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... not a direct answer to Carol's question, but some thoughts: Nathalie Cote wrote: Also, we'll be collecting another set of data > next year, and I've found that N4 is very slow when the data set gets large. I suppose that slowest is not so much related to the software but to speed of the computer. This is also true for the other software packages. The faster your computer, the faster the software... Note that I > used NUDIST4 - maybe something like Atlas/ti wouldn't have taken me as long > to learn and wouldn't run as slowly Even if it takes you a week or two to learn the software - how much time is that compared to 2, 3 or 4 years of Ph.D. work? but even so I think doing on paper > would have taken me less time. I disagree strongly - unless you have a very very good memory. How much time do you spend to find certain things in even just 100 pages of transcripts? You know it is there somethere and after looking through pages and pages again backwards and forewards, you finally find it. Especially if you start re-coding a lot. The way I image it is that you have lots of notes in the margins crossed out, other noted written on top of it -thus, creating a mess after a while. Maybe this picture is wrong amd it doesn't have to look like that. Another issue is, if you doing it on paper, you won't be able to ask systematic questions about the data (maybe that is not somethiing you want to do all the time - but if you do, then a computer is of great help). Once you have invested the time to learn one of these QDA programs - and you are likely to do while you are working with your data - the extra work you need to do is to set your data up right so that it can be imported into the program. Without much experience, this probably takes a bit longer at first. The coding you have to do anyway if you work on paper or with the computer. When it comes down to retrieving things and to aks questions about your data, to modify your coding scheme, etc. the computer is much faster. This also applies for putting together all the bits and pieces of your analysis. The analytic work that happens between the line again is the same, whether you work on paper or with a computer. Susanne //////////////////////////////////////////////// Susanne Friese Qualitative Research & Consulting http://www.quarc.de Alte Dorfstr. 71A 70599 Stuttgart, Germany Lehrstuhl für Haushalts-und Konsumökonomik Universität Hohenheim (530/1) 70593 Stuttgart, Germany Tel: +49 (0)711 45 00 21 Fax: +49 (0)711 459 2870 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%