How Do I Activate Documents in MAXQDA?

When working with MAXQDA, a software for data analysis, you will often work with documents like interviews, surveys, or even audio and video recordings. However, before you can start analyzing your documents, you need to activate them. Activating a document means selecting it so you can start working with it.

Let us go over the steps for activating documents in MAXQDA.

What Does It Mean to Activate a Document?

In MAXQDA, activating a document means choosing the document you want to work on.  Once you have activated a document, your analysis will be focused on it. You can open, code, and add notes or memos to it.

How to Activate a Document in MAXQDA

The following are the steps in activating a document in MAXQDA:

Step 1: Open Your Project in MAXQDA

First, open your MAXQDA project, where you will have all your documents. When you open the program, you will see a Document System on the left-hand side of the screen. That is where you have a list of all your documents.

Step 2: Find the Document You Want to Activate

In the Document System, you will see a list of all the documents you have imported into MAXQDA. Those might be text, audio, video, or any other document you would like to analyze.

Scroll down the list until you see the document you want to work with.

Step 3: Click on the Document to Activate It

To activate a document in the Document System, you only need to click on its name. The document you clicked on will be highlighted, and you are ready to start working with it.

Step 4: Open the Document for Editing

After you have clicked on the document’s name, it opens in the Document Browser. Here, you can read, review, and analyze your document.

You can now begin assigning codes to parts of the document, writing memos, or using other MAXQDA functions to work with it.

Step 5: Working with Several Documents (Optional)

If you want to activate multiple documents, hold the Ctrl key (in Windows) or the Command key (in Mac) while selecting them. This allows you to work with more than one document simultaneously.

Step 6: Turn off a Document

When you are finished working on a document, you can close it by selecting another document. There is nothing special you need to do to close a document. When you select another document, the first one automatically closes.

Why Do I Need to Activate Documents?

Activating documents is very important because it lets you focus on the specific files you want to work with. After activation, you can code a document, apply a theme, and analyze the data. It keeps your workspace organized so you are not distracted by unnecessary files.

Conclusion

Documents in MAXQDA are activated in the Document System. Just click on one to open it and get to work. You can now quickly analyze and code your data by just opening the documents, which makes your research more effective.