Click on the gear symbol in the lower left corner of the MAXQDA main window to open the General Preferences window, in which you can adjust various MAXQDA settings.
The following settings can be changed:
“General” settings
Search for updates automatically
If enabled, MAXQDA will check for free updated MAXQDA versions each time you start the program. If an update is available, it is recommended that you download it in order to benefit from interesting new features and enhancements.
Do not embed if larger than [MB]: This value determines the size at which an imported PDF or image file will not be saved in the MAXQDA project file, but in the folder for externally stored files, with only a reference to the document created in the project. The default size is 5 MB. If necessary, you can increase or decrease this value.
Folder for externally stored files
Specify the location where you want all of your externally linked files to be saved. This includes, for example, audio and video files that are too large to be included in the project file. Image and PDF files may also be saved here, depending on their size and your settings.
Folder for new project files
Specify the location that MAXQDA suggests for new projects.
Default weight
Each coded segment is assigned a weight. The default weight score for newly coded segments is 0, but can be changed here.
Autosave documents in Edit Mode and memos
Specify the amount of time (in minutes) after which edited documents and memos are saved automatically.
Confirm deletion of objects
If you deactivate this option, MAXQDA will no longer ask for confirmation when deleting code assignments, codes, documents, memos, etc., but will delete these data directly. You can only restore them using the Undo function.
“User interface” settings
Interface theme
Switch between the light and dark color scheme. If you select the “System” option, MAXQDA will adapt to the interface design of your operating system.
Interface language
Set the language of the menus, dialogs, and windows of MAXQDA.
Spellcheck language
Set the language for MAXQDA's spellcheck function. MAXQDA offers spell checking in English (UK), English (US), German, Italian, and Spanish.
Font size
Select Large to see the program interface labels (menus, title bars, dialog boxes, code and document system, etc.) in a larger font size.
Reset interface settings
Check this box to reset all your user settings to default values.
“Fonts” settings
Default Fonts
Here you can set a default font for new Documents, memos, QTT insights text, and MAXMaps labels.
“Word Separation” settings
Characters to be cut off
Clicking on the button with the three dots 
opens a dialog box in which you can enter characters to be cut from the words and ignored in the analysis. The characters selected in the dialog box apply to all word-based functions in MAXQDA and MAXDictio.
How does MAXQDA define a “word”?
A word is any sequence of characters between two delimiters. These delimiters are spaces, carriage returns, and any characters defined as to be cut off.
Some problems can occur with hyphens. If you want compound words to be counted as one word and not split into separate parts, the hyphen may not be declared as a delimiter. We recommend to experiment with the charaters to be cut off. For example, you can check the results of a Word Frequency analysis and look for characters to add to the list of truncated characters.
Ignore hyphens at the end of lines (PDF)
If enabled, MAXQDA will try to ignore all hyphens inserted at the end of lines in PDF documents for hyphenation purposes, so that the hyphenated words can be analyzed as a single, unseparated word.
Text language is Japanese
Enable this option if you analyze Japanese texts, since MAXQDA has to use a specific separation of the words. Only when this option is activated does the next option, Ignore particles (Japanese), take effect, which ensures that all Japanese particles are excluded from word-based analyses such as the word cloud. For details, see Analyzing Japanese Texts.
“Automatic Import” settings
Select the folders on your computer that you want MAXQDA to monitor. All files placed in the selected folders that do not exist in the currently open MAXQDA project will be imported automatically.
“Automatic Backups” settings
Back up projects automatically
If the option is activated, MAXQDA checks each time a project is opened, when it was last saved by MAXQDA and if necessary creates a backup of the project.
Time interval [days]
Set the number of days after which MAXQDA will start the next backup of a project.
Folder for backup files
Specify the folder in which you would like MAXQDA to save backup copies of a project.
