NVivo 12: Documents and PDFs

Import Word docs or PDFs into NVivo to code, annotate, or link; PDFs are read-only, Word docs can be edited; use NCapture for web content.

Aug 26, 2026
Knowledge

Title

NVivo 12: Documents and PDFs

Answer

Files > Document and PDFs

Documents and PDFs

When gathering your files, you may want to import:

Word documents (or text files)—these might be interview transcripts, field notes or group discussions
PDF files—these might be published reports, articles, or a collection of scanned documents

You can also create new, empty documents in NVivo and type up your content—for example, you could type up your field notes.

Documents can be moved into the Memos folder—for example, if you import a document that contains your ideas, observations or notes about the progress of the project, you may want to store it as a memo under the Memos system folder. You cannot move PDF files into the memos folder.

If you import content from OneNote, Evernote, or EndNote, then document or PDF files may be created in the process.

You can use NCapture to gather files from the web and then bring the web content into NVivo as PDFs. The captured web content is stored in an NCapture file (.nvcx) on your computer, and is converted to a PDF when you import it into NVivo.

Import documents and PDFs

In Navigation View, click the name of the files folder that you want to import the document into.
On the Import tab, in the Data group, click Files.
Browse for and select the file you want to import.
Click the Open button.
Click OK. The Document or PDF Properties dialog box opens.
(Optional) Change the name or description of the new file.
Click OK.

NOTE

If the entire document or PDF relates to a particular case, you may want to code the entire file at a new case node—click the More button, and then select the Code files at case nodes located under check box.
You cannot import password-protected Word documents.
If your Word documents are structured (for example, question and answer interviews), you may want to apply paragraph styles so you can make use of auto coding. Automatic coding in documents
If you have a brief description at the top of the document, when you import the document into NVivo you can choose to use the first paragraph as the document description.

Work with documents and PDFs

Open and navigate documents and PDFs

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

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 blue information bar at the top 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
Use 'Go To' to quickly jump to a location. You can go to a specific see also link or annotation, a page (PDFs only), a paragraph (documents only) or character position (documents only)
Find specific words or phrases (press CTRL+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.

What can I do in a document or 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
Make connections to other files by adding see also links to 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 'Click to edit' at the top of the Detail View, the Edit button in the Document, Video, Audio or External tab (depending on the file type you want to edit) or Edit in the right-click menu. (You must use the tab button or right-click menu to turn editing off).

NOTE If you have a collection of structured document files, you can use automatic coding techniques to speed up coding. For example, if you are working with a collection of interview transcripts, you can automatically code the contents based on heading styles or paragraph number. Automatic coding in documents

Selecting and coding content

Select and code content in documents

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

Coding text and images in a document.

1 Select portions of text—click and drag with the mouse to select the text you want to code, link or annotate. You can also double-click to select a word and triple-click to select a paragraph.

2 Select entire images—you cannot select regions of the image.

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

Select content in PDFs

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

Coding images and text in a PDF.

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. If you switch to region selection, you can click on an image to select it, or 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 selection—on the PDF tab, in the PDF Selection group, click Text or Region.

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

NOTE

PDFs that are created by scanning paper documents may contain only images—each page is a single image. When you import the PDF into NVivo, you will find that there is no text in the page to select, code or query. You can select and code regions of the page, however you are coding an image selection and you cannot use Text Search or Word Frequency queries to explore the text.
NVivo tries to determine the order of text on a PDF page, however when you select text, you may find that the text on the page is not sequenced as you expect.

URL Name

NV12Win-Documents-and-PDFs

NVivo 12: Documents and PDFs

Information

Documents and PDFs

Import documents and PDFs

Work with documents and PDFs

Selecting and coding content

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