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In most cases of textual analysis all of the project data will be incorporated into a single file along with the analysis codes and memos, and this project file can be backed-up and moved to other locations in simple procedures. There are no really disastrous pitfalls awaiting you in MAXQDA11 as you decide on a file structure for your project. Figure 4.4.2 above shows a part of the file after editing. Make sure that all of the labels are easy to understand.Īt the completion of these simple procedures save the spreadsheet under a new name, as this will preserve the original source data prior to editing, and then close it. The remainder of each label will be shown as the variable name in the program and so these labels should be short and clear, here “emp stat” is an abbreviation for “employment status”. The $ symbol will not be displayed in MAXQDA11, it is merely an identifier to tell the import routine which columns of data should be treated as variables. In general the only data that should not be treated as a variable will be the responses to open-ended questions, ie questions 2, 3A, 4A and 5, so these should be the only header labels that do not need the addition of the $ symbol. Thus the text in cell C1 should be changed from “EMP STAT” TO “$EMP STAT”.
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The third step is to identify the columns of data that will be treated as variables in MAXQDA and edit their heading labels in row 1 by inserting the “$” symbol at the beginning of each string.
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The identifiers down this column are in a valid format so do not need to be edited, but it may be worth checking to make sure that there are no accidental duplications in the list. The second step is to rename column B from “RESPONDENT” to “DOCUMENT NAME” by editing the text in cell B1. In cell A2 enter the words “Survey Data” and copy this into every row down column A to the bottom of the dataset at row 192. In cell A1 enter the text “DOCUMENT GROUP”. The first step as above, is to insert a new column at the extreme left of the spreadsheet so that it becomes column A. This has been done already in this example, in the file “Downturn survey – increased sample July 2012.xlsx” and this will be the starting point for this sectionįigure 4.4.2 – Survey Data spreadsheet prepared for import to MAXQDA11 It is essential that the data is set up in a spreadsheet, such as MS Excel, with a single row for each case or respondent, and with the variables and question responses in columns. MAXQDA has a straightforward procedure for importing the data collected in a survey into a project, but a small amount of data preparation is necessary to make this work. After this has been done there will still be some other errors in these documents but it may be more instructive to find and correct them by using the tools in MAXQDA11. So, it is recommended that all of the focus group transcripts are checked for missing hard returns between speakers and re-saved to store all editing corrections before importing them into your data analysis project. Note also how near the top of page 2, where the moderator asks “anyone else?” there is only a soft return before the response of R.53 starts – this displays adequately in MS Word but both speeches will be included in the same paragraph for autocoding purposes in MAXQDA11.įigure 4.4.1 – Checking paragraph markers in MS Word Note how the lines near the top, with data about each participant, have soft returns to separate them – these should be replaced with hard returns. To see an example, open the Group2 transcript in MS Word and switch on the show/hide tool. It will be important that there is at least one hard return between each separate speaker in the transcript, whereas in the sample data there are some inconsistencies in this respect. When the focus group transcripts are imported into MAXQDA11 the layout will be retained but the hard and soft returns will be recognised differently. However it may be helpful to check and correct paragraph markers first, as these are significant in the process of coding focus group speakers.Īs shown in Figure 4.4.1, in MS Word the “Show/Hide” button on the Home ribbon can be used to switch on the display of formatting characters so that the paragraph markers may be checked. There is no necessity to carry out any substantial pre-editing of the transcripts before importing them into MAXQDA11 because the program has an editing function which can be used to correct minor errors later.