http://www.quirkos.com

Getting started with Quirkos

A visual guide to qualitativeanalysis with simple CAQDAS software

What is qualitative analysis?

The process of exploring qualitative datato look for trends, patterns and contradictions

Time consuming process to summarise or find relevant quotes in large amounts of qualitative data

Can be done on paper, highlighting interesting sections of text

What is qualitative analysis software?

CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS) can make the process easier

Based around ‘code and retrieve’:

Code a section of text by highlighting and assigning to a topic/theme

Later, ‘retrieve’ the text across different sources

Searches make it easy to find keywords

Visualisations can give an overview of data

(examples include NVivo, AtlasTi, MaxQDA, Dedoose…)

What is Quirkos?

A software package for coding and exploring qualitative text data

Designed for ease of use, and graphical visualisations

Works the same on Windows, Mac and Linux

Software to download and install, not a App or web-based

Obtaining Quirkos

Your university or institution may have a site licence

Otherwise go to www.quirkos.com/get.html to download the software (there is a one-month trial)

Project window

Alternatively, you can click to ‘Open Other’ files, or create a ‘New Project’

The project window shows recently used projects you can open

New project

Selecting Structured Questions creates a project where identical questions are posed to each source (for example written surveys).

Enter your name or initials as Author to record who has worked on the project

You can optionally Password Protect a new project

Main viewThis is the main view in Quirkos. The home button will always take you here

This is the canvas areawhere topics are shownas bubbles

Main actions buttons on the

right

Text from your sources is shown in this column

Keyword search < Source

properties

Click here to add a new text source ^

Choose a filename

Quirkos saves all the data in one small single file. You can move it across computers easily.

Quirkos saves your work after every action, but like all data, remember to backup your work!

Click ‘New Project’

Choose a local (not network) location to save your project and give it a filename

First run

If you ever want to see the Tutorial again, click on the ‘Help’ button at any time.

The first time you start a new project, you will be greeted with a short tutorial.

Either close for now, or click through the 9 slides.

Bringing in sources

Quirkos can import text from many common file types:

.txt (Plain text files)

.rtf (Rich text files)

.docx (Word files)

.pdf (Portable Document Format)

The (+) Add Source button (bottom right) lets you:

Create a blank source Import text from a file Import text copied to the clipboard Import CSV spreadsheet / survey

data Import whole folders or

specific multiple text files.

Import source dialogueWhen importing a single source, you will see this dialogue:

Choose the file to import (Optional) change the name

of the source

A preview of the text to beimported

When ready, click to importthe source into the project

Working with text sourcesText is displayed in the right column:

Right click anywhere in the text to edit it for typos etc.

Dragging the button here > changes the width of thetext column

^ The last 3 sources are shown as tabs View and select any

source in ^the project by clicking herefor the Source Browser

Define attributes for each source using the <Source Properties button

Source propertiesDescribe the characteristics/attributes of your sources with Properties

Each property (e.g. Age) can be assigned a specific value(s) for that source (e.g. 45)

The drop down box for the property lets you quickly add already existing values, or add a New Value

Use the properties and values editor to get more control over the project properties…

^ The [+] button here quickly adds one property and value

The Properties and Values editor

Remove a value or property by clicking on the blue X

Use the editor to change, add or remove values or properties

Click on a property to edit it

Multiple Choice allows each source to have more than one value for that property

Click ‘Close’ then on the Home button to return to the main view.

Adding ‘Quirks’ or nodesIn Quirkos, topics or nodes are represented by ‘Quirks’. These are used to collect sections of text on particular themes.

These can be added in three ways:

Click on the Add button to add a Quirk in a random location on the canvas

You can also drag and drop a section of text onto the Add button to create a new Quirk containing that text

Finally, by right clicking anywhere in the ‘Canvas’ area you can create a Quirk at that location.

Quirk propertiesWhen creating a new Quirk with the (+) add button thisdialogue will be displayed to customise the topic:

At any other time, right click on a Quirk and select ‘Quirk Properties’ to bring up this dialogue.

Change the name/title of the Quirk>

A longer description of the topic >

Click to change the colour>

Levels allow you to group Quirks >

together

The Levels Manager lets you create levels >

LevelsYou can group Quirks by ‘Levels’: unlike groups,one Quirk can belong to many levels

Right click on any Quirk and select ‘Quirk Properties’and then Manage Levels to create and modify levels

Each level must have a number>Describe the level category

>Enter text and click ‘Save’ to create >a new level

Existing levels in the project are shown below >

Quirk Properties for each Quirk can be used to assign a Quirk to one or more levels

Moving and grouping QuirksQuirks can be dragged around the canvasanywhere in the grey area that appears

Use the Canvas Zoom here to get a closer ^ look at one area of the canvas

Quirks can be grouped by dragging them onto other Quirks. This creates sub categories, with the parent (e.g. Feelings) having child-nodes (Happy, Optimistic and Scared)

You can also create sub-sub categories (for example Very Happy, Quite Happy)

To remove a category, pull it out into the open canvas.

Changing the canvas viewYou can automatically rearrange the Quirks using the View options:

The Tree View lets you see all your Quirks as an indented, scrollable list

Use the Arrange by options to sort Quirks in a regular grid, based on name, number of codes, or order of creation

Adding text to Quirks

Select a section of text, and hold down the mouse button inside the selection…

Drag that text onto the relevant Quirk and release…

The text is added, and the size of the Quirk grows. A colour coded highlight shows the colour of that Quirk next to the text.

Drag and drop text onto a Quirk to add it to that topic:

^ Right click on the coloured highlight at any time to remove that section of

coding.

Showing coded text

If there are sub categories, they will be displayed as a hierarchy.

By default, quotes will be shown from all Quirks in the hierarchy.

Clicking on one node in will show just quotes from that Quirk.

You can code from this view, an easy way to recode similar themes

To see all text coded in a Quirk, double click on that bubble (or right click and select ‘Quirk Hierarchy’)

Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main screen

Keyword searching

Toggle searching through all sources or just the current one with the All/1 button

(…) buttons can be used to expand context around result

You can code from the search results – just drag and drop text

The text search function lets you quickly code based on keywords

^ Hide or show the search tab with the‘Dock’ button here

Search options

The drop down box shows search history and allows you to rerun a search (this session only)

Synonym search lets you selectively add associated words to your search

Use other criteria, including Source Properties, Quirk, or Author to filter search results

Use options to refine or expand your search criteria:

Overlap view

You can see a visualisation of how often one piece of text is coded to multiple Quirks, showing connections in the codes

Right click on any Quirk and select Show Overlap View

The more times a theme has been coded with another theme, the closer it will be to the centre

Clicking on a Quirk will show just the overlapping quotes for that theme

You can also code in this view, and results are updated live

Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main screen

Query view

Use different criteria to show coded results from certain sources,

level, particular authors, or work done during a date range

Click the PR button to choose the criteria, in this case source properties

Choose a property and value (eg Gender = Female)

Clicking ‘Run Query’ shows just results from women

Results are displayed in descending orderClick on a topic to see quotes from just that

Quirk

Comparison view

The Compare view lets you run two queries, and compare results

In addition to running separate ‘left’ and ‘right’ queries, you can add up to 10 additional criteria using the blue (+) button.

The And/Or operation makes your extra criteria narrow or widen the results

You can export a report with quotes just from your results

Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main screen

Reports

The Report button generates a summary of the project

Tick boxes to choose which items you want to include in the report

This can include statistical summaries, canvas views, and coded text, sorted in various ways

When happy with the layout, Save PDF saves the report

The left side of the screen shows a preview: the right, sections that you tick to include

You can also save a HTML ‘website’ to share with

others, ^allowing them to explore the report. This also exports a folder of canvas views as image files to insert into other documents.

Export optionsClick on the Project button to save your work with in a new file (Save As…) or export as a Word file, or CSV files for Excel

Create a Word file for each source, or one for the whole project with coding shown as

colour-coded comments

CSV spreadsheets can be opened in Excel or SPSS to do graphs or statistical analysis of

coded data

For video guides, full manuals and tutorials:

www.quirkos.com/support.html

To download Quirkos:www.quirkos.com/get.html

For questions and support email:support@quirkos.com