Fatemeh -
though I agree with you that no package is ever quite what you want - the
fact is - 'Word' hasn't got a relational database
but it might be nice if it had -
similarly Nvivo has some Edit functions - it might be nice if it had more -
but it gives us a lot more besides -
it also provides a lot more edit /transcribe frills than some similar
relational database packages -
..
by all means put it on a wish list - but maybe in the end there are
pragmatic and well as practical reasons for not giving us everything in one
package.
Personally I think one of the problems with putting too many options in a
piece of software - is that the menus become too long and complicated - the
software becomes too BIG, too complex .... where do you draw the line? I
only use a fraction of the possible functions in Word - maybe thats because
its too difficult to make time for finding out about the rest.
I do think the way you work is interesting - but you CAN at least change
things as you go along - even after you've coded a document in Nvivo.
also - you will eventually produce your finished report in Word (with
quotes etc included)(maybe?) - you COULD wait until then to run the spell
checker - if you are concerned about the accuracy of spelling. Or Make a
Coding report - export that to Word - run the spell-check there on the whole
output before you incorporate the results or examples of coded chunks, in a
polished report.
Does it matter if you have a few mistakes in the software itself - as long
as you understand what the words mean? I suppose it depends how bad your
spelling is - personally my keyboarding skills are so truly awful - that
even when I run the spell checker - it can't give me any useful options to
pick from anyway.
Well... maybe this is all easy to fix anyway and if you want somethign you
shoudl ask for it! So you did. Maybe QSR will tell us whether its feasible
or desirable.
What you ask focuses on the different ways that this particular software
allows us to handle the transcription process. Very often the first time you
see something - -i.e. when you are transcribing - thats actually ecxactly
when you want to code - next time you look at the transcript -it won't be
there - or your mind won't be tuned in to this aspect of the response -
...at least with Nvivo you can work like that - and as well as the normal
coding processes you can also visually 'code' and mark the data, just as you
did in Word.
regards
Ann
Ann Lewins
Resource Officer, CAQDAS Networking Project
Dept of Sociology
University of Surrey
GUILDFORD GU2 5XH
email: [log in to unmask]
CAQDAS web site: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/
Tel +44 (0)1 483 259 455
Fax +44 (0)1 483 259 551
-----Original Message-----
From: Fatemeh Ebtehaj <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 24 November 1999 15:53
Subject: NVIVO
>
>Hello.
>I have just purchased NVIVO and have started entering my data including
>the
>coding that I had already done using WORD.
>I want to point to some functions that I really miss with NVIVO: the
>first
>is simply the ability to undo changes, [the 'edit-undo' in WORD], which
>I
>find very useful. I know that I can go back to a previously saved
>version,
>but it this much less practical.
>The second is that I cannot collapse headings as I can in WORD.
>Finally, a BIG problem for me: there is no spell-checker! I now find
>that
>I must constantly go back and forth from NVIVO to WORD, and this is most
>cumbersome as my strategy for coding is to code as I transcribe, so that
>transcribing in WORD, importing the transcription, and coding later does
>not work for me at all.
>Please come up with a dictionary and spell-check ASAP.
>Regards,
>Fatemeh
>
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