Welcome to this MAXQDA Getting Started video tutorial! In this video we will show you the basics of working with MAXQDA, so that you can start with your own project afterwards.
At the very beginning we start MAXQDA via the program icon and then see this start dialog. First, we adjust our user name. This name will later be linked to all elements that we create in MAXQDA. This way, it is always possible to see who has made which changes, when you are working in a team. On the right side of the start dialog we find news, links to the MAXQDA Getting Started Guide, an overview of the most important video tutorials, and much more. As a first step, we can either open an existing project, or create a new one. Let’s create a new one.
The MAXQDA project file basically works like a container in which all of our analysis steps and, depending on the settings, also the actual data such as interviews, PDF files or images are stored. With MAXQDA, we do not have to save our progress manually in MAXQDA, since MAXQDA saves every action in the project file itself.
The first thing we see now is MAXQDA’s four-window interface. Let’s look at the windows one after the other: here, in the Documents window, all the data we have imported into our project is listed. We can then view the individual documents in the document browser and analyze them later. In MAXQDA, we can assign individual sections from our material to analytical categories, so-called codes. The codes are then listed in this window. And later on we can take a look at the individual coded segments via this window here. However, because the output of coded segments typically takes place at a later stage, this fourth window is minimized at the beginning, but it can be maximized at any time by clicking on the bar at the bottom of the screen.
At the beginning of our project, we first import our research data. This can be done easily via drag-and-drop, via the plus icon in the documents window or via the individual import paths that can be found in the “Import” tab.
After we have imported the data, we can organize them in the “Documents” window. With the help of the document groups we can organize our documents, for example, according to the type of data or content criteria. For the sake of clarity, each document can only occupy one position within the hierarchical order. However, outside of this structure, we can use the document sets to arrange the data again according to other criteria, for example, according to locations in the document groups and according to age groups in the document sets.
We can create a new document set, for example, by activating the corresponding documents here. By activating codes and documents, we select them for analysis. The document names will now be highlighted and we can create a new set from these documents by right-clicking on “Sets” and selecting “Create new set” from the context menu.
Later, we can also define variables for our data, in which, for example, the age or occupation of interviewed persons is recorded. With the help of these document variables, we can compile the data into sets according to certain characteristics. We will look at the document variables in detail in a separate tutorial. However, if you would like to know more about individual functions right now, simply click on one of these question marks here, which you will find in almost all windows in MAXQDA. MAXQDA will then take you to the corresponding page of our extensive online manual.
Now that we have imported our data into our project, let’s take a closer look at our data. To open a document, we double-click on the document name in the Documents window. In the document browser we have the possibility to view our data, code it and edit text files. However, edit mode is turned off by default to prevent unintentional changes. Therefore, if you want to change your texts in terms of content or formatting, you must first turn it on here. Now we can edit our text documents. By right-clicking on the text we can also switch to line numbering and back again.
To code a segment now, we select the segment and then click on this button here. In this window we can then give the code a name, select a code color and add a description. Now if we click OK, we’ll see that a coding strip has been added to the side of the document. We can subsequently adjust the coded segment and lengthen or shorten it. In addition, we can also code with emojis via this button here, which can be a good help especially in multilingual teams. Instead of a code name, the respective emoji is then used; in visual tools such as the Document Portrait, the Emoji is then used as well. If we click on the left margin, we can specify which codes should be displayed there and, for example, show or hide codes with certain colors.
Furthermore, we have several other ways to code our material in MAXQDA: in the style of grounded theory, we can start out exploratively with open coding and in vivo coding. If you have a large, deductive code system, you can also work with the code favorites or shortcuts, for example. No matter how a code was created, a comment can be added to individual coded segments via right-click, e.g. with a short summary or a note about this code.
Beyond coding, we have many other options in the document browser to work close to our data. For example, we can record background information and ideas in memos. We can do this by simply right-clicking on a selected segment. A new memo is then created at the corresponding position, which we can then fill with content, label or link to certain codes or coded segments. By the way, we can also add memos in the Documents window and Codes window. With the Memo Manager, which we can open via the Memos tab, we can keep track of all of our memos and compare and edit them at any time.
Especially in the exploration phase, the paraphrase mode for documents and images is helpful, which can be turned on at the top of the document and via the “Analysis” tab. We activate the paraphrase mode here and then we just have to highlight a segment and then we can paraphrase our segment in this window. The paraphrases will then be displayed here. We can hide this side column at any time and also use it to display comments and memos. We can also take a closer look at the paraphrases later in different functions and code them.
Now let’s move on to the third window, the Codes window. Here we can already see the code we just created, along with a memo containing our description. Using the plus symbols , we can create new main codes or subcodes in the code system at any time. We can now structure our code system via drag-and-drop. By dragging codes on top of each other, we can also create hierarchical orders. If we drag a code onto this button of another code, we can also merge these two codes. If this should happen by mistake, we can always undo or redo the last actions using these buttons here. We can always assign already existing codes to a selected segment in our material by dragging and dropping them onto the segment. After we have coded some segments in our matetrial, we see these numbers, they represent the coded segments per code or per document.
Once we have created codes, we can always look at which segments have been coded with which codes. To do this, we simply bring up the “List of coded segments” window and activate the documents that we want to take a closer look at and the codes that interest us. In this way, all the segments provided with the activated codes from the activated documents will be displayed to us. Double-clicking on a code opens a window in which all segments and their comments are listed. If we click on the coding strip, the document browser will show us the segment in the original document.
In the “List of coded segments” the respective segments are listed and for each segment the origin information is displayed, which tells us from which document the segment originates and with which code it was coded. If we click on this origin information, the document browser jumps automatically to the coded segment in the original document. The compiled coded segments can also be copied individually into our result report. The listed coded segments can also be printed or exported to Word and Excel.
These are the basics for working with MAXQDA. You can find information on other functions such as coding, visual tools, mixed-methods functions, and working with statistical data in our other video tutorials or in our detailed online manual. We wish you a lot of fun getting to know MAXQDA and success with your project!
