When you open MAXQDA, a launch screen will open where you can:
- choose a username,
- start a new project,
- open existing projects,
- open example projects, and
- view your license information.
The window area to the right displays all the latest MAXQDA news and gives access to tutorials and other ressources.
Entering your username
Enter your name or acronym in the User field and your signature will be added to everything you do in MAXQDA, be it importing documents, coding segments, or creating memos. This becomes particularly useful when working in teams, as it’s easier to see who has done what.
Starting a new project
Before you can analyze your data with MAXQDA, you need to create a new MAXQDA project into which you can import your data. Click on New, enter a project name and choose a location to save your project (please see the note on file saving locations below). As soon as MAXQDA has created a new project you can start to import your data.
Opening existing projects
MAXQDA lists the recently opened projects in the lower window area, which you can open with a double-click. Via right-click on the project, you can open the file location of your project file. If you want to open a project that doesn’t appear in this list, click on Open and choose a file from the dialog window that appears.
Important note about saving locations of MAXQDA projects: As MAXQDA is a database program, all changes are always saved directly in the project file. For this reason, it is very important that the computer's connection to the project file is not interrupted, otherwise there may be problems with the project file.
To avoid data loss, we recommend that you do not open the project file from the following locations:
- USB drives
- network drives
- external hard disks
- folders synchronized with cloud services (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc.).
We strongly recommend to copy your project to a local hard drive (for example, to the desktop) and open it from there. Of course you can save your MAXQDA projects on USB drives, network drives etc., but you should not open the file directly from there.
Opening example projects
Click on the Examples button to list the featured example projects, with which you can thoroughly explore all MAXQDA’s functions. Just click on a project in the list to open it.
Changes to projects are saved automatically
MAXQDA does not include a save function which you must click when you finish working on a project.
MAXQDA operates as a database program, which means that all changes you make to a project, including the import of texts or later coding of data, are automatically saved. Exceptions are edits to texts, memos and MAXMaps. These are saved automatically every few minutes, as well as automatically when you close the window and the project.
