D: The search function and automatic coding
In MAXQDA you can search for specific words, parts of words, or strings of words with the help of the lexical search function.The search procedures refer to
• the texts,
• the memos or
• the coded segments, that are presently in the Retrieved Segments window.
The search can also be limited to the activated texts. You may search in individual texts, in groups of texts or also in texts whose attributes are in accordance with conditions defined by you. The search function is started by clicking on Analysis – Lexical Search in the menu bar. Alternatively, you may click on the search symbol in the tool bar. (Keyword in context)
Afterwards you can export, explore, or even automatically assign your search results to a specific code word.
1. The search menu
After selecting the function Lexical Search the following dialog box will appear
You can enter as many search words as you like into the empty window on the left side. To do so click on New and enter a search word or the search string you are searching for.
You can delete (by clicking the delete button) or change your search entries anytime.
Afterwards you can choose in the right section, whether you would like to search in the text material or in your memos. Should you have entered multiple search words you may decide how to combine them for the search function. OR leads to results in which at least one of the search words is contained. The option AND finds those text segments, which include all search words. In this case it is, of course, necessary to regulate the maximal distance of the words to each other, else search word A in the first line of your text and search word B in the last line would be listed as a hit (Example: List all text segments in which “fear” and “terror” appear within 2 paragraphs of each other).
Other practical possibilities are options like “only whole words” or “search only in active texts”. The latter is especially useful if you choose to only search a specific selection of texts (namely those, which you have activated).
The search will start after you click on the Search-Button.
Text search procedures can be saved by clicking on save, entering a name for text search procedure, and clicking on save again. Text search procedure files will be saved with the file extension .sea (the abbreviation stands for search). Saved text search procedures may be opened again at any time.
2. The search result window
According to the extensiveness of the texts to be searched, the search process might take up some time. The search results will be shown in a separate window. On the top right the number of hits will be listed. The tabular overview allows you to sort your hits by clicking on the header columns. The most important option, however, consists of clicking on the hits. Should you click on a hit in the search result window, the corresponding text will automatically be loaded into the Text Browser window in the background; the concerned segment already marked and presented, which is ideal for the exploration and analysis of your findings. This way you can read through hit after hit and, if desired, code them manually.
In the toolbar, located on top of the search results window, a couple of important functions are available. You may, for example, export the results as an RTF or HTML file.
3. Automatic Coding
There is also the possibility to automatically code your findings.
Sometimes it might make sense to create a new code word, in order to assign your findings to it (e.g. "Search result xyz "). To conduct the automatic coding, click on the Code-Button and select the desired code from the appearing list. Only codes from the quicklist will be shown. Should your preferred code word not appear, you have to click on it in the Code System first.
Before you click on the Code Button you should select, if you would like to only code your search word, the whole or even neighboring paragraphs where your search word appears. Usually it makes sense to code the paragraph in which the search word was found.
This procedure of automatic coding will most likely code unwanted hits as well. After completing the above mentioned code procedure you can easily remove these from the CODE SYSTEM. This is how it works: activate the newly created code word (“Search result xyz ”) as well as every text involved in the search and right click, in the CODE SYSTEM window, on the source of the codings you would like to delete. Via mouse click on delete you may then remove all unwanted codings.
4. Exporting the Search-Result
The Export-Button in the Search Result window (in the toolbar on the top) allows you to export your search results as an .rtf file. You can later edit this file further with, for example, Word. Remember to decide BEFORE exporting, with the help of the options, if you would like to export only the search word or entire paragraphs.
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