MAXQDA

Working with assistants

05.06.2015, 02:04

Does anyone have a suggestion for the best way to incorporate work done by an assistant? I wish to have my research assistant search for and code newspaper articles (while I work primarily on collecting and coding ethnographic fieldnotes). I would like for him to forward me his work every few days, so I can learn from it and check the coding and add my own coding. I do not want him to have to use my computer to do this, but would prefer for him to have his own copy of MAXQDA to work on, to then provide me chunks of data that I can upload into my project.

Complicating the issue is that he owns a Mac, though I think I may be able to find a PC he can use (using the portable version of MAXQDA).

I'm sure I'm not the first to face this issue, so I hope someone has some suggestions. Thanks.
JBAnthro
 
Posts: 10
Joined: 24.02.2014, 14:29

Re: Working with assistants

08.06.2015, 10:33

Dear JBAnthro,

if the "chunks of data" only contain new (coded) documents that are not yet in your own project, the easiest way would be to use the "Merge Project" function:
1) Your assistant creates a backup copy of his project and deletes all "old" documents from this copy (those that should NOT be transferred into your project).
2) If he is working with MAXQDA for Mac, he creates a transfer file of his project (see our faqs, B8: https://www.maxqda.com/support/faq) and sends this .mex-file to you.
3) You open your project and merge it with your assistant's .mex-file ("Project > Merge projects").

Note that both versions of MAXQDA should be updated before the transfer starts. It is also advisable that you backup your own project before the transfer to make sure no "damage" is done to your data.
Best regards on behalf of the MAXQDA team,

Katrin Kleemann
Katrin Kleemann
 
Posts: 3
Joined: 29.09.2014, 13:50

Re: Working with assistants

10.08.2015, 08:52

Thank you for your clear reply. We are now trying to do as you recommend, but have hit a problem. I've emailed my assistant the codes I'm using (using "Export Code System (MAXQDA Format)") which is an *.mtr file. But when he attempts to import it into his MAC (version 11.2.2) of MAXQDA, he gets the following error message:

MAXQDA can’t open the chose file. The file may be already opened, or it has the wrong file format, or it may be broken.

We've tried rebooting, updating, re-exporting and sending the codes, but nothing works. Any idea what the problem could be? I've been able to import my codes into a test project on my PC, so I wonder if there is a PC to MAC issue here.

Thanks for any help.
JBAnthro
 
Posts: 10
Joined: 24.02.2014, 14:29

Re: Working with assistants

10.08.2015, 10:57

Dear JBAnthro,

indeed, the export files for the Code System are not compatible between Mac and PC. The only way would be to transfer the whole project first to Mac (reverse to what I described in my former reply), open this transfer file on the Mac and export the Code System from there.
Best regards on behalf of the MAXQDA team,

Katrin Kleemann
Katrin Kleemann
 
Posts: 3
Joined: 29.09.2014, 13:50

Re: Working with assistants

11.08.2015, 01:39

Thank you for your quick reply. Just want to let you know that once you confirmed that the problem was the PC to Mac conversion, we found another workaround, so that I did not need to send the whole data file. I made a copy of the data file and renamed it. Then I opened it and deleted all the documents. What remained was the codes, which I then saved as an empty data file (*.mex) that I was able to send to my assistant, who successfully opened it on him Mac. Thanks again.
JBAnthro
 
Posts: 10
Joined: 24.02.2014, 14:29

Re: Working with assistants

08.11.2016, 18:42

I am supporting Katrin Kleemann 's suggestion.Follow him
Graduated from University with First Class Degree with Honours in Computer Science.
kenedy
 
Posts: 1
Joined: 30.10.2016, 08:40

Re: Working with assistants

16.05.2019, 09:03

Hello everybody,

just a short note, that the export files of a Code System are compatible between Mac and Windows, at least since MAXQDA 12.

Stefan
Dr Stefan Rädiker
Training, Coaching, Analysis for Research & Evaluation
Stefan Rädiker
 
Posts: 27
Joined: 12.02.2007, 10:18

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