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What’s the difference between coding and excerpting? Don’t worry if you don’t know the answer- that’s why we’re covering the basics of both in today’s blog feature.

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Read on for mini summaries and helpful resources for these topics and everything in between!

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In no time, you’ll be able to get started with codes, tagging excerpts, editing, tracking and displaying your research data masterpieces.

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BASICS: Understanding the Coding Process

When it comes to codes, three basic concepts are your friend: 1) the Codes Workspace, 2) Codes Panel and 3) Add Code Icon. All of these are accessed after you are signed into Dedoose and logged into your project.

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One useful hint that might come in handy, is the ability to drag and drop codes you create onto one another. This will produce parent and child codes, which you can use to divide larger themes into more narrow subgroups. 

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In a hurry or on the go? You can also use the Quick Code option. This is activated when you are in the media or data source you want to analyze, and press the spacebar after highlighting a key excerpt. This will open the Code Tree where you can access all the traditional options.

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The Coding Tree: Foundations & Basics

Also important to note, is the fact that we here at Dedoose use the terms “coding” and “tagging” interchangeably. This being said, the Code Tree provides you with flexible, dynamic and rich features to bring your data to the next level.

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If you are looking for ways to make your code list more visually digestible, there are simple ways you can spruce up your code tree. With your code export in hand, click the Home Tab > Code List > Show Actions Panel > Export Codes.

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After this, simply follow the onscreen steps and make sure you select Excel formatting. Next, you can apply a colorful icon set based on Depth to make the different levels in your code list clearly identifiable.

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Open a file in Excel, highlight the Depth column, Click Home > Conditional Formatting > Icon Sets (hover) > More Rules > Icon Style > 4 colored circles > Reverse Icon Order > OK.

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Finally, you can group all families under Parent codes to simplify your coding list. This is a simple way to toggle between top-level codes to more micro-level visualizations. Highlight all rows under a family and click Data > Group at the top.

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Edit an Existing Code

You can easily do so from a number of places including the Codes Workspace. When you are viewing and excerpting media (or any place in Dedoose) you will see the Codes Panel icon. If you have already completed your Code Tree, but have since realized you would like to collapse, re-define, or otherwise modify your codes, don’t worry.

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Coloration – Tracking Your Codes

For those using custom color palettes that you select yourself, try setting the Dedoose color scheme.

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When you access the Settings Panel in the Code Tree, you can toggle custom colors for your codes if they’ve been changed from the default (black) for each individual code. In document view, you can change this via the Settings Panel on the top left.

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Key Features of Code Weighting

On the surface, it may appear you are only tagging numbers to codes. But in reality, this is how creative Dedoose users have analyzed sentiment ratings and more!

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Code Weighting can be useful in many different ways for multi-layered research projects. When using scales from 1 to 5 for example (ranging from very negative to very positive), you can apply these numbers to represent this in your codes.

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Take Excerpts to the Next Level with Filtering

To access this capability, simply click the Data Set tab > Codes > Select Filter None > Confirm Codes of Interest > Click Data Selector > Click Excerpts tab. Upon completion, you should see a set of excerpts that have the first, second, etc. codes applied.

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Long story short, using the Excerpts tab to filter data allows you to exclude or include specific layers of information over another.

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Still Unsure About How to Proceed With Your Project? Our Support Team is Ready to Help.

Do you have a complicated survey, video or other media type that requires coding, visualization, or more? We can help.

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Reach out to one of our qualified Support team members, or simply write “Attention: Jose” in the subject line of your inquiry email for expedited response time!

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Whether you are looking for tips about how to set up, analyze or structure your data, there is a support specialist for you.

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You can also reference our User Guide, which you can download to your device for easy access on-the-go.

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