Working in a Team
Two Ways to Collaborate
QualCoder is single-user, so teams use one of two approaches. Either way, give every person a unique coder name (Project > Settings > Change).
| Approach | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Take turns | One person works, closes QualCoder, then passes the zipped project to the next person. Never open the same project at the same time. | Small groups, open (inductive) coding |
| Master project + merge | Build one master project with all files, give each person a copy, code separately, then merge the copies back. Don’t edit the texts in the copies. | Coding with an agreed codebook (deductive) |
Warning
Moving a zipped project through email or cloud storage is fine; running QualCoder on a project inside a synced cloud folder is not.
Merging Projects
Open the destination project, then use Help > Special functions > Merge projects, choose the source project and run the merge.
Important
Back up the destination project first. Important: There is no undo!
- Files, codes and categories that don’t already exist are added.
- Coding of text, images and audio/video, plus cases, attributes and journals, is brought across.
- Existing attribute values in the destination are not overwritten.
- If two people edited the same text file differently, codes may land in the wrong place.