MAXQDA – a QDA pioneer with years of experience

The History of MAXQDA

First released in 1989, MAXQDA belongs to an elite group of groundbreaking QDA software programs which revolutionized the field of data analysis. MAXQDA quickly earned a reputation as an indispensable analysis tool, and has since become a market leader for qualitative researchers around the world.

A Short Timeline

2012 MAXQDA 11 is released: Further amplifying the possibilites of research, MAXQDA 11 adds over thirty new features and makes the user experience even more streamlined. Now, widescreen-optimized screen layout options and hierarchical administrator rights simplify the user interface, Excel tables, video files, and audio recordings can be directly imported into the Document Browser, and automatically-published smart reports and reference toolbar integration steers your research from start to finish. Expanded visual and statsitcal tools further your options for mixed methods research, while a new retrieval manager and summary grid widens your analytical possibilites. MAXQDA 11 also features the exciting option to code with symbols instead of words, transcending linguisitc boundaries with over 300 “emoticodes” and enabling more efficient field work, analysis, and visual understanding.
2010 MAXQDA 10 boasted a fresh new design and a myriad of new functions. With MAXQDA 10, you can import Word documents, PDFs, and image files as well as integrating audio and video files. The new version offers new options such as resizable PDF document display, color display of coded segments, visualizations of word counts in tag clouds, ad-hoc search functionality in all four main windows, optimized geolinking, and improved memo management.
2008 MAXQDA is the first software to integrate Geo-References smoothly into qualitative text analysis.
2008 An extensive licensing reform gives the users unparalleled flexibility: Aside from single-user and network licenses, which can be purchased as either unlimited (one-time purchase) or leasing versions, there are portable licenses, which are based on an external hard drive (e.g. USB Flash drive). MAXQDA is available on any PC where the flash drive is plugged in.
2007 MAXDictio Version 2 is released with heavily extended functionality.
2007 MAXQDA 2007 is released: Aside from considerable extensions, this version offers some innovative possibilities for visualization. The Document-Portrait, Codeline and Document-Comparison-Chart offer new insight into the data and provide the researcher with exciting potential for methodological innovation. The MAXQDA Visual Tools are second to none within the spectrum of QDA Software
2005 MAXMaps is released as an add-on module for the graphical interpretation and presentation of the results of the analysis; it is completely integrated into MAXQDA.
2004 MAXqda 2 – with this version MAXQDA offers, for the first time, sophisticated Visual Tools for data presentation: the Code-Matrix-Browser and the Code-Relations-Browser. Furthermore, there are numerous export functions for HTML format available.
2003 The seventh version with MAXDictio is released: A program for dictionary based content analysis, MAXDictio is an optional add-on module and is completely integrated into MAXQDA.
2001 The sixth version is released: MAXqda – this new version brings, aside from considerable extensions, the change to the .rtf format and the change of the program’s name.
1998 thru 2000 Continuous upgrading of the functionality with free updates: implementation of drag & drop functions, shortcuts and many others…
1997 The fifth version is released: winMAX 1997; this is the first version which contains visualization functions (e.g. the display of coding strips in the text margin).
1996 The fourth version is released with considerably extended functionality: winMAXpro.
1995 The first English version is released.
1994 The third version is released: winMAX. MAX switches from DOS to the more user-friendly Windows platform.
1992 An improved and extended version is released: MAX.txt. Within the context of the presentation of the Free University in Berlin, it is being presented to a broad public during the renowned international computer fair CEBIT in Hannover, Germany.
1989 After multiple years of development the first PC program version (for the DOS Windows System) is released under the name MAX.

Prof. Dr. Udo Kuckartz on MAXQDA

Interview with MAXQDA creator, Prof. Dr. Udo Kuckartz, in 2007:

“Everything began in the mid-eighties, a time when there were no PCs yet and one was still working with the generation of so-called giant computers. Then, in the spring of 1989, the first version of MAX was released for the Personal Computer. The program was based on database technology (dBase and Clipper) and looked like it was customary for a DOS-program to look at the time. With “Lichtbalken”-, Escape- und Return-key, as well as the function keys and their virtuous application the program was tolerably manageable – more so than some programs for text analysis are today. Almost annually, new and improved program versions have been released.

In 1992, MAX was exhibited for the first time at the Computer Fair Cebit in Hannover at the “Research Market Berlin” booth and in the same year the book “Textanalysesysteme für die Sozialwissenschaften” by Udo Kuckartz was published by the Gustav Fischer Verlag Stuttgart.

The DOS-era was drawing to a close and the mouse was slowly becoming an indispensable tool for working with computers. MAX was keeping up with the times – in contrast to the developers of the database software, on which MAX was based. Ashton Tate and Nantucket missed the signs of the time and because it was not possible to build a Graphical User Interface with their technology, MAX was completely re- programmed as a C++ program.

In the fall of 1994 the first German Windows version of MAX was released under the name of winMAX – MAX for Windows. At the time, the idea to keep devoloping the DOS-Version was still present.

A year later, in 1995, the English version of the program was released and, at the end of the year, an extended version, which also allowed for teamwork functions and the creation of Memos. The new program was called winMAXpro 96 – the older, slightly revised version was still available under the name of winMAX Basis.

winMAX 1997 was launched 18 months later, with, among others, the innovation that Codings were displayed at the text. The English version appeared almost at the same time and was since distributed by Sage Publications London/Thousand Oaks. Between 1998 and 2000, regular updates were released with improved features that, among others, contained the moving of Codes via drag-and-drop.

MAXqda, similar to winMAX in 1994, presented a leap forwards because it was based on an extended text format: Rich Text Format (RTF). The decision to opt for RTF necessitated a complete re-programming. The inner logic of the program which had been gradually developed over the course of 15 years, as well as the four-window structure of the main screen, were retained. Everything else was new, with the integration of the program into the world of MS Office and Internet Explorer as the core focus.

In September of 2004 MAXqda 2 was released. The new version was the result of the program’s continual refinement, based on user experience and feedback received during MAXQDA workshops.

In February of 2007, MAXQDA 2007 was presented.”