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About sources

 

In NVivo, 'sources' is the collective term for your research materials—anything from 'primary' materials such as documents, PDFs or videos, to memos that record your ideas and insights. You can import or create sources at any stage of your project.

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Understand the source types available

In this release of NVivo for Mac, you can work with

  • Documents and memos (doc, docx, rtf, txt or odt)—you can create or import documents, code the content and apply basic formatting in these text-based sources.

  • PDFs—you can import PDFs and code the text content. In this release, you cannot code images or regions.

  • Audio or Video—you can import audio and video files in a variety of formats and work with them in NVivo. You can also create synchronized transcripts. In this release, you cannot work with YouTube videos.

  • Picture sources—you can import pictures in a variety of formats and work with them in NVivo. You can also create a picture log.

  • Datasets—you can import Excel spreadsheets (xls or xlsx). Refer to About dataset sources for more information.

  • Externals—you can create externals to represent source materials that you cannot import.

In this release, you cannot work with Framework matrices.

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Understand source folders

When you create a new project, you will see the following ready-made folders for your sources:

  • Internals
  • Externals
  • Memos

You can store your primary research materials in the Internals or Externals folders:

  • Internals are primary research materials that you import or create in NVivo—including any combination of documents, PDFs, audio, video, pictures or datasets.

  • Externals are proxies that represent research materials that you cannot import such as books or manuscripts—you can create an external source and summarize the content of the item. Refer to Create externals for sources you cannot import for more information.

You can store secondary research materials in the Memos folders. Memos record your observations and insights about the material you are analyzing. You can import memos or create them within NVivo. Refer to About memos for more information.

You can create your own folders under each of these high-level folders. For example, under Internals you could create separate folders for Stage 1 Interviews and Stage 2 Interviews. You cannot delete or rename the high-level folders (or create your own folders at this level).

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Understand the different source types

The Internals folder in your NVivo project can contain different types of sources - documents, PDFs, and audio/video sources.

You can create documents and memos directly in NVivo—other source types are usually created by importing source materials into NVivo, as described in the following table:

Source Description Examples

Documents

Documents can be created in NVivo or created by importing Microsoft Word documents or text files.

You can also import files in the OpenDocument format.

Documents can be edited in NVivo—for example, you can apply paragraph styles, format text and insert images.

Refer to About documents and PDF sources for more information.

Interview transcripts

Field notes

PDFs

PDF sources are created by importing PDF files.

PDF sources can also be created when you import content from web pages that was captured with NCapture.

PDFs cannot be edited in NVivo.

Refer to About documents and PDF sources for more information.

Journal articles

Web pages

Datasets

Datasets contain structured data arranged in records (rows) and fields (columns). They are created by importing Microsoft Excel files.

Datasets can also be created by importing social media data collected using NCapture—for example, data from Twitter or Facebook.

Datasets cannot be edited in NVivo

Refer to About dataset sources for more information

Online survey results

 

Audio and video sources

An audio or video source consists of the media and (optionally) a transcript.

They can be created by importing audio or video files.

Audio and video transcripts can be created in NVivo or imported from structured text files.

Transcripts can be edited in NVivo (the media file cannot be modified).

Refer to About audio and video sources for more information.

Recorded interviews or focus group discussions

Observational videos

Pictures

A picture source consists of an image file and (optionally) a log which describes the picture.

They are created by importing image files into NVivo.

Picture logs can be created and edited in NVivo (the image file cannot be modified).

Refer to About picture sources for more information.

 

Photos and drawings

 

Externals

Externals are used to represent source materials that you cannot import into your project.  You can summarize or describe the source materials within the external.

Externals are similar to documents, except they are stored in their own folder.

Just like documents, you can use standard formatting tools to apply fonts, indents and paragraph styles.

Externals can be created in NVivo. They can also be created when you import bibliographical references (for example, when you import an EndNote library).

Refer to Create externals for sources you cannot import for more information.

You could create an external that represents a physical book or an 8mm film.

Memos

Memos are used to record your insights, observations and interpretations, and can be linked (via a memo link) to a source or node.

Memos are similar to documents, except they are stored in their own folder.

Just like documents, you can create them in NVivo or create them by importing Microsoft Word documents or text files.

Also like documents, you can apply paragraph styles, format text and insert images.

Refer to About memos for more information.

Project journal

A memo to record why you created a particular node.

What kinds of files can I import?

You can import source files in the following formats:

 

Source Formats

Documents and Memos

  • Microsoft Word Document (docx)

  • Microsoft Word 97 - 2003 Document (doc)

  • Rich text (rtf)

  • Plain text (txt)

  • OpenDocument (odt)

PDFs

  • PDF (pdf)

Datasets

  • Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (xlsx)

  • Microsoft Excel 97 - 2003 spreadsheet (xls)

Audio and video

NVivo for Mac allows you to import audio and video files that have been created in a variety of ways—for example, audio or video files that were recorded on your smart phone or files exported from QuickTime on your Mac. Refer to Import audio or video for more information.

You can also import transcripts into your audio or video sources—refer to Import audio or video transcripts for more information.

Pictures

You can import many image formats supported by your current installation of OS X including popular standard formats such as .gif, .jpeg, .png, .tiff.

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Importing source material from the web

If you want to bring web pages into NVivo or gather social media data—for example, from Twitter and Facebook—you can use NCapture to collect the web content, and then import it into NVivo.

NCapture is a web browser extension that allows you to gather web content.  The web content you gather is saved to NCapture files (.nvcx) on your computer—you can then import the NCapture files into your project.

NCapture enables you to:

  • Capture a web page or online PDF for import into NVivo as a PDF

  • Capture Facebook or Twitter data for import into NVivo as a dataset

In this release of NVivo for Mac, you cannot import NCapture files containing:

  • YouTube videos captured as a video source (with or without comments)

For information on using (or installing) NCapture, refer to the NCapture Help.

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Importing notes from OneNote

If you use OneNote  to gather material—for example, take notes, collect images or record interviews—you can bring your OneNote content into your NVivo project.

You need NVivo for Mac (Version 11.3 or later) and a work, school or personal Microsoft account to bring your OneNote data into NVivo.

When you import your OneNote pages, you have a choice between importing them as documents or PDFs. Other source types (for example, picture sources or audio files) may be created, if your notes include embedded or attached files.

Refer to Import from OneNote for more information.

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Importing journal articles (and other files) from reference libraries

If you use EndNote, Mendeley or RefWorks to search online databases for published articles and other literature, you may have gathered files containing journal articles, figures and other material.

You can import files associated with your references, when:

  • EndNote—your EndNote library is available on your computer (or a network drive), and the files are in supported formats.

  • Mendeley or RefWorks—the 'file URL' is recorded in the Links or URL fields, the files are in supported formats and are accessible on your computer (or a network drive).

Refer to Exchange data between NVivo and reference management tools for more information.

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Can I import a lot of source files at once?

You can select multiple files and import them into NVivo at the same time (datasets must be imported one-by-one).

When you import more than one source:

  • You are not prompted to define the source properties—you can do this later on

  • NVivo uses the file name as the name of the source

  • All the sources are imported into the same folder

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How to handle source materials that cannot be imported?

If you have digital content in formats that you cannot directly import into NVivo (for example, Microsoft PowerPoint), you may be able to save or export the content to a PDF file which you can import into NVivo as a PDF source. If this is not possible, then you can create an 'external' to represent the source in NVivo.

Similarly, if you have physical source materials that you cannot import into NVivo (for example, a book), you can create an 'external' to represent the item in NVivo.

Refer to Create externals for sources you cannot import.

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Record bibliographical data about your sources

You can record bibliographical details about your sources. For example, you could classify a PDF source as a Journal Article and specify the author and year.

To record this descriptive information you can:

  • Import data from reference management tools—for example, EndNote or Mendeley.

  • Classify the sources directly in NVivo.

You can classify internals, externals and memos.

Refer to About classifying sources for more information.

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Switch to edit mode to change the content of a source

You can switch to edit mode when:

  • You are working with a document, external or memo and want to edit the content

  • You are working with an audio or video source and you want to edit the transcript

You cannot switch to edit mode when you are working with a dataset or PDF source.

When you work with a source in edit mode you can:

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