Coding references (NVivo 14 Windows)

Explains NVivo coding references, how they’re counted, coverage calculations by file type, and options for viewing context, spread coding, and un-coding.

Apr 1, 2026
Knowledge

Title

Coding references (NVivo 14 Windows)

Answer

Coding references (NVivo 14 Windows)

When you code text or all or part of an image or media file to a code, sentiment, relationship or case, the coded content is called a 'reference'.

When you open the code, sentiment, relationship or case in the Detail View, the Reference tab is displayed, showing all the references that have been coded to it. (If the same content has been coded by two people, it appears as 2 separate references.)

Picture references are represented as pixel coordinates defining the area of a picture or PDF that was coded. You can view the full picture or PDF, and the coded segment, on the Picture or PDF tabs.
Media file references are represented by their start and end times. You can play back the references from the Audio or Video tabs, as appropriate.

Reference View showing all content coded at a node.

1 The name of the file that the reference comes from—also the number of references to this code in that file and the percentage of the file that the references make up. You can open the file with the hyperlink.

2Displays the first reference that was coded in the file—includes the percentage of the file that the reference represents. For example, a coded section might represent 80% of the overall document—this would indicate that most of the file has been coded to the code in this reference.

3 The Summary tab lists all of the files that have been coded to the code, sentiment, relationship or case. You can choose to display the Summary tab by default when you open a code. Application options(NVivo 14 Windows)

4 Other tabs have enhanced displays of the references. For example, the Picture and PDF tabs show images or their parts that have been coded (the entire picture or page is shown, with the coded area highlighted), and the Video and Audio tabs have media playback for the coded timespans.

NOTE

If the code has aggregation turned on, the content will also include all the references from child codes.

How references are counted

The Reference tab of a code displays the total number of references for each file. This is based on coding by all users—for example, if two team members have coded the same content to the code, the coded content is counted as two references:

Reference View showing the total number of references for a file.

NOTE You may want to see the total number of references without counting coding by separate users (in the above example the total would be two instead of three). To do this, select all content in the Reference view of the code, and then code it again at the same code. You can then filter the code to see only your coding—each coding reference will be counted once.

How coding coverage is calculated

The method of calculation for coding coverage varies depending on the type of file:

File Type	Coverage calculation
Document	The percentage of characters coded to the code.
PDF	The percentage of characters coded (as text selections) at the code, and the percentage of the page area coded (as region selections) at the code.
Dataset	The percentage of characters coded to the code—only characters in codable columns are counted when calculating the percentage.
Audio or video	The percentage of the timespan coded to the code, either directly or indirectly (by coding the transcript). When you code content in the transcript: The timespan of the transcript row is used to calculate coverage. So, if a row has a five-minute timespan and only the first sentence is coded to the code, the coverage is based on five-minute duration. If a transcript row is not associated with a specific timespan—in other words, if timespan field for the row is blank— the coverage is calculated as 100%.
Picture	The percentage of pixels coded to the code, either directly or indirectly (by coding the log). When you code content in the log: The region of the picture that corresponds to the entire log row is used to calculate coverage. So, if a row represents a region that is 25% of the entire picture, no matter how much content in that row is coded to the code, the coverage is always 25%. If a picture log row is not associated with a particular region—in other words, if the region field for the row is blank—the coverage is calculated as 100%.

NOTE If the code has aggregation turned on, then coding to any child codes is included when calculating coverage.

Working with large codes

When a code contains more than 200 references, the first 100 references are displayed in Detail View as a 'section' of references and navigation buttons are displayed at the bottom of the window. Using the navigation buttons—you can move to the first, previous, next or last section of references.

Navigation buttons for exploring a node.

1 Move first

2 Move previous

3 Current section (100 references)

4 Move next

5 Move last

When you click in the Current section (100 references) box, you can type a section number and then press ENTER to navigate to that section of references.

If your project contains many large codes, you may also find it useful to:

Display plain text (rather than rich text) for codes that contain a large number of references, or
Limit the number of references per source that are displayed in the reference tab.

You can set these options on the Application Options (General tab) dialog box.

Work with references

View the context that your references sit in, increase or decrease the amount of content in a reference ('spread coding' or 'uncode'), or open the source file a reference comes from.

By default, only references themselves (i.e. the coded content only) are displayed when a code, sentiment, relationship or case is opened in the Detail View. However, you can view greater or lesser amounts of the context that selected references sit in. The context-viewing options also apply to the spread coding function.

The show-context and spread-coding options are:

Narrow: the 5 words before and after a text reference, or, for datasets, all the text in the cell.
For pictures (as displayed on the Picture or PDF tabs), an additional 5% around the coded part of the image.
For audio and video, (as displayed on the Audio or Video tabs), adds an additional 5 seconds before and after the coded timespan.
Broad: the surrounding paragraph or, for datasets, all the text in the row.
For pictures (as displayed on the Picture or PDF tabs), an additional 20% around the coded part of the image.
For audio and video, (as displayed on the Audio or Video tabs), adds an additional 20 seconds before and after the coded timespan.
Custom: Set the number of words before and after a text reference to view or add.
For pictures, set the percentage of additional image to show or add, and for media, the number of seconds before and after the coded timespan.
Entire File: The entire file that the text, image or media reference belongs to.

View coding context

See surrounding text, pixels, or seconds for selected references.

On the code, sentiment, relationship or case Reference tab (or Text, PDF, Picture, Audio , Video or Dataset tab), select the reference (or a part of the reference) or references you want to show context for.
On the ribbon Code, Sentiment, Relationship or Case tab, click Content and view the Coding Context section.
Select the amount of context you want to display: None, Narrow, Broad, Custom or Entire File.

Spread coding

Expand a reference to include text, pixels, or seconds around it.

On the code, sentiment, relationship or case Reference tab (or Text, PDF, Picture, Audio , Video or Dataset tab), select the reference (or part of it) or references you want to add to.
On the ribbon Code, Sentiment, Relationship or Case tab, click Spread Coding and select the additional text, pixels or seconds to add.

Remove a reference or part of a reference (uncode)

To remove content from a reference:

On the code, sentiment, relationship or case Reference tab (or Text, PDF, Picture, Audio , Video or Dataset tab), select the content you want to uncode.
On the ribbon Code, Sentiment, Relationship or Case tab, click Uncode From This Code.

Open the referenced file

To open a referenced file from within a code, sentiment, relationship or case:

On the Reference or Text tabs, click the hyperlink for the file you want to open—hyperlinks are underlined blue.
On the Text, Picture, Audio, Video, or Dataset tabs, double-click the relevant file thumbnail at the top of the tab.

URL Name

NV14Win-Content-nodes-review-references-in-a-node