How to Customize Your Workspace in NVivo for Windows
Customize your workspace
You can arrange the workspace to suit the way you like to work. For example, you can minimize the ribbon or use the options on the View tab to:
- Hide Navigation View to make more room (ALT+F1).
- Show, hide or re-order the columns displayed in List View.
- Display Detail View on the bottom of the screen—this is particularly useful when working with queries.
- Undock Detail View into a separate window.
Refer to the for detailed instructions.
Early steps
Before you import your source material or get started with coding, you could take some time to:
Prepare for auto coding—if you have consistently structured sources like focus groups or interviews (that ask the same set of questions), you can apply paragraph styles to facilitate auto coding in NVivo. Refer to the for more information about how to do this.
Create a memo (journal) and state your research questions and record your goals. Why are you doing the project? What is it about? What do you expect to find and why? What biases do you bring to the project? Update the journal regularly to stay focused and to show the evolution of your project.
Make a mind map to brainstorm your initial ideas, starting point and any assumptions.
Make a concept map to show the relationships or patterns you expect to find in your data based on prior experience or preliminary reading—copy and paste it into your journal.
