Hi Yuri,
> We are currently considering using Atlas.ti, for our next project.
> There are some questions that we would like to ask people that have
> been using this software.
> 1. How deep can a hierarchical structure of a coding tree be?
In ATLAS.ti you can work with trees if you wish, but you are not forced to
do so. You construct the tree structure yourself by naming the relationships
between codes. You can choose among three relationship properties and the
one you want for hierarchical display is a transitive one (the other two are
symetric and asymetric).
Thus, it is up to you how deep your tree gets.
> 2. If there are many codes in the project (more than 100), is it
> possible to search among these codes? This question is not about
> searching for coded quotations in a HU, but rather to find a code in a
> coding tree.
the query tool (or search engine) is a facility where you look for
quotations and not for codes. You can always get a visible display of your
coding scheme (all of it and not just 2 levels at a time) in a network view.
The second possibility is to get a display that is similar to your windows
explorer with a sideways display of the tree. This tree can also be used for
coding purposes via drag and drop.
> 3. If a coding tree has "parents" and "children", is it possible to
> code by a "parent" and if so, does that automatically mean that
> "children" have also been used as the codes of the quotation? For
> example, "time of a day" is a "parent" of such concepts as "morning",
> "afternoon", and "evening". Is it possible to search for the code
> "time of a day" and have it retrieve all quotations coded with
> "morning", "afternoon", and "evening"?
Yes, you have three search options that exploit 'semantic relationships' -
that is those that you have created yourself. Semantic refers here to the
kind of relationships that result in a hierachical structure. The operators
are up, down and sibling. With down you would get all the quotations
connected to time of day (if you had any underneath that code), morning,
afternoon and evening. Sibling morging, would give you all quotations of
morning, afternoon and evening. Thus, in this case it would lead the same
results. If your hierarchies go deeper, then the down operator collects all
the quotations underneath the term you use in the search.
> 4. I understand that codes can be hierarchically organized and
> relationships between them specified. However, there is also a
> grouping of the codes in "families". What is the difference? How does
> this affect searches for coded quotations in a HU?
Families can be understoond more like a 'cloud' of codes that belong
together. They are not connected by any specific relationships (thus they
also won't be displayed hierachical). Code families show up as families in
the search tools and you simply have to double click on them to get all
related quotations. You cannot be as fine grained in your search, e.g.. by
just looking at codes at the same level with the sibling operator.
> 5. Is it possible to manipulate objects (codes, families, quotation,
> etc.) in the Object Explorer?
you can use thec codes for coding, however, you cannot change the
hierachies, at least not yet. We have been asking for this to be possible
and I hope it will be realised in the new version. If you have a demo
version at hand, click the right mouse button on an object in the Object
Explorer and you can see the options you have.
> 6. We are going to have a audio recording and screen capture of
> think-aloud protocols. If I understand correctly, there were
> previously limitations on the number of codes that could be assigned
> to multimedia files. How many codes is it possible to attach to
> multimedia files in the current version of Atlas.ti?
no restrictions any longer - just make sure you have the latest update.
> 7. What is the maximum size of the files that Atlas.ti can work with?
no restrictions - the limitations are the speed of you computer.
> 8. Is there any way to connect transcribed textual files with
> multimedia files using a time-stamp while coding with Atlas.ti?
not yet.
Susanne
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