Craig asked
>This may be a naive question. Does Nvivo do all the things
NUD*ist 4 does, and more, such that someone thinking of purchasing
NUD*ist 4 should actually invest in Nvivo?
Not a naive question, and the answers are no, yes and yes. The yeses are
much more obvious; NVivo is very different and does very many things no
other software does - it is designed to break with the code-and-retrieve
dominant paradigm, to offer lots of ways of linking and questioning. I
won't give NVivo details: these are up on the website and the demo is
there now too. http://www.qsr.com.au
But no, NVivo doesn't do all the things N4 does. They are genuinely
partner products, and different. N4 has 2 main features NVivo does not
have: the command language and QSR Merge. Both are much used by
researchers who wish to handle mechanical processes efficiently. You can
do with commands anything you can do on the keyboard and a couple of
things you can't, and you can do repetitive tasks wondrously easily.
NVivo has new ways of doing what recent discussion on this list called
"autocoding" - by section. But many command-file jobs with multiple
mechanical processes need N4's commands. Merge, which merges N4
projects, is used by multi-site or multi-stage projects, or teams.
There are several other reasons why you may prefer to purchase or stay
with N4 - and why QSR will continue to support and develop it.
1) N4 has a considerably lower :-) price. With the introduction of
NVivo, N4's price has dropped and a student price is available, making
it one of the most accessible qual software packages.
2) NUD*IST4 has a huge, stable user base and skills base: this has
advantages (e.g. an independent textbook and a university conference
were outcomes last year.) NVivo will of course share in this research
community: some thirty trainers and consultants around the world assist
users and some of these are already offering training in NVivo. And
QSR's free help of course will apply to both. But N4 at present has the
considerable strength and interest of a research community beyond the
developers - the QSR-Forum in particular shares a massive body of
experience using it.
3) N4 will run on different (less powerful) machines and platforms
(Windows 3.1 and native Macintosh mode).
But yes, of course, NVivo does much much more: please check details for
yourself. People have been talking mainly about the joys of having rich
text go straight in or be created and edited as you work and code and
link to other multimedia files - and about the visual modeler that's
live to data items. But arguably the most significant new abilities are
the less obvious ones: there are very many new ways of coding, storing
information, memoing, annotating, searching, assaying and scoping
searches and they may matter even more for you. So yes, I do think
someone considering purchasing N4 should check both and try out the
demos - but the decision will depend on your research goals, your
budget, and your methodological preferences.
Hope this helps,
cheers
Lyn
Lyn Richards,
Research Professor of Qualitative Methodology, University of Western
Sydney,
Director, Research Services, Qualitative Solutions and Research.
(email) [log in to unmask]
(Ph) +61 3 9459 1699 (Fax) +61 3 9459 0435
(snail) Box 171, La Trobe University PO, Vic 3083, Australia.
http://www.qsr.com.au
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