. Case Nodes also allow you to see all the content relating to each Case (e.g.,
everything person A said) when you open them. These are filed as special types of Nodes in
the Cases folder in the Cases Area.

What are Classifications?

There are two types of Classifications you need to create in your project:
 File Classifications – for each type of Data File in your project (e.g., Interview, Article or
Web Page). You will often only have one type of data file. Sometimes File Classifications
are not even necessary, as they are only useful for searches within NVivo.
 Case Classifications – for each type of Case in your project (e.g., Person, Organisation,
Location). You will often only have one type of Case. Case Classifications are necessary
unless you are not interested in enumerating your data or analysing it at different levels
(e.g., comparing age groups or summarising what a particular group says).

What are Attributes & Values?

For each Classification you will usually need to create a set of unique, mutually exclusive
Attributes:
 Data File Attributes – the relevant details about your data files that you need to keep
track of (e.g. bibliographical information, interview details such as time place and
interviewer). Note: can import bibliographical information from referencing programs such
as EndNote.
 Case Attributes - the relevant breakdown variables (a.k.a. independent variables) you
will need for analysis. E.g. if you believe that there will be differences due to the
states/territories in which the Cases live, then state/territory should be an Attribute of the
Classification for Person.
Within each Attribute you will usually define a set of possible Values to use for analysis
(e.g., within Sex the options are Male or Female). This allows you to choose values from a
drop-down menu rather than having to type in all your data.
Note: Attributes must be mutually exclusive because you cannot select more than one
Attribute Value per Case or Data File. For example, if you have a Case Attribute for Fishing
with values for Commercial and Recreational, if a Case fits into both categories you cannot tick
both boxes. In this instance you have to create an Attribute for Commercial Fishing and
another for Recreational Fishing with values of Yes and No.

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Below is an example of a Case Classification for Person with Age, Sex and Occupation
Attributes. This will allow for comparison of the themes that emerge in your data between
3 age groups and sexes.

Classification Attribute Values

20-25

Age 26-30

31-35
Person
Female

Sex Male

Other

Creating Classifications and Associated Attributes

You need to set up classifications for Data Files and Cases in different areas in NVivo12: Case
Classifications in the Cases area, and File Classifications in the Data Area. The process is
identical.

Example: Create a Case Classification and Attributes for Philosopher.

On the Home tab, click on the drop-down menu for Case Classification (or you can right-
click on the Case Classifications icon in the Cases area). Create a new Case Classification called
“Philosopher” and give it an (optional) description. This will create the classification and then
you can add its Attributes. Click on the new Philosopher Attribute and on the Home tab
select New Attribute (you can also do this by right-clicking on the icon for Philosopher and
selecting New Attribute). Give it a name and (optional) description, such as Nationality on
the General tab. Select its value Type (here text). On the Values tab, you can set up the
different nationalities for the attribute: click Add and enter a new value in the row that
appears (e.g., French) assign a description and/or colour if you wish, then click Add again to
add the others. Then click OK when you’ve finished (do not click ADD again as it will not let
you continue with a blank row). You can add more attributes to the Philosopher classification
this way as well.

HANDY HINT: You can delete and reorder Attributes by clicking on the arrow on the left-
hand side of the row you want to remove or delete to highlight it, and then click on the
appropriate button below (remove, move up or move down).

Applying Classifications & Associated Attributes

When you have imported your Data Files and Cases in the Project you need to associate them
with their relevant Classifications and assign Attribute values. If you haven’t already
assigned a Classification to your Cases during import, do this by selecting one or more
Cases, right-click on the selection and go to the Classification section of the menu and
choose the appropriate one (e.g., Person or Journal Article). Once the Files/Cases have been
classified, they will then be available for classification in the Classification Sheet which is
found in the Classifications Area of the Navigation View.

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Find the relevant Classification (e.g., Person) and double-click on it to open the Classification
Sheet (or right-click on the Classification and select Open). This will produce a new tab with a
spreadsheet. The columns represent each Attribute and rows represent each Data File/Case.
Select the appropriate Attribute values in each column for every Data File/Case in each row
(either using drop-down lists or typing them in).

HANDY HINT: If you need to apply the same value to multiple consecutive Cases in the
Classification Sheet, you can copy a cell with the relevant value and paste that value to
multiple cells after selecting them using the shift + arrow keys (Note: you cannot select
multiple cells with the mouse).

DATA AREA
Importing Files
This is where you’ll store all of your qualitative data files for analysis (e.g., interviews, surveys
results).
There are 3 Data Area folders:
 Files: previously called “Internals” in NVivo 11. All the data files you want to analyse using
NVivo should be stored here within the Project itself.
 Externals: links to data and notes which you don’t need NVivo to analyse can be stored
here outside the NVivo Project (e.g., things that you cannot import into NVivo like
PowerPoint slides, or really big files that are better to store outside to save computing
power).
 File Classifications: where you can create File Classifications, Attributes and Values for
your data files in the same manner as for Cases.

HANDY HINT: NVivo analyses data files quicker and more easily with less data to search
through in a Project. You can save the material not needed for analysis in the Externals
folder OR if you want to use NVivo for your literature review, create a separate Project
for that.

You can see the data files already imported into the Project by clicking on the File folder and
the list of files will be displayed on the right in the List View Window Pane. To see the actual
data within the file, double-click on the file and it will open up in a new Window Pane called the
Detail View on the right-hand side of the screen.
New folders can be created within the Data Area by right-clicking on the File folder, selecting
New Folder and giving it a name (e.g., “Test Folder”) and (optional) description. You can also
create new Internal Documents by right-clicking in the List View and selecting New Internal
and new Document (new audio and video files will still need to be imported). Give it a name
and (optional) description.

Importing Data Files into the NVivo Project

You can import data files in the following formats in NVivo Pro/Plus (only text in the Starter
version):
Data Files
 Text: *.doc, *.docx, *.pdf, *.rtf, and *.txt
 Audio: *.mp3, *.mp4, *.m4a, *.wma, and *.wav
 Picture: *.bmp, *.gif, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png, *.tif, and *.tiff
 Video: *.mpg, *.mpeg, *.mpe, *.wmv, *.avi, *.mov, *.mp4, *.qt, *.3gp, *.mts and *.m2ts

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Survey Files
 Excel: *.xls, *.xlsx, *.csv, *.txt, *.tsv, Access database tables, ODBC database.
 Survey Monkey
 Qualtrics
Web Pages: as PDF files using NCapture for Chrome and Internet Explorer.
Bibliography Files: EndNote, Mendeley, RefWorks and Zotero files.
Notes and Email: Memos, Evernote, OneNote and Outlook files.
Social Media: as Survey Files from Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter using
NCapture.

HANDY HINT: You can select multiple files and import them into NVivo at the same time
(although datasets must be imported one-by-one). However, you will need to define the file
properties after import, and NVivo will use the file name as the name of the Data File/Case by
default.

Creating Case Nodes When Importing Data Files

When each data file represents one Case in your project, you can automatically create a Case
project item for it and NVivo will code all of the text etc. in the file as belonging to that Case.

Example: Importing a *.doc file belonging to one Case

In Navigation View, click the name of the File folder that you want to import the data file
into (e.g., Internals). On the Import tab, click the icon for the type of data you want to
import (e.g., Data Files). Select the file you want to import, then OK. If this file belongs to one
Case (e.g., Tony), tick the box to Create a Case for each imported file and you can also
select the radio button to Add to an existing classification to classify all the documents
appropriately. Then click Import.
To assign File Classifications to the imported file(s), select the files you want to classify and
right-click on the selection. Choose Classification and select the appropriate File Classification
from the list. You can also create Cases from the files here and assign Case Classifications
at the same time if you haven't done this during import.

HANDY HINT: Audio, Video, Dataset and PDF files need to be edited before import. It’s also
good idea to spellcheck documents before importing also, although there is a spellchecking
function in NVivo.

Adding External Data Sources

When you have large files, such as audio and video, it’s usually a good idea to add them to the
project as an External Data Source rather than import them as part of the project. It
reduces the sizes of the project file and saves on computing power when running analyses.

Please note that you will not be able to use NVivo to analyse the content of external sources
of data, only the notes or comments you linked to them.

In the Externals folder, right-click on the space in the Detail View and select New External.
Enter a name and optional description on the General tab. On the External tab choose the
External Type (e.g., File Link) then click the Browse button to file the location of the file. The
file MUST always go where the NVivo Project goes, or else the link will break. You can give it a
location description and select the Contents Type from the drop-down menu and Unit Type
from the next menu.
On the Attributes Values tab select a Classification Type if appropriate (e.g. Reference)
and assign its relevant Attributes. Then click OK. The external will open in edit mode and you

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can enter content related to the external to be coded later on. If you want to open the external
file within NVivo, right-click on the external data source and select Open External. If you want to
open the file in its native format outside of NVivo, select Open External File instead.

Importing Social Media and Web Pages

NCapture
There is an add-on for Internet Explorer and Google Chrome web browsers called
NCapture for NVivo. It automatically converts web pages to pdf and social media
conversations into spreadsheet tables ready for analysis.

Web Pages
Example: Capturing and importing a Wikipedia Page in Google Chrome.
To save pages as pdf and import them into NVivo, go to the relevant webpage in Google
Chrome or Internet Explorer (e.g., a Wikipedia Page) select NCapture and click Web Page
as PDF as the data source type (or Article as PDF if you only want to save the text of the
article. Note: sometimes the text you see on a webpage is actually an image of text, and as
such cannot be found in searches). Change the name if you wish and (optional) enter a
description and linked memo. You can also ask it to code the source at import by adding
terms to the Code at Nodes box. Then click Capture.
In NVivo, click on the Data folder in which you wish to import the data. On the Import menu
tab, click NCapture. Select the appropriate option (All captures not previously imported, All or
Selected). If your file is not already visible in the box below, click the Browse button and find
the file you wish to import. Then click Import.

Facebook/Twitter
When you are on the Facebook page, you can only save the News Feed page or a User Wall
as a PDF file with NCapture. Follow the same directions as for web pages above. If you are
displaying Wall Posts for a Facebook Page or a Twitter Feed you can use NCapture to
save the posts as a Dataset: select the option Posts as Dataset.

Note: You can merge social media datasets into one table for ease of analysis (takes note of
where the files came from as Nodes). Tick the Merge matching social media datasets
(including previously imported) check box, and any matching Facebook datasets are
merged together (if they contain wall posts for the same User, Page, or Group).

YouTube
You can capture the Video only, Video and Comments or the Web Page as PDF. When you
use NCapture to capture video in YouTube, it creates a video source file which is essentially a
shortcut link to the video in YouTube (an External Source) which can be played within NVivo.
If the video is removed from YouTube you will not be able to play it. You can transcribe this
video within NVivo, but not in Transcribe mode. If you also capture the YouTube comments
this creates a dataset within NVivo as an Internal data file which can be analysed.

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CODES AREA
Create Nodes
This Area contains all the information relating to the coding you have conducted to analyse and
summarise your qualitative data. It has folders for:
 Nodes: "Nodes" are essentially files (with a blue circle symbol) containing everything you
have assigned to each code in your coding scheme (text, audio, video etc.).
 Relationships: A record of the Relationships you note between project items (e.g., which
People are Married, which Authors are Collaborators). This is information you can record
but not analyse in NVivo Pro (you can analyse it using the Plus version).
 Relationship Types: This is where you set up the types of relationships you want to note
and apply to NVivo project items.

What is a Node?
It might be easier to think of Nodes as being the same thing as Codes. As mentioned
above, Nodes are essentially files (with a blue circle symbol) containing everything you have
assigned to each code in your coding scheme (text, audio, video etc.). For example, all the
text/audio/video in the Sample Project which refers to infrastructure has been coded to a
Node called “Infrastructure”. When you open the Node called “Infrastructure”, you will see a
summary of all the data that was coded in the Detail View on the right-hand side. Each
section of text, audio, and video is called a Reference.
Nodes can be:
 Free - stand-alone topics/themes (e.g., Balance).
 Tree - hierarchical grouping of Nodes indicated by a +/- symbol to expand and collapse the
tree. The higher-order Node is termed the “parent” and lower-order Nodes “children”
(e.g., Economy is a parent Node and Agriculture, Tourism etc. are its children).

HANDY HINT: Consider setting-up Nodes for the codes you intend to use before
coding your data; this does help to ensure coding doesn’t go beyond the scope of your
project. They can always be changed, merged, added to and reorganised as you go along. You
can also use the Mind Map feature in NVivo to create your initial Node structure [more on this
later].

HANDY HINT: Try to restrict Tree Nodes to the “child” level, and don’t go beyond to
“grandchildren” or “great-grandchildren” unless you absolutely have to. It makes analysis
simpler and limits your Nodes to only the essential ones for summarising and analysing.

HANDY HINT: NEVER duplicate nodes – there is no need to, as segments of data files can
be coded to multiple Nodes.

When you look at your Nodes in the List View, it also provides a summary information about
each:
 Files: the number of Data files that have content coded at that Node.
 References: the number of sections of text audio and video etc. coded to that Node.
And other potentially useful information.

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Research Nodes and Contextual Nodes

Your Research Nodes are essentially the ones based on your Coding Scheme. I recommend
creating “Contextual” Nodes also in order to make future analysis easier. Contextual Nodes
are different to your standard “Research” Nodes in that they solely provide some context to
the data being investigated (e.g., Responses to Question 1, Negative Attitude Expressed,
Positive Attitude Expressed) rather than being important themes you are investigating (e.g.,
Water Quality, Air Quality). They are also different to the Classification characteristics of your
Cases, because these can already be used to group your Cases for analysis (e.g., Male,
Female, Age Group).

Opening a Node to View All the References Coded to It

The List View the Nodes Area provides information regarding the number of Files that are
coded at the Node (e.g., how many text and video files), as well as the number of References
(sections of text). You can see the actual content of the Node by double-clicking on it (e.g.,
Infrastructure) or right-click on it and select Open Node. The content is displayed the Detail
View. Here you will find tabs on the far right-hand side for:
 Summary - the files in which the references are coded and how many.
 Reference - the textual data coded with hyperlinks to the original Data file, as well as
"coverage" details (see below) and reference numbers.
 Other tabs with thumbnail links which compile information from Text / PDF / Picture /
Audio etc. files separately.

Note: If the Node is a parent and has Aggregation turned on [more on this later], then
coding at any child Nodes is included in what you see when you open the node. The content in
child Nodes are also included when calculating coverage.

Warning: If you code 2 sentences next to each other separately, and do not include the space
between them, this is counted as 2 references. In addition, if 2 people code the same sentence
this is also counted as 2 references.

Reference Tab Information

 Header: Name of the File coded with a hyperlink to that file, number of references in it
coded at the Node and percentage of coverage (e.g., X% of the File coded at this Node).
 References: Number of times the reference was coded at the Node (>1 if multiple users
coded the same section of text).
 Coverage: Percentage of the file that the reference coding represents (e.g., for documents
it represents the percentage of characters coded in the entire file).

Creating a New Node

You can create Nodes prior to coding if you wish; it isn’t necessary but it does help to ensure
coding doesn’t go beyond the scope of your project. In the Codes area of the Navigation
View, click on the Nodes folder. Right-click on the Detail View in the Nodes folder, and
select New Node. Type in the code’s label (e.g., Schools of Thought) and add a description
(recommended as this text will be added to the "codebook" that you can export later).
Another method to create Nodes is to click on the Create tab, then click Node. You can also
use the Mind Map function to create multiple hierarchical Nodes. [More on this later].

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HANDY HINT: It’s good practice to define what a code means and any “rules” for applying the
it to the data. This can be added to the description of the Node in NVivo and will assist in
ensuring reliability and validity of your coding scheme. All descriptions can be exported as a
"codebook" when you have finished coding. If multiple people are coding the data
(recommended on a limited sample of data for reliability checks), then there is a clear record
of what the code means and how it should be applied in practice. It should also be noted in
reports, so that readers can assess the meaning and validity of the code.

Creating Child Nodes

Right-click on the Node you want to turn into a “parent” (e.g., the Schools of Thought) and
select New Node. Give the new Node a name (e.g., Rationalism), add a description, then click
OK. You can also turn a Free Node into a Child Node by cutting and pasting it into the
intended Parent Node and selecting Merge into New Child Node, or by clicking the free
Node icon and dragging it into the Parent Node.

If you decide you've made a mistake, you can make the child Node a free Node again by
cutting and pasting the Node icon to the blank space at the bottom of the Nodes list (or by
clicking and dragging it to the higher-order Nodes folder in the Codes area).

Aggregation
It’s a good idea to consider if and when you want to aggregate the coding in your child Nodes
with that of the parent Node for analysis. Right-click on the parent Node then select
Aggregate Coding from Children to either tick or untick the Aggregate box. If aggregation
is turned on (ticked), then all the child-specific coding (e.g., Rationalism) will also be included
in the parent-Node coding (e.g., Schools of Thought) during analysis.

Note: If you have aggregation turned on for a parent Node X, but aggregation turned off for
its child Node Y which is also a parent Node (i.e. X has "grandchild" Nodes) the content coded
at the grandchildren will not be included at the grandparent level when viewing or analysing
Node X.

Changing Node Information

If you need to change the name of a Node, simply click on the name of the Node a 2 nd time
and you can change the text. You can also change the name and anything else about the Node
(e.g. the description) by right-clicking on it and selecting Node Properties.

Creating Folders for Nodes

You can create folders to organise your Nodes in some meaningful way (e.g., create a folder to
store your survey question Nodes). Right-click on the Nodes folder to create a new one within
it (e.g., Context Nodes). You can further organise Nodes by clicking their Node icons and drag
them in and out of folders (e.g., drag Attitude into the Context Nodes folder).

Merging Nodes
You can also merge similar Nodes together so that everything that was coded at one Node will
become coded to the Node it is merged with. Select and cut the Node you want to merge into
another “target Node” (e.g. in the Autocoded Social Media folder cut Fisherman and Fishing)
then right-click on the Target Node (e.g., Fishing Industry) and select Merge into Selected
Node. Select the appropriate option(s) provided (e.g., Merge Child Nodes as well) then click
OK.

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[OPTIONAL] Creating a Relationship between Project Items

You can create relationships between Cases and/or other project items, and you will see these
relationships in the Relationships folder in the Codes area. For example, Margaret is a
member of Carteret Catch. Relationship types need to be created FIRST in the Relationship
Types folder.
To create a Relationship Type, right click on the Relationship Types folder and select New
Relationship Type. Type in a name (e.g. employer) and [optional] description, then select
the appropriate direction (e.g. one-way). To apply a Relationship right-click in the blank space
in the Relationships List View (or selecting Relationship on the Create tab) then select a
Project item such as a Case/Node in the From box (e.g., Barbara), then choosing a
Relationship Type from the drop-down menu (e.g., is married to) and selecting another
Project item in the To box (e.g., Ken). Then click OK.

Using Mind Maps to Create Nodes

NVivo Mind Maps help you to create a diagram of your coding scheme and its hierarchical
structure. As an added bonus, you can also convert the mind map “ideas” into actual Nodes in
the Codes area with the click of a button.
On the Explore tab click Mind Map. Enter a name for the map in the Name box, and an
(optional) Description, then click OK. An initial shape is already prepared for you to enter a
label for the main idea of the map (e.g., Research Project Title). The child ideas from this main
shape will essentially be the parent Nodes of your coding scheme (otherwise you need to have
one map for each parent Node which is inefficient).
If you want to add a “child” idea (e.g., a shape connected to the main idea) click on the shape
and on the Mind Map Tools tab, click on Child idea (alternatively right-click on the shape
and select Child idea from the menu). Then give it a label (e.g., Theme 1). If you need to
relabel it, just double-click on the word to edit. You can add a Sibling idea (a shape at the
same level in the hierarchy) in the same way.
If you want to create an unconnected shape that will become a free Node in your Nodes folder,
click Floating idea on the Mind Maps Tools tab. Note: you will not be able to add siblings or
children to the shape.
You can change the colour of a shape by clicking on it and changing the colour from the Fill
drop-down menu on the Mind Maps Tools tab. You can also change the layout, size, and text
formatting on this tab. When you’re happy with your Coding structure, select Create as
Nodes or Cases from the Mind Maps Tools tab, click on the Nodes folder and then OK. They
will then appear in the Node folder of the Codes area.

Note: I recommend rearranging the new Nodes to make the parent Nodes (which will appear
as children under your main theme) true parents by cutting and pasting them to the blank
space in the list. Then you can remove the superfluous project theme Node.

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Autocoding Nodes & Case Nodes

You can also create Contextual Nodes (such as a Node for each question so you can analyse
them separately) and Case Nodes using the Autocode function. This works best if you have a
spreadsheet Data file where each row represents one case, and each column represents a
Node (such as a survey question). Autocode can also be used in Word documents, if you
have used Heading Styles to define content relating to one case/theme (such as Heading 1
for each interview question, and Heading 2 for each person's name).

Auto Coding Datasets

You can automatically code datasets, creating Nodes for:
 columns – e.g., a Node for each question in a survey coding the responses in the column
to that Node.
 rows – e.g., a Case for each respondent and code the responses in that row to that Case.

Example: Auto Code the columns in the Survey Responses Data file as question Nodes.
In the List View of the Data area, select on the dataset you want to auto code (e.g., the
Survey Responses Data in the Survey folder). On the Home tab click Auto Code and the
Wizard will begin to take you through the process. Click Code at Nodes for selected
columns then Next. Move the appropriate column(s) you wish to auto code into the Selected
Columns box by selecting them and clicking the right arrow button (e.g., all of the available
columns) then click Next. Select a location for the Node (e.g., under New Node in the
location Nodes), and give the new Node a name (e.g., Survey Questions). Then click Finish.
This will create a new parent Node called Survey Questions with multiple child Nodes in the
Nodes folder.

Auto Coding Using Paragraph Styles

You can use NVivo to auto code your Word documents based on Heading Styles. It's
probably easier to explain how this works using an example. If you want to create a Node for
each question that is asked in an interview transcript, you can apply the same Heading Style
format to each question asked in the document. NVivo will automatically create a new Node for
each piece of unique text in that style (e.g., one Node called "What is your favourite colour?"
written in style 1 and another called "What is your favourite food?" also in the same style). It
will then automatically code the text between "What is your favourite colour?" and the next
instance of the same Heading Style as belonging to the new "favourite colour" Node. If NVivo
finds the text "What is your favourite colour?" in Heading Style 1 again, it will add the next
piece of normal text to the same Node.
If you have multiple individual transcripts in Word and they are formatted using paragraph
styles in the same way, they can all be auto coded together in one go.
Example: Auto Code the Interview Word Documents.
Select the document you wish to auto code in the Data area (e.g., all the text documents in
the Interviews folder). On the Home tab, click on Auto Code and select Paragraph Style and
select the appropriate paragraph style(s) from the list (e.g., Heading 1 to create Nodes for
each question). Click Next and then select a location for the Nodes (e.g., under New Node in
Nodes) and give the group of Nodes a Name (e.g., Questions), then click Finish. You’ll notice
in the Nodes folder there are 2 Nodes for Q.6. This is because the questions were not identical
– you can merge these two together.

Note: You can also Auto Code by paragraph number this way: choose to code by Paragraph
instead of Paragraph Style.

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Coding Your Data

What is Coding Context?

When you begin to code your data it’s important to consider how much information to
include in your Nodes: individual words, partial/whole sentences, paragraphs or even the
whole document. Ideally you should code as much content needed to understand why it was
coded in that way.
For example:
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set,
I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx
If you select and code ONLY the first sentence of this quote to the Node TV is NOT
Educational, you might later think that the coding was inappropriate, because when you open
the Node to review it, only that sentence would appear. Therefore, when coding it is important
that you include an appropriate amount of context in order to justify why you coded it the way
you did – not only to yourself, but to anyone else who might review your analysis.
On the other hand, including irrelevant information in the context of your Node can be
problematic for analysis. Particularly if you want to identify overlapping content between Nodes
and quantify your qualitative data. In the example below, each Node contains a substantial
amount of irrelevant text, and there is a spurious relationship between them because only the
irrelevant coding overlaps.

Node X Node Y

What is "Coding-On"?
Often one sentence will be a relevant reference for more than one Node. Coding-on refers to
coding the same content at a second, third or fourth Node+ (this is done in the same way as
regular manual coding). This is why you never need to have duplicate Nodes.

How to Code a Section of Text to a Node

Method 1: Manual coding.
Open a document from the Data area and Files folder of the Navigation View. Click and
drag your mouse to highlight the section of text that you would like to code under one or more
Nodes. Right-click on the selection and choose Code from the menu. Then choose one or more
of the existing Nodes in the list: to select more than one hold down the control key and click
on the Nodes. If you need to create a new Node, click the New Node button at the bottom of
the new window. This will add a new blank Node to the list, which you can rename and select.

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Method 2: Drag and Drop Coding.
If you have your Nodes displayed in the List View next to the Detail View of your
file/document, you can select the content you want to code then drag and drop the selection
to the Node itself. The selection will still be active in the text, so you can drag it to multiple
Nodes consecutively.
Method 3: Quick Coding Bar (see illustration below).
1) At the bottom of the window, there is a short-cut bar for coding. Select what you want to
code, then choose where you want to code it in the In drop-down menu a. (Nodes, Cases
or Relationships). You can then click on the box with the 3 dots next to this menu and
select the appropriate Nodes from the list.
2) If you are already in the process of coding to particular Nodes, you can select recent Nodes
from the 2nd Code At drop-down menu b. Then select the appropriate Node from the list. If
you want to choose more than one, click on the box with the 3 dots next to this menu and
tick all the appropriate Nodes boxes.
3) If you want to create a new Node, type in the name for that Node in the Code At box.
Then click on the Icon for Code at Current Node to code it.

There are also icons for c. Uncode at Selected Node and to make a Nodes from the selected
text (d. Code in Vivo) which automatically chooses the highlight text as the Node's name (up
to 256 characters) and as the text to that Node.

How to See What Has Been Coded within a File

There are 2 options for seeing what has been coded. The first is the Highlight method, which
is useful for keeping track of where you are up to when coding. Double-click on a Data file to
open it and the Document Tools tab will automatically become available. Click on the
Highlight drop-down menu and select the appropriate option:
 All Nodes (less useful) will highlight everything that is coded to a Node in yellow (including
Case Nodes). It doesn’t tell you how it’s been coded.
 Selected Items (more useful) will highlight the coding for a more limited range of Nodes
which you choose from the menu (relevant ones will be in bold type). To reset these
choices at any time, select Modify Selected Items from the Highlight drop-down menu.
The second option not only shows you what has been coded but how it’s been coded at
multiple Nodes. On the Document Tools tab click on the Coding Stripes drop-down menu
and select the appropriate option (e.g., Selected Items). Colour-coded stripes will appear in
another window on the right-hand side of the screen; one for each relevant Node in the
document. These tell you how the sections have been coded and the coding density at each
part of the document. When you click on one of these stripes it will highlight the coded text for
that Node in the whole document as you scroll through (e.g., Real Estate Development). You
can right-click on a strip to hide it from the list. To unhide a strip, select Modify Selected
Items from the Coding Strip drop-down menu and re-tick the appropriate Nodes. You are
also able to uncode using coding stripes by right-clicking and choosing Uncode at Node,
Caution: this will automatically uncode all the text in that document at that Node not just the
section of text that you can see.

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[OPTIONAL] Coding Audio and Video Data Files

Example: Code the audio data file for the Interview Helen.
You can code audio and video Data files in two ways: by selecting the text in the written
transcript just as you would for normal text documents, or by selecting sections of the media
file via the timeline. Open the audio file for Helen in the Interviews folder. If you want to code
using the timeline, click and drag on the timeline to select the portion of timespan you want to
code (e.g., 0 to 30 seconds). Right-click on the selection and choose Code (or you can click
code on the Audio Tools tab). Choose the Node(s) you want to code the section at,
alternatively click New Node if you need to create a new one.
If you have a transcript as well, the portion of the transcript which is coded in the timeline is
indirectly coded also (but the transcript will not be shown in the Node when you open it).
When you open the Nodes, you will see a link to the section of audio and its related transcript
on the Audio tab. To listen to the section of audio coded to the Node, in the Node Tools
Audio tab, just click the Play/Pause button. If more than one section of text has been coded,
right click on that section and choose Play/Pause from the menu.

Extra Information on Working with Audio & Video: You do not need to transcribe in
order to code Audio and Video files. However, remember that NVivo cannot search audio and
video content when conducting Word and Text Search Queries. In addition, it becomes more
difficult to verify the accuracy of your coding (i.e., it can take much more time to listen to the
media file than skim the transcript).

[OPTIONAL] Coding Pictures

Coding pictures it is similar to tagging people on social media. Sometimes you may have to
use this method when coding PDFs if they haven't been through optical character recognition
(OCR), which means that the text cannot be recognised as text.

Example: Coding a boat in the picture file Competing Water Uses.

You can code pictures in three different ways: by selecting a region of the picture, coding text
in the Content column of the picture log (if you have one) or by coding the entire picture file
in one go. Again, coding the log is identical to coding normal text data. If you want to code the
whole picture to a Node, right-click on the file itself and select Code.
Open a picture file (e.g., Competing water uses in the Area and Township folder) and the
Picture Tools tab will become available. If you want to code only a section of a picture (e.g.,
identify one boat in a photo), click and drag to choose the section you want to code. On the
Picture Tools tab under click Code (or right-click on the selection and choose Code.
PDF documents can also be coded as though they were pictures (e.g., areas of the document
rather than words in the document). Right-click in the Detail View and select Section Mode
then Region instead of Text.

Uncoding Within Nodes and Data Files

If you make a mistake when coding, or if there are references found in Nodes or the results of
Queries that do not really fit in with the theme behind the Nodes, you can always uncode that
section of text/picture/video/audio. Highlight the reference section to be uncoded, right-click
on the selection and choose Uncode. All the Nodes that this section of text is coded at will be
in black text and you can tick all the Node boxes you wish to uncode the text at. If you are
uncoding from within an open Node, any only wish to uncode it from that Node, all you need to
do is click the icon for Uncode from this Node on the Node Tools tab (or right-click on the
selection and choose it from the menu).
As mentioned previously, you can also uncode ALL the references in one data file at a Node
using the Coding Stripes, by right-clicking on the coding stripe for the appropriate Node, and
uncoding (with extreme caution).

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HANDY HINT: Uncoding is easiest to do when you are reviewing the coding you have done
within a Node, because you can select Uncode at this Node rather than having to constantly
look for the relevant one in the list.

Notes Area
This Area stores links to project items in folders to make them easier to organise and find. It is
particularly useful if you are collaborating with other researchers on the same project.
 Memos: any memos you have made in your project are stored here.
 Framework Matrices: create and store matrices to help you summarise what your Cases
have said on particular topics.
 Annotations: any annotations you have made in your project are linked here.
 See Also Links: any hyperlinks you have made between project items.

Creating Annotations
Example: Annotate the Interview for Barbara.
Select the content you wish to annotate (e.g., Barbara) and on the Document Tools tab click
New Annotation (or right click on the selection and choose New Annotation). Enter the
annotation text at the bottom of the Detail View. Annotated content will be highlighted in
blue and the text will be displayed in the Annotations tab at the bottom of the window. This
text can also be included in any text searches and/or queries.

Creating Memos
You can use memos to record any ideas or insights as you progress in your analysis. These can
be linked to specific Data Files or Nodes, or Unlinked. Memos can include text, tables and
annotations. In addition, you can code the content of memos. You can also import existing
memos into the Memos folder. Data files that have linked memos display a memo link icon:

Example: Create an Unlinked Memo for Things to Do.

To create an unlinked memo, in the Notes Area, click the Memos folder. On the Create tab,
click Memo, enter a name (e.g., Things to Do) and (optional) description, and then click OK. It
will open in the Edit Mode so you can enter content. If you want to link a memo to a Data
File/Node, right-click on the File/Node then select Memo Link and then Link to New Memo.
Enter a name and (optional) description, then click OK.

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Creating Links
Example: Link text in the Barbara Interview to the Charles Interview.
Select the content you want to link from (e.g., a selection of text from the Barbara Interview),
and on the Document Tools tab, click the See Also Link drop-down menu and select New
See Also Link. Click the Select button and locate the Project Item you want to link to (e.g.,
Charles in the Interview folder), and click OK. Linked content will be highlighted in pink and
the linked item will be displayed in the See Also Links tab at the bottom of the window.

Note: If you want to view/hide annotations and links from the Detail View, tick or untick the
relevant box on the Document Tools tab in the View grouping

Creating Framework Matrices

You can create Framework Matrices with rows representing individual Cases and columns for
specific theme Nodes. NVivo will show you the text that relates to each cell in the table in a
separate window to make it easier to summarise it by writing your notes in each cell of the
table yourself.
Example: create a matrix for all the people interviewed and the Negative, Positive, Mixed and
Neutral things they said.
In the Notes area right-click on the Framework Matrices folder and select New Framework
Matrix. Give the Matrix a name and optional description, then click on the Rows tab. Click the
Select button to select Cases (e.g. in the Cases folder, look in the People folder and tick all the
boxes in the Interview Participants folder). Then click OK. If you want to sort the Cases by
particular Case Classification, click the select button for the Select attributes to sort the
rows by box. Select the classification that you wish to sort by (e.g. Age Group), then click OK.
On the Columns tab click the Select button and choose all the thematic Nodes you want in
the columns (e.g. the Attitude child Nodes), then click OK and OK again.
When you click on a cell in the Matrix, the coded text relating to that cell will appear in a
window on the right-hand side. You can then summarise the text yourself within the cell of the
table.

Search Area
This Area stores copies of the analyses you have run as well as their results for future
reference, as well as containing useful “meta-folders” to help organise and find data.
 Queries: saved Queries you have run to explore the Project data (if you have selected Add
to Project when running the Query). You can alter the parameters and/or run them again
at any time by double-clicking on a Query. Note: if you change the parameters it will
overwrite the saved Query.
 Query Results: saved results from the Queries you have run (as Nodes or Crosstabs
[More on this next course]).
 Node Matrices: saved tables created during Matrix Coding Queries [More on this next
course].
 Sets: meta-folders which you can create to store hyperlinks to project items (e.g., a folder
with links to all the data files you still have to code). This makes items easier to find by
organising them in different ways. It is particularly useful if you are collaborating with other
researchers on the same project.
 Search Folders: meta-folders which you can create to run and produce the results of
common searches.

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Creating a New Set

You can use the Sets folder in the Search area to create virtual folders with shortcut links to
project files. Items in a Set folder are simply shortcuts to the original files. You can delete an
item from a set without removing it from your Project. You can create an empty set to add
items to later, or create a set based on existing Project Items.
In the Search area, click on the Sets folder and on the Create tab click on the Set drop-down
menu. Click on New Set and enter a name in the Name box (e.g., Check Coding) and
(optional) Description. Click OK. Click on the new set folder and on the Create tab click the
drop-down menu for Set and choose Add Set Members (or right-click in the relevant Set
folder and select Add Set Members from the menu). Then select the Data files or Nodes you
want to add. Then click OK.
To remove items from a set, select the items you want to remove and on the Home tab click
Delete (or right-click on the item and select Delete).

[OPTIONAL] Creating Transcripts

You can create transcripts in 3 ways: Transcribe Mode, Normal Mode and by dividing the
media into sections. For further information on importing audio and video transcripts, see
help-nv11.qsrinternational.com

Transcribe Mode
Example: Transcribing the audio file for Helen.
By using the Transcribe Mode, you can play, pause, forward or rewind as you transcribe, and
each time press stop, NVivo creates a new transcript row and timestamp. Open the media Data
file and click the blue Click to Edit link at the top of the file. On the Audio Tools and Edit
tab, under the Play Mode grouping, click the Transcribe icon (the play button with a pen
symbol). Click and drag the indicator for Play Speed (the dome-shaped icon in the Playback
grouping) to slow down or speed up the recording. You can also adjust the volume using the
indicator with the speaker symbol.
Click Play/Pause to begin playing the Data file and transcribing. As soon as you do this a new
transcript entry will be added. Enter your text in the Content column (you can pause, rewind
and skip back while transcribing at any time). Click Stop when you have completed a
transcription entry. This will add the end time to the Timespan field. When you press
Play/Pause again a new transcription row will appear with a new starting timestamp.
Continue playing and stopping in this way until you have finished transcribing. Then turn off
Transcribe Mode on the Media tab and under Play Mode click Normal.

Normal Mode
You can add transcript entries directly in Normal Mode, by adding a transcript row for a
selected timespan and entering the content. Make sure you click the Click to Edit link, then
click and drag on the timeline to select the timespan you want to transcribe. On the Audio
Tools tab, in the Transcript group, click the drop-down menu for Insert Row and select
Insert Row. This will produce a new row in the transcript with the start and end times you
selected. You can also add a new entry without a timestamp this way (e.g., to make general
comments) simply by typing in the next entry box.

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Dividing Media
You can divide the media into sections by adding multiple transcript entries of equal duration.
E.g., divide a 30min video into 2min sections then comment on dialogue/events in each. Click
to Edit and choose the Normal mode again. On the Audio Tools tab, in the Transcript
group, click the drop-down menu for Insert Row and select Insert Rows. In the Add
Transcript Rows of Duration field enter the duration of each entry (e.g., 2:00 to create
entries of 2mins duration). In the From Start Time field, enter the start time for the entries
(e.g., 00:00:00). In the To End Time field, enter the end time for the final entry (this will be
pre-populated with the actual end time of the audio file, but you can change this). Click OK.

Custom Fields in Transcripts

If you want to add columns in the transcript for information, such as the speaker’s name, click
the File tab, and in the Info area click Project Properties. Click the Audio/Video tab and
under Custom Transcript Fields click the Audio or Video tab. Click the New button and
enter a name for the new field. The field will be added to all transcripts in the Project. You can
use this field when auto coding also.

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Other resources
Training notes
To access training notes, visit the Research & learn webpage anulib.anu.edu.au/research-learn
and select the skill area followed by the relevant course. You can register for a workshop and
find other information.

Research & learn how-to guides

Explore and learn with the ANU Library’s how to guides (ql.anu.edu.au/howto). Topics covered
are:
 Citations & abstracts  Finding theses
 Data Management  Increasing your research impact
 E-books  NVivo
 EndNote  ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
 Finding books and more  Topic analysis
 Finding journal articles and more  Using Google scholar from off-campus

Subject guides
Find subject-specific guides (ql.anu.edu.au/subjectguides) and resources on broad range of
disciplines. Such as:
 History, indigenous studies, linguistics  Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia and East
and philosophy Asian studies
 Criminal, human rights and taxation  Engineering
law  Astronomy and astrophysics, earth
 Biochemistry and molecular biology, sciences, mathematical sciences and
neurosciences and psychology natural hazards

Online learning
Online learning is available through ANU Pulse (ql.anu.edu.au/pulse), which can be accessed
from both on and off campus by all ANU staff and students.

IT skills development modules available in ANU Pulse

 Microsoft Office (Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, Word)
 Microsoft Office (Mac)
 Adobe suite (Illustrator, Photoshop)
 Type IT

Training calendar
Select Events » near the bottom of the Library homepage to access our events calendar with
upcoming training opportunities displayed day by day (ql.anu.edu.au/cal).

Feedback
Please provide feedback about today’s workshop
via an online feedback form (ql.anu.edu.au/survey)

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