Classifications

Classifications provide a way to record descriptive information about the files and cases in your project. You can then use this information to make comparisons or to gather material by attribute.

While file and case classifications behave in a similar way, they are used for different purposes:

• Case classifications let you provide demographic details about the people, places or other cases in your project. For example, classify a case as a Person and define attributes for age and occupation.
• File classifications are for storing bibliographical information about your files—you can import this information from reference management tools like EndNote or Zotero.

Working with case classifications

When you click on Case Classifications in Navigation View, you see the case classifications that are available in your project.

If you cannot see any classifications, then you may want to

• Create your own case classifications
• Import a classification sheet

Each case classification has its own unique set of attributes. For example, if you expand the classification Participant you can see the attributes that are available for recording:

As you classify your cases, you can specify an 'attribute value' for each attribute:

Working with file classifications

When you click on File Classifications in Navigation View you will see the classifications that are available in your project.

If you cannot see any classifications, then you may want to:

• Import a literature review from a tool like EndNote or Zotero.
• Create your own classifications (or add NVivo's predefined classifications Interview or Focus Group)—if you want to keep track of your files.
• Import a classification sheet

Each classification has its own unique set of attributes. For example, if you expand the classification Newspaper Article you can see the attributes that are available for recording:

As you classify your files, you can specify an 'attribute value' for each attribute:

When you import data from a reference management tool, the files are automatically classified and the attribute values are assigned.

What is a classification sheet?

When you have classified your files or cases, you can open a grid that displays the attributes for all items in a particular classification—this grid is called a classification sheet.

For example, you could open the Participant classification sheet and see all the cases in this classification.

The cases are displayed along with their attribute values—you can sort and filter the cases based on their attribute values (for example, age and gender). You can also update attribute values via the classification sheet. Classification sheets