Preparing your Table Data for NVivo 8

This document details the steps involved to convert your table into a format that will be suitable for working with NVivo 8. Steps for both MS Word 2003 and MS Word 2007 have been included as the process is different between these versions.
This document includes instructions for:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Preparing the demographic data Preparing the questionnaire responses using MS Word 2003 Creating the merge document using MS Word 2003 Preparing the questionnaire responses using MS Word 2007 Creating the merge document using MS Word 2007 Using Auto Code to create Cases Importing the Casebook Using Auto Code to code participants responses

Note: These procedures are based on a small sample only. Although NVivo 8 can handle very large datasets, for ease of management, it is recommended that the data is split into smaller files (e.g. 100 participants per file). If using Microsoft Access, it may be necessary to design a query to ensure that only relevant data is included. Refer to Microsoft Access Online Help for further information.

It is common for SPSS, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and other database or spreadsheet applications to be used for collecting or formatting survey, questionnaire or other data. NVivo 8 can import Microsoft Word files that contain tables, and the cells in these tables can be coded, but if a table contains both demographic and textual data as shown in Figure 1 on the following page, it may be more appropriate to split the table into two and import the demographic type data as attributes, and the textual data as documents.

Page | 1

An example of how the data for the Volunteering Sample Project may have looked if presented as an Excel spreadsheet is shown in Figure 1 below. Column A Column B, C and D Column E, F and G Rows = = = = Participants name (ID) Demographic data Questions Participants details and answers to questions.

Figure 1 - Volunteer data in spreadsheet format

(Displayed in MS Excel Version 2007)

1. Preparing the demographic data

In this section, we will prepare the demographic data contained in the spreadsheet and format it so it can be imported into NVivo as a Casebook.

1 Open your spreadsheet and remove the columns containing the question data. In this example (Figure 1), remove Columns E, F and G by selecting the whole column and clicking Delete. 2 Remove any data that you do not want to analyze in NVivo. For example, if you are working with mixed methods and a large SPSS table, it is possible that much of this data will not be required in your NVivo project. 3 Save the file as a Unicode Text (*.txt) file. An example of this file is shown in Figure 2 on the following page.

Page | 2

Figure 2 Demographic data formatted to import into NVivo

Later in this document, we will import this file as your NVivo Casebook. For further details on the Casebook, refer to the NVivo 8 Online Help.

2. Preparing the questionnaire responses using MS Word 2003

In this section, a Microsoft Word merge file template will be created to merge the questionnaire data into a file that will be in a suitable format to take advantage of NVivos auto coding tools. 1 Go back to your original spreadsheet and this time, remove (or hide) the demographic data. In our example (Figure 1), remove columns B, C and D and any irrelevant data. 2 Copy the contents of row 1. These will become headings in your Microsoft Word document. 3 Open a new Microsoft Word document and on the menu, choose Edit>Paste. This will be pasted as a Table. 4 Select the whole Table, then on the Table menu, choose Convert Table to Text. Under Separate text with, select the Paragraph marks option. Click OK.

5 The text in your document will now look like: Q.1 Current use of time Q.1a Feelings about current time use? Q.2 Time use ten years on 6 Select all the text (i.e. all the questions), and apply the style Heading 2. For further information on applying heading styles or creating and generating merge files, see the Microsoft Word Online Help.

Page | 3

3. Creating the merge document using MS Word 2003

1 Display the Mail Merge toolbar. Right-click in the toolbar area and select Mail Merge.

Click the Main Document Type setup icon and choose to create a Normal Word document. Click OK.

Click the Open Data Source icon on the Mail Merge toolbar and navigate to where your original spreadsheet is located. You may need to change the type of file to .xls. if your data is in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Select the name of the table if you have multiple worksheets in your file. Ensure that the First row of data contains columns headers option is ticked.

5 6 7 8 9

Click OK. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click the Insert Merge Fields button and insert the merge field that corresponds with the participant column in your spreadsheet. Apply the style Heading 1 to this field. Insert all other fields that correspond to the questions columns in your spreadsheet. You need to enter one field at a time and ensure that each field is on a new line under the appropriate question heading. Your document should now look like the following example (the style is shown in brackets):

Page | 4

10 When all fields have been included and correct styles applied, save this Microsoft Word file (it may be useful to re-run at a later time). 11 On the Mail Merge toolbar, click the Merge to New Document button. Choose to Merge All records. Click OK. 12 The questionnaire data will now be included in a new document as shown in Figure 3 below. Save and close the file.

Figure 3 - Results of merge file ready to import into NVivo

Page | 5

4. Preparing the questionnaire responses using MS Word 2007

In this section, a Microsoft Word merge file template will be created to merge the questionnaire data into a file that will be in a suitable format to take advantage of NVivos auto coding tools. 1 2 3 4 Go back to your original spreadsheet and this time, remove (or hide) the demographic data. In this example (Figure 1), remove Columns B, C and D and any irrelevant data. Copy the contents of row 1. These will become headings in your Word document. Open a new Microsoft Word document and choose Home>Clipboard>Paste>Paste (or Ctrl+V). This will be pasted as a table. Select the whole table, then choose Table Tools>Layout>Data>Convert Table To Text. Under Separate text with, select the Paragraph marks option. Click OK.

The text in your document will now look like: Q.1 Current use of time Q.1a Feelings about current time use? Q.2 Time use ten years on

Select all the text (i.e. all the questions), and apply the style Heading 2.

For further information on applying heading styles or creating and generating merge files, see the Microsoft Word Online Help.

5. Creating the merge document using MS Word 2007

1 2 3 Choose Mailings>Start Mail Merge>Normal Microsoft Word document. Choose Mailings>Select Recipients>Use Existing List and navigate to where your original spreadsheet is located. Select the name of the table if you have multiple worksheets in your file. Ensure that the First row of data contains columns headers option is ticked.

Page | 6

4 5 6 7 8

Click OK. Choose Mailings>Insert Merge Field and insert the merge field that corresponds with the participant column in your spreadsheet (in this example, the field is ID). Apply the style Heading 1 to this field. Insert all other fields that correspond to the questions column in your spreadsheet. You need to enter one field at a time and ensure that each field is on a new line under the appropriate question heading. Your document should now look like the following example (the style is shown in brackets):

Choose Mailings>Edit Recipient List to filter or refine the recipient list (this is useful if you wish to do the merge in batches).

10 Choose Mailings>Finish & Merge>Edit Individual Documents. Choose to Merge All records. Click OK. 11 The questionnaire data will now be included in a new document as shown in Figure 4 on the following page. Save and close the file.

Page | 7

Figure 4 - Results of merged file ready to import into NVivo

6. Using Auto Code to create cases

In this section, we will create Cases based on the formatted document created in the previous section. 1 2 Launch NVivo and import your new document created earlier (as shown in Figure 4). Right-click on the document in the List View and choose Auto Code. The Auto Code dialog is displayed and shows the available Paragraph Styles.

Page | 8

Select Heading 1 and move to the Selected paragraph styles pane. In the Code at Nodes panel, choose to code Under New Node. Ensure the Location is Cases and enter the Name of the new node, e.g. Participants.

4 5

Click OK to Auto Code. Select the Node folder in the Navigation View and select the Case folder. In the List View your data for each participant has now been coded at a Case.

Double click on any Case to view all data for each participant.

7. Importing the Casebook

Now Cases have been created for each participant, the file created as shown in Figure 2 can be imported as a Casebook. This will create the attributes and attribute values contained in your spreadsheet and assign them to the appropriate Case. 1 2 3 Click the Tools menu, then Casebook>Import Casebook. The Import Casebook dialog box is displayed. Browse to locate the Unicode text file you created in Section 1 Preparing the demographic data. Under the Options panel, choose the Case location by clicking the Select button to select the Participants Case Node as the location where your Cases are stored.

Page | 9

Click OK. Check all other options are correct.

5 6

Click OK to import the Casebook. All attribute values will have been created and values assigned to the appropriate Case. You can verify this by opening the Casebook. To open the Casebook, on the Tools menu, choose Casebook>Open Casebook.

Note that the first case shows no attribute values as it is the top level (or Parent) Case. After creating the cases, if you wish, you can delete this Case from the Nodes folder but be careful to copy all cases under the parent case first.

Page | 10

8. Using Auto Code to code all participants responses

In this section, we will Auto Code the document that was imported earlier to code all Participants responses to all questions. 1 2 Right-click on the document in the List View and choose Auto Code. The Auto Code dialog is displayed and shows the available paragraph styles. Select Heading 2 and move to the Selected paragraph styles pane. In the Code at Nodes panel, choose to code Under New Node. Ensure the Location is Tree Nodes and enter the Name of the new node, e.g. Questions.

3 4

Click OK to Auto Code. Select the Node folder in the Navigation View and select the Tree Node folder. In List View your data for each question from all participants has now been coded at a node.

Open one of these nodes to view what each participant answered to this question.

Note: Your spreadsheet data as shown in Figure 1 has now been imported into NVivo and you are ready to start asking questions of your data. For example, use a Coding Query to ask NVivo to locate all the answers to Question 1 from the age group 20-29 or use a Matrix Coding Query to view what the males and females answered for all questions. For more information about queries, refer to NVivo 8 Online Help.

Page | 11