The Overview of Memos

Memos aren’t only accessible from their location next to documents, codes, document segments, etc. They are also available as an Overview of Memos. You can access these overviews in various ways.

An overview of all memos in the entire project can be displayed by going to Memos > Overview of Memos
The "Document System" allows you to compile all the memos in a document, in a document group or document set. To do this, select the entry Overview Memos in a context menu accessed by right-clicking the document, group or set.

Open the Overview of memos in the Reports tab

No matter from where you access the "Overview Memos", a tabular list of the corresponding memos appears. Each memo represents one line in this table. A click on a line shows the memo in the upper window of the overview.

The columns in the table contain all important information about the memo, including:

The name of the document and document group in which the memo is found (or the name of the code in the case of a code memo).
For memos attached to document segments, the paragraph number of that segment is listed.
The author of the memo.
Last edited date.
A preview of the memo text made up of the first 63 characters
The origin of the memo (e.g. the document, document group, document segment, or code the memo is attached to).

The upper section of the window displays the memo text, so that various memos can be scrolled though without opening individual memo windows for each. Memos cannot be modified or deleted in the “Overview of memos”. Instead, right-click on the line where the memo is listed and select Delete Memo.

Please note: To modify a memo, double-click on the line where it is located. The usual memo window will open, and from here you can modify or add to the memo text.

The overview can be adapted like all MAXQDA tables: The columns can be changed with the mouse in their width and position, and by right-clicking on a column header. A click on the header sorts the column in ascending order, another click in descending order.

Filtering the Overview of Memos

As with all overviews in MAXQDA, the tabular Overview of Memos can be sorted according to diverse criteria. This is especially handy if you want to compile only the code memos of a project or user, or only the memos that were created after a certain date. Click on a column header with the right mouse button and select Set filter to set a filter for the selected column.

For more information on filtering overviews, see Filtering Table Overviews.

Predefined filters

In the Overview of Memos toolbar you will find, besides the usual filter possibilities for table overviews, a pop-up menu with numerous predefined filters:

All Memos - Filtering is switched off, all memos in the table are displayed.
Memos of selected users - Allows you to choose users or select only memos of certain users.
Code Memos - Reduces the display of the current table to the memos assigned in the "Code System".
In-document Memos - Reduces the display in the current table to memos that have been assigned to a document.
Document Memos - Reduces the display of the current table to the memos assigned to the "Document System".
Free Memos - Reduces the display of the current table to free memos.
Memos associated with an enabled code - Reduces the current table's display to the memos associated with a currently enabled code.
Memos in audio and video files - Reduces the display of the current table to the memos assigned to an audio or video file in the "Multimedia browser".

The predefined filters work independently of the filter options described for the table view above.

Browsing through the Overview of Memos

It is also possible to search in the various columns. To search in a specific column, right-click on the column header and select Search. The instances where the search term appears are immediately highlighted, and the up and down arrows allow you to navigate between memos. To search multiple columns simultaneously, select the Choose search columns symbol. When you use the magnifying glass symbol in the Overview of Memos toolbar, the search will automatically be carried out in all columns.

Please note: When you search the “Preview” column, only the only the first 63 characters of the memo will be included in the search. If you want to search the entire memo text, select the option Memos > Search in Memos.

Creating a new free memo

In the Overview of Memos toolbar you will find the New free memo icon. You can create a new free memo, which is not assigned to any particular document, code, or text by clicking on this icon. Alternatively, you can create a new free memo by selecting New free memo in the Memos tab.>

Please note: Free memos are only visible in the "Memos overview" if the overview was opened via Memos > Memos overview, in the Memo manager or by right-clicking on the top entry in the "Document System".

Jumping from the Overview of Memos to a memo

The Overview of Memos is interactively linked to the positions where your memos were created. Clicking on a line in the table makes MAXQDA "navigate" to the respective memo:

From each memo displayed in MAXQDA’s Overview of Memos, the source document immediately appears in the “Document Browser” positioned exactly at the place where the memo is found.
For In-Media memos placed at an audio or video position, the media file is positioned at the appropriate position, but only if the "Multimedia Browser" is visible.
For code memos, the code in question is selected in the "Code System" (highlighted in blue).
For document memos, the document in question is highlighted blue in the "Document System".
When using memos from an audio or video file, the playback is positioned at the corresponding location of the memo, but only if the Multimedia Browser is visible.

Export Memo Texts from the Overview

All memos in your Overview of Memos can be exported as a sequential listing of the memo texts in a text file for Word or other writing programs (DOCX and RTF format) or as a table in Excel, HTML or TXT format.

This sequential listing of the memos as a text file will look, for example as follows:

Here you see all the information contained in the memo, such as memo title, creation date, and linked codes as well as the memo text itself. The exported RTF file can be opened in your word processing program to add layout features like headers and footers.

If you choose HTML or XLS/X as the export format, MAXQDA creates a table that is immediately opened in your default web browser (such as Internet Explorer) or Excel. The complete memo text is also exported here, but the font is formatted in contrast to an export as pure text.

The "Overview of memos" can be exported via the icons at the top right of your window:

Open As Excel Table – Creates an Excel file and opens it.

Open as HTML table – Creates a web page in HTML format and opens it with the default browser.

Export – Creates a Word file (DOCX format) with memos formatted as text or table, an Excel file (XLSX format), a web page (HTML format) or in some other rarely used formats.

The entire table is exported unless individual rows are selected, which you can see by a green highlight. A single memo is selected by clicking the left mouse button. Several memos can be selected by holding down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the cmd key (Mac) and clicking the desired memos with the left mouse button. A range of consecutively listed memos can by selecting the first memo and then clicking the last desired memo while holding down the Shift key.

Tip: To export code memos as a codebook with category definitions, MAXQDA provides a separate report function, which can be accessed under Reports > Codebook and the here describes this in detail.

MAXQDA 2020 Manual