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Text Documents

Importing texts

You can import texts into a MAXQDA project in various ways:

  • with the mouse, drag and drop text files from the Windows Explorer or macOS Finder directly into the “Document System” window,
  • click the plus icon in the “Document System” window, or
  • click the Texts, PDFs, Tables icon in the Import tab.
Importing data via the &quote;Import&quote; tab
Please note: In Windows, ODT documents can only be imported in MAXQDA if Microsoft Office (2003 or later) is installed on your computer. Otherwise, the documents can be saved in DOCX format and then be imported into MAXQDA.

For general information on importing files and organizing them, see Import and Group your Data.

Preparing text documents before import

If you want to import text documents into MAXQDA, you should think about how to prepare them. For example, if you want to analyze specific text passages as single units, it makes sense to put them together in the same paragraph. This makes it easier to automatically code these paragraphs in MAXQDA.

Here are some things to remember when importing a text document into a MAXQDA project: 

  • All formatting (e.g., bold, italics) as well as typefaces and font sizes are kept.
  • Most of the paragraph formatting (e.g., right-justified, line height) is kept.
  • The text may contain tables, pictures, graphics, etc.
  • Whether objects such as graphics are imported or not can be determined in the local preferences of the “Document System” window. The preferences can be opened by by clicking on the cogwheel icon in the upper right corner of the window.
  • Contents of headers and footers are ignored.
  • Footnotes are added at the end of the text, they are converted to endnotes.

Color highlighting and comments

Color highlighting in a Word document is imported into MAXQDA as codings. A parent code with the name "Word/PDF highlighting" is created at the top level of the code system. For each color, a subcode with the color name in English is created and assigned to the corresponding text passage.

Please note: When importing the color highlighting, slight color deviations from the original are possible, since MAXQDA selects the most suitable color from a list of stored colors.

Comments in Word documents are imported as in-document memos and can be displayed in the "Document Browser". Several related comments (threads) are combined into one memo.

The option to code highlighted text and import comments as in-document memos during import can be turned on/off in the settings of the "Document System". The preferences can be opened by by clicking on the cogwheel icon in the upper right corner of the window.

In-text tables

MAXQDA can import tables included in text documents, and you can code parts or whole cells of these tables in MAXQDA. The only limitation here is that the size of the table and the column widths can no longer be changed once it has been imported.

Please note: We recommend that you use tables sparingly in text documents. This not only increases your analysis options (e.g., automatic coding at the paragraph level), but also increases the performance of the display. In particular, we do not recommend importing interviews in a table structure where each response is in a separate row.

Links to websites embedded in texts

Documents imported into MAXQDA can also contain links to websites. Clicking on the link in MAXQDA opens the webpage in the default browser.

These links always consists of two parts: the visible text and the address of the link. If you move the mouse over the link, you can see the link address in the tooltip that appears.

Please note: If you enter an Internet address in a text in MAXQDA, it will automatically be converted into a clickable link when you close the Edit Mode.

For more information, see Links in MAXQDA.

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