QualCoder

This 42 minute video workshop was created by the librarian at the University of Idaho, thank you. It uses QualCoder 3.2 on Windows.

Update to some of the information in the video:

You can merge a category into a category, by right clicking on a category and select Merge category into category.

QualCoder imports plain text from Word, ODT, PDF documents. PDF importing can often be a problem and require editing after importation, as the PDF format is for print display not for text editing.

Now, with new projects, using the future 3.3 version, you will be able to open and view the original text document, from the Manage File and Code Text areas. The documents are opened by your default browser. So some will appear in the browser itself, and some documents will make the browser open the document using Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer, depending on which of these you have installed.

You can install the latest QualCoder code using the green download button and doing a manual install.

Older projects

Older projects will not have this option, but it can be added using database queries in the Reports > Database queries section

You will need to run sql statements that link the database entry to the text document stored in the project folder:

First save a copy of the project. This is a safe thing to do, in case your sql updates were incorrect.

Then run a sql statement like this example:

Lets say you imported a pdf called mypdf.pdf and that in the documents folder inside the qualcoder project folder it is there as mypdf.pdf

Then in Settings tick ‘showids’

Open Manage Files and see what the id number is for that entry. Lets say it is 5, as an example.

The below statement will update the entry to then be able to link and open that text file, when you use the menu option of viewing the original file.

update source set mediapath=”/docs/mypdf.pdf” where id=5

Then run the statement using the cogs button.

Refresh Manage Files by selecting Manage Files from the menu. and check that view original text is an option for that entry.

I have added markdown formatting in journals.

It does show the markdown symbols, but does help to frame journal entries. Note this is for the unreleased 3.3 version, which can be downloaded and manually installed from the main GitHub page.

The latest version of QualCoder has been released. This contains error fixes and more functionality.

The main change is that the VLC software is not required to be installed for QualCoder to run. Without VLC you can work with text and images. For audio and video coding QualCoder does require VLC to be installed.

The other main change is that a bibliography can be imported in the RIS format.

Further improvements to the REFI-QDA codebook and project exchange formats have been enacted.

How to get the latest release?

Obtain source code or executable binaries for Windows 10/11 and Ubuntu 22 from:

https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releases/tag/3.2

I am not sure how SaaSHub.com calculates the comparisons but here are a few graphs comparing QualCoder to the big proprietary names in qualitative data analysis. These screengrabs of the SaaSHub graphs were from 15 Dec 2022.

It is nice to see that QualCoder does compare favourably primarily as a research tool. Even if it does not have all the functionalities of the big names. A lot of thanks goes to the end users who keep putting forward good ideas and giving feedback to make using QualCoder an easier and better experience. Also for suggesting extra functionalities that had not been thought of before. It is fascinating to see how many different workflows people use when doing their research.

MAXQDA

Dedoose

Atlas.ti

NVivo

The latest code that will eventually become a 3.2 release has the capacity to load references from a text file. They must be in the RIS format which most reference managers can export to.

Additionally, you will be able to change the overall style of QualCoder through options in Settings.

Blue style

Orange style

Dark with rainbow style

The video is full length – 45 minutes – and covers introduction, coding, reports and special function. Some of the early section is slightly blurry, and some is a bit quiet in volume.

It’s nice to see QualCoder listed as a good free alternative to Nvivo.

How to Download Nvivo for Students (Windows/Mac)

Hi all, I have released a newer version of QualCoder:

https://github.com/ccbogel/QualCoder/releases/tag/3.1

There are Executables for windows 10 or 11 and for Ubuntu 22.04.

Most changes in this release are fixing bugs, adding a lot of user manipulations to the Graph, export the Results matrix. More are detailed on the webpage.

For those who install from the command line or terminal, you need to also install the python vlc package (use py or python3):

py -m pip install python-vlc

Hello everyone,

I have created a facebook page and group for QualCoder. The intention is for you to share your experiences using QualCoder. How to do things in QualCoder and describe problems using QualCoder and the solutions and work flows you have developed.

The group may become a good community to describe your research. The qualitative approaches you use, the data you have collected, and how you collected the data. How you interpret the data and the methodological approaches you use.

This is an updated link to a public group now.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1251478525589873