NVIVO grrrrr

[girlwithamoonandstaronherhead]

Does anyone else use NVIVO? Is it me or is it really awful? It seems to be a million complicated things that I never want to do, and not the most simple. Or it may be that I just don't know how to use it properly! Would be interested to know others experiences.

I found it difficult to use on my low powered computer, as it kept crashing. I then bought a really fast powered computer and I've not had one problem with it.

It's the tool of the devil. I used it just for initial high level coding in the end, and Then exported into word for the thematic synthesis. Tbh I think coding is more useful to familiarise you with the data than actually producing novel interpretation, but perhaps that's just me.

It's the tool of the devil. I used it just for initial high level coding in the end, and Then exported into word for the thematic synthesis. Tbh I think coding is more useful to familiarise you with the data than actually producing novel interpretation, but perhaps that's just me.

Awful, glorified highlighter. I use the comments on word to free code and then print the document so only the comments show, then I can go through and work out what the themes are

I like it but have lost a few files when saving from home to a uni server. Not my error, it has happened too many times and only with NVivo. It's v temperamental. I also hate the fact that if you update, there are compatibility issues.

I've just started learning to use NVIVO v11. I would be very grateful if anyone out there could help. Thing I'm struggling with at the minute is nodes and sub nodes etc. I have a node that is: "Impact of gestational diabetes", then a subnode which is "impact on birth" and and sub-sub node that is "caesarian section". Do I have to code all three of these everytime someone mentions having a c-section due to GD? Won't it just code upstream from my sub-sub nodes automatically? Thanks in advance!

You can right click on the Parent node and choose Aggregate Coding from Child Nodes - this will roll all the content from child nodes up to the parent.

Another way to approach this....

Have separate nodes for Gestational Diabetes, Ceasarians and Birth Impacts - then when you're coding, select the content and just drag it to each of the relevant nodes (for example, this para is about GD, and it's about C-sections, and it's about Impacts on birth). Once you've coded all your data this way, you can use coding queries to retrieve the data any way you want (for example, show me all the comments about GD and C-sections, or show me all the comments about GD and Birth Impacts or all the data about C-sections and Birth Impacts...you get the idea. Hope this helps :)

Hello again,

thanks for all the replies. I found this really useful freely available paper that contains a step-by-step guide to thematic analysis;

eprints.uwe.ac.uk/11735/2/thematic_analysis_revised...

my sticking point now is how NVIVO differentiates between 'codes' and 'themes'.

Do i just start off by coding everything as nodes in a first 'sweep' then go back and group the codes into higher order nodes (i.e. themes)?

Thanks again!

That is what I do personally. I find this takes a long time and I change my mind a bit before finalising themes. it would be the same of using more traditional paper based methods.

thanks!