Documents and PDFs

Double-click a document or PDF file in List View to open it in Detail View.

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

When you open a document, it opens in read-only mode. You can code, annotate and link the document when it is in read-only mode. If you need to edit the content of the document,. click the Edit button (at the top-right of Detail View) to switch to edit mode.

You cannot edit PDF files in NVivo—so you cannot switch to edit mode when you are working with a PDF.

To move around a document or PDF you can:

• Use scroll bars to move up and down, or left and right
• Find specific words or phrases (press ⌘+F)

PDF files can include bookmarks. Bookmarks are displayed in a pane on the left side of Detail View. Click on a bookmark to jump to a specific location in the PDF.

As you read through a document or PDF, you can:

• Code selected content to thematic nodes or case nodes that represent people, places or other entities
• Record your thoughts and ideas by annotating selected content

The way you select content to code, annotate and link varies slightly between document and PDF files.

You can edit the content of documents (not PDFs):

• Click the Edit checkbox in the top right of the Detail View or, if your Mac has a Touch Bar, you can use the Edit button in it. You can also use the Touch Bar to bold, italicize and underline selected text.

You can hear a selected passage of text read aloud.

When you are working in a document, you can select and code text or images.

1 Select portions of text—click and drag with the mouse to select the text you want to code.

2 Select entire images by double-clicking.

3 Select images or text contained within the table.

Once you've selected the content you want to code, use any of the coding techniques to code it. Coding techniques

When you are working in a PDF, you can select text or regions of a page.

1 Select portions of text. You can also double-click to select a word and triple-click to select a line.

2 Select regions of a page. You can double-click to select an image and, if you switch to region mode, you can click and drag to select a region of the page. When you select a region, you are making an image selection, even if the region you select contains text.

To switch between text and region, choose a Selection Mode from the top of Detail View.

Once you've selected the content you want to code, use any of the coding techniques to code it. Coding techniques

Turning a scanned document into codable text

If you cannot select the text in a PDF, this is probably because the PDF was created by scanning a paper document. For example, this can happen when you scan printed reports or articles.

Depending on the layout and format of the PDF, you may be able to use the 'Recognize Text' feature to turn the text into content that you can select, code and query.

This feature works best on documents that have:

• Black type on a white background (not handwritten)
• Simple and consistent formatting (no columns)

To use text recognition:

1. Open the PDF in Detail View.
2. Click Recognize Text at the top of Detail View. The button is disabled if the PDF already contains codable text.
3. In the preview window, select a section of text. A pop-up is displayed showing the results of text recognition.
4. Assess the accuracy of the text:

• If the text looks good, click Update PDF to save the PDF with codable text.
• If the text does not look like an accurate representation of the content, click Cancel to keep the PDF in its original state. Poor results may indicate that the format of the PDF is not suitable for text recognition.