NVivo Settings (NVivo 15 Mac)

NVivo 15 Windows application options let you set user-specific preferences for coding, display, language, media, datasets, and text; these affect new projects or current sessions.

Apr 1, 2026
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NVivo Settings (NVivo 15 Mac)

Answer

NVivo Settings (NVivo 15 Mac)

You can set options and preferences for working with NVivo. NVivo settings are 'user specific'—your preferences may differ from those set by another user on the same computer.

View or change NVivo Settings

Choose NVivo > Settings.
Choose a tab to view or change the preferences.

General

Preference	Description
Name	The user name associated with your default NVivo user profile. Your default NVivo user profile is used to create your project user profile in projects. User profiles (NVivo 15 Mac)
Initials	The initials associated with your default NVivo user profile. If you change the initials, it applies to any new projects you create. To change your initials in an existing project, refer to Create, view or change user profiles (Change the initials associated with my project user profile).
Display "Welcome to NVivo" window on launch	Display the Welcome to NVivo window each time you launch NVivo.
Prompt for user on launch	Prompt users to provide their user name and initials every time they launch NVivo. This is useful if team members log on to a computer using a shared user account. When each team member enters their own NVivo user name and initials, then you can track their work in the project separately. Teamwork (NVivo 15 Mac)
Code whole words	Select this option to code the whole word, when you select only part of a word. When this option is selected, if you accidentally select 'ick brown fox' instead of 'quick brown fox', the words 'quick brown fox' will be coded. By default, this option is selected. This option is not available—only the text you actually select is coded.
Narrow	Click this button to view or change the narrow reach settings for different types of files—the default settings are: Text—five words on either side of coded text in documents, PDFs, memos and externals Transcript—5 words on either side of coded text (within a cell) in an audio or video transcript Log—five words on either side of coded text (within a cell) in picture log Dataset—the cell surrounding coded text in datasets (not available in this release)
Broad	Click this button to view or change the broad reach settings for different types of content—the default settings are: Text—the paragraph surrounding coded text in documents, PDFs, memos and externals Transcript—the cell surrounding coded text in audio and video transcripts Log—the paragraph surrounding coded text in picture logs Dataset—the row surrounding coded text in datasets (not available in this release)
Help	You cannot change your preferences for Help.
Check for updates	Enable this option to set NVivo to automatically check for software updates.

Notifications

Preference	Description
Show deletion confirmation	NVivo prompts you to confirm your action whenever you delete a project item.

Display

Preference	Description
Text Date Format	Choose the date/time format which is used when you insert the current date and time into a file. Local Format (Default) Use universal time (UTC) converted to your local time zone. Universal Format Use UTC (coordinated universal time). UTC is the reference time zone from which all other time zones around the world are calculated—it is the successor of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Preference

Description

Text Date Format

Choose the date/time format which is used when you insert the current date and time into a file.

Local Format (Default) Use universal time (UTC) converted to your local time zone.
Universal Format Use UTC (coordinated universal time). UTC is the reference time zone from which all other time zones around the world are calculated—it is the successor of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Labels

Preference	Description
"Unassigned" attribute value label	When an attribute has not been set the system default label is 'Unassigned'. You can change this to another term (e.g. 'Blank'). The new term must be unique among attribute values.
"Not Applicable" attribute value label	When an attribute is not relevant to the entity it is describing the system default label is 'Not Applicable'. You can change this to another term (e.g. 'Irrelevant'). The new term must be unique among attribute values.
Boolean value labels	Choose how Boolean values in classification attributes are displayed. This setting applies to all projects—it cannot be overridden for specific projects. You can select: Yes/No True/False On/Off 1/0

Preference

Description

"Unassigned" attribute value label

When an attribute has not been set the system default label is 'Unassigned'. You can change this to another term (e.g. 'Blank'). The new term must be unique among attribute values.

"Not Applicable" attribute value label

When an attribute is not relevant to the entity it is describing the system default label is 'Not Applicable'. You can change this to another term (e.g. 'Irrelevant'). The new term must be unique among attribute values.

Boolean value labels

Choose how Boolean values in classification attributes are displayed. This setting applies to all projects—it cannot be overridden for specific projects. You can select:

Yes/No
True/False
On/Off
1/0

Audio/Video

Preference	Description
Playback skip interval	The number of seconds the media player skips when you skip backwards or forwards while playing the media file. This option applies to any project you open. The default skip interval is 5 seconds. You can select any value between 1 and 99.
Embed media in project file if less than	Your media storage preferences for new projects. Select this option if you want to automatically embed media files in your projects. By default, media files less than 20MB are embedded. The maximum size for embedded media files is 40MB.

Text

Preference	Description
Text content language for new projects	Select the default text content language for any new projects you create. You can change the setting for a specific project in the Project Properties dialog box—click File > Project Properties, General tab. The text content language is used when you run Text Search queries. Select the text content language that matches the language of your files. If the language used in your files is not available as a text content language, then you should select Other. Text content language and stop words

Preference

Description

Text content language for new projects

Select the default text content language for any new projects you create. You can change the setting for a specific project in the Project Properties dialog box—click File > Project Properties, General tab.

The text content language is used when you run Text Search queries. Select the text content language that matches the language of your files. If the language used in your files is not available as a text content language, then you should select Other.

Text content language and stop words

NOTE If you change any settings click Apply before opening another tab in the dialog box—unapplied changes are discarded when you switch tabs.

Click Revert to change the application options back to the default settings.

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NV15Mac-Content-about-nvivo-application-options