In our previous blog, we explored the new features released with MAXQDA 2018.2. A number of improvements were made to existing functions, a full list of improvements and bug fixes are available in the release notes. Below is some of the improved functionality that we especially like.
Coding
You can now colour code (Highlight) text by selecting one of the five highlighters in the Code toolbar in the document browser.
By highlighting the text of interest in the document and selecting one of the highlighters important or interesting text is noted.
Colour coding allows you to make note of and quickly roughly code interesting or important points while reading through the document. This could be a useful process as you read through the document the first time before you decide on your codes by colour coding similar comments the same.
In the mock submission above the submitter is saying that the community organisation put themselves on standby following an earthquake and despite frontline response (Fire and Police) and other Emergency Response agencies capabilities being stretched they were never used. This is an interesting comment worthy of noting and it would be interesting to see if a similar comment came up in other submissions. The analyst is then able to compile all the colour coded segments together and review them.
In the Creative Coding module if the analyst merges codes that have a code memo attached they will be asked if they wish to merge the memos into one or transform the memos into one free memo.
MAXMAPS
As well as the new Code Map covered in the new features blog there have also been some improvements to the functionality of MAXMAPS. These improvements include the ability to drag and drop documents and codes from the sidebar, ability to drag and drop objects to specific spots on the map from the insert toolbar and more design options.
Memos
Access to memos has been improved by having the ability to access all memos from the analysis tab. When “list all memos” is selected a window opens showing an overview of all the memos.
While here the analyst can click on a selected memo and the full text of the memo will appear in the field above the list of memos.
Coding PDF Documents
There has been a number of improvements in terms of PDF documents. This includes the ability to convert a PDF into a plain text document. This creates a new document directly below the original PDF in the Document System, note however that all images and formatting contained in the PDF are ignored.
2018.2 introduces “code grabbers” which are icons at the end of a highlight segment which you can extend out or shorten to cover the right text before assigning it a code.
Improved PDF functionality means that you can now also print off your coded document as a PDF and it will add a margin to your printed document that displays your coding. When exporting files one now has the option to export a text document as a PDF.