After five years of research and development, QSR announces NUD*IST Vivo
(NVivo), an all-new partner product to NUD*IST 4 (N4). From today,
orders are being taken for both packages. Demonstration versions will
be available in April, advance orders will ship on May 1st.
This email headlines some of the most significant new features in NVivo.
Full descriptions, screen shots, and FAQs for NVivo are on the new QSR
web sites (addresses at end).
QSR continues to actively sell support and develop the N4 line as a
partner product. N4, at the birth of its sibling software, is the
world's most used qualitative program. See PRICING below about N4 price
reductions effective from today, introductory NVivo discount pricing,
and N4-to-NVivo upgrade pricing.
WHAT'S NEW?
Literally, everything in NVivo is new: it does not share a line of code
with N4.
EVOLUTION:
Some of its features respond to user requests for ways of extending the
accepted code-based theorizing methods of N4. These include major
changes to document handling and coding, and to visual displays:
* Documents free of fixed text units (no special line-length
preparation and immediate import, including batch import).
* Coding of any selected characters, paragraphs or up to 9 levels
of sections (and a high-speed paragraph coder).
* Drag and drop management of documents, nodes and coding.
* Swifter ways of coding; and displays of all coding "live" in a
document or a node.
* New extensions to matrix searches, and inspect the results in
live interactive exportable tables.
* Visual tools for Qualitative Modelling of ideas and emerging
theories.
But NVivo is designed as a departure from the dominant paradigm of plain
documents analysed by coding and retrieval - at the expense of visual
effects and linking. Its goal is to help researchers handle rich data in
live projects and to challenge linear software-supported techniques.
REVOLUTION:
* Rich text documents fully editable and codable - no more plain
text, no more incompatibility between editing and coding. Visual coding
using color, font etc. Annotations can be edited in or linked to text.
* Compound documents: embedding of hyperlinks to image, sound,
video, or any files - to build documents that can be edited, coded,
retrieved. Formatted Proxy documents to make compound representations
for external data.
* Qualitative linking: insert and manage hyperlinks from documents
or nodes to any document or passage of text or to any node.
* Memos are full status documents, linked to documents, nodes or
any place in a document. They can be edited in rich text, coded or
linked to other documents or multimedia files.
* New ways of coding and reviewing coding: speed coding bar, In
Vivo coding, interactive coder that shows coded passages, visual display
of coding in Browser. Fully automatic section coder using section
headings.
* New "Attributes" and their values: takes base data coding out of
the node system to where it belongs as properties of nodes and
documents. Very rapid and visual, integrated with all analysis
processes; includes numeric and date attributes. Table import and export
of attributes and their values.
* Visual graphical "Modeler": make, layer, group and display any
number of qualitative models of data and ideas, linked live to
documents, nodes, attributes, and managed in a Model Explorer. NVivo and
Decision Explorer(TM) are linked, for different sorts of mind mapping.
* "Sets" for grouping documents and nodes in any way at all, can
be filtered by coding or attributes and other ways, shaping searches.
* Unified "Search Tool": text-pattern, coding and attribute search
functions are handled together in a new simpler and very much more
powerful way of asking questions of the data.
* New ability to "Scope" a search, pointing to the documents,
coding or attributes that define where you want to search.
* New ability to ask "what's here?" questions: "Assay" where you
are looking or what you found and profile by documents, coding or
attributes.
* New extensions of "system closure" - save search results for
future analysis not just at a node, but in other ways providing for
other types of analysis.
NVivo has an entirely new interface, handles data in different ways and
has many powerful new analysis processes. If you have used N4, moving to
NVivo will be easy. Your NUD*IST4 project is opened in a simple
conversion procedure. You will find it comes alive.
WHAT DOES N4 DO THAT NVIVO DOESN'T?
QSR's two packages differ in approach and detail in almost all areas.
Some are because NVivo contains functions that substitute for N4 ones.
NVivo does not contain three functions of NUD*IST4 frequently used in
large projects:
* Command Files: There is no command file language. The functions
most commonly using commands in N4 projects are supported within the
normal NVivo procedures: (automatic section coder and batch document
import).
* Merge: QSR Merge is designed to merge NUD*IST4 projects.
* Import coding: NVivo will import from a table the values of
attributes for documents or nodes, a facility that goes beyond most base
data coding import in N4. But coding at nodes cannot be imported or
exported.
NVivo runs on high end Windows PCs only whilst NUD*IST 4 runs on either
Macs and Windows PCs of almost any size. At present, we have not
completed emulator testing of NVivo on Macs. Details on the web sites.
LAUNCH EVENTS
We are showing (and celebrating!) the new software:
18-21 February at the Advances in Qualitative Methods conference in
Edmonton (http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/methods99.html
<http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/methods99.html> )
Wednesday 24th February at the University of London's full-day
conference on Doing Qualitative Research with NUD*IST
(http://www.ioe.ac.uk/conference_news/Codiary.htm)
<http://www.ioe.ac.uk/conference_news/Codiary.htm)> .
Wednesday 31st March the CAQDAS Project at the University of Surrey,
Guildford, has a full day showing and seminar on NVivo
(http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/)
<http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/)> .
13-14 July - a full two-day workshop will follow the Association for
Qualitative Research conference in Melbourne
(http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/aqr/offer/conferen.htm)
<http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/aqr/offer/conferen.htm)> . Bookings are
being taken now ([log in to unmask]) <mailto:[log in to unmask])> .
TRAINING AND TRAINERS
Many of the research consultants who offer training in NUD*IST4 have
been beta testing NVivo and are immediately ready to help newcomers to
it. Special training days for those who help or train others in using
QSR's software will be held in London after the CAQDAS day, in Australia
midyear, alongside the two-day workshop, and in North America in August.
QSR does not charge for training trainers: please contact
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you wish to participate.
PRICING, ORDERS
As from today, N4 prices are reduced and a new low student pricing is
introduced. N4 purchases will attract a low upgrade price to NVivo.
Advance NVivo orders with limited-period discounts are being taken now.
Or buy N4 now at the new low price and upgrade to NVivo on the release
date at about the same total price. Contact QSR or Scolari - Sage
Publications Software for pricing and ordering details in your country.
Details on any of the QSR web sites.
OUR WEB SITES - FOR FULL NVIVO AND N4 INFORMATION
Australia: http://www.qsr.com.au <http://www.qsr.com.au>
United Kingdom: http://www.qsr-software.co.uk
<http://www.qsr-software.co.uk>
United States: http://www.qsr-software.com
<http://www.qsr-software.com>
Information and screen shots will be added to these sites regularly over
coming weeks. Watch the QSR-Forum email group for more announcements and
discussion.
NUD*IST, NUDIST, NUD*IST Vivo, NUDIST Vivo and NVivo are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Qualitative Solutions & Research Pty. Ltd. Mac
is a trademark of Apple Computers Inc and Windows is a trademark of
Microsoft Corp.
Dr Thomas J. Richards, FRAS
Managing Director & Chief Scientist, QSR P/L
Box 171 La Trobe University PO, Vic 3083, Australia
Tel +61(0)3 9459-1699, Fax 9459-0435
www.qsr.com.au
Carpe noctem.
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