Coding techniques

NVivo provides a number of ways to code your files. You can define your node structure first and then code at the existing nodes or you can create and code at nodes as you work through your files.

Click the Expand button (at the top right of Detail View) to make more room for working with your data. Customize the workspace

Code with the coding panel

1. Open a file or node in Detail View.
2. Select the content that you want to code.
3. Click Code at the top of Detail View.
   Keyboard Shortcut Press ⌘ + /.
   
4. In the coding panel, do one of the following depending on whether the node or case you want to code to already exists, is new or was recently used.
• Existing Node In the search box (a), type all or part of the node or case name. In the filtered results (b), click the node or case you want to code to.
• Code at New In the search box (a), type the name of the node or case you want to create. Under Code at New(c), click the relevant node or case.
• Recent Under Recent (d), click the relevant node or case.

Coding with the Touch Bar

If your Mac has a Touch Bar, you can code using this:

• With text or a region that you want to code selected, tap Code in the Touch Bar. The coding panel opens. Proceed as above.
• To code to a recent node, tap the recent nodes button . The Touch Bar shows buttons for the two or three most recently used nodes. Tap one of these to code your current selection to it.

Drag and drop coding

1. Display your nodes in List View.
2. Open a file or node in Detail View.
3. Select the content you want to code.
4. Drag the selected content to the node.

NOTE  You cannot use the drag and drop coding technique when Detail View is expanded to full screen.

Code with the shortcut menu

1. Open a file or node in Detail View.
2. Select the content you want to code.
3. Control-click to display the shortcut menu and choose one of the coding options:
   • Code Selection at existing, new or current nodes.
   • Code In Vivo to make a node from the selected text.

Code entire files to a code

You can code entire files to nodes or cases. This can be useful if you want to code everything in the file to a particular theme node, or if the file contains the responses of an individual and you want to code it all at their case node.

1. Select the file in List View. Press and hold CTRL to select multiple files.
2. On the Analyze tab, in the Coding group under Code Files At do one of the following:
   • click New Node and enter a name and description .
   • click Existing nodes then click the folder name that contains the node you want to code at. On the right, select the check box for the node you want to code at.

When you code entire files, the number of coding references created varies depending on file type—for documents, the entire content is coded to a single reference, whereas for audio files, the media and transcript are coded to separate references.

Make a node from selected text (In Vivo code)

'In Vivo' coding uses selected text as the node name (up to 256 characters). You might want to use this technique to stay as close as possible to research participants' own words—some common examples are vernacular or jargon.

1. Select the text content you want to code.
2. On the Analyze tab, in the Coding group, click Code In Vivo.

You can edit the node name later in the Node Properties—select the node in List View, then on the Home tab, in the Item group, click Get Info.