HyperRESEARCH™ Quick Tour

This Quick Tour briefly shows the major features of HyperRESEARCH. For a more in-depth, step-by-step look at how HyperRESEARCH facilitates code-and-retrieve and theory building aspects of qualitative data analysis, download the free Teaching Edition of HyperRESEARCH.

Study Window

The Study Window is the main HyperRESEARCH window, where your cases and code references are displayed. You may view the code references of one case at a time. The Study Window also shows you how many cases (index cards) are currently in your study, how many of those are selected (i.e. viewable in the Study Window -- you may alter the case selection at any time, choosing to select All or by Name or by code reference Criteria), how many code references have been coded to the current case, and how many of those code references are currently selected (viewable).

With the "View Source" option selected, clicking on any code reference will recall the underlying source material. HyperRESEARCH will open the file in a Source Window, with the underlying source material highlighted.

With the "View Annotation" option selected, clicking on a code reference that has been annotated will cause the Annotation Window to open, displaying the annotation that goes with the highlighted code reference.

The Study Window is fully resizable and movable; you may position it any way you like on your computer screen.

Source Windows

There are four major Source Window types, one for each of the types of source material HyperRESEARCH can work with.

Text Source Window

The Text Source Window displays textual files. You may customize the Font Settings (typeface and size) and also choose whether or not to display the codes in context (code names appearing in the left margin). This window is fully resizable and movable. You may also alter the ratio between the "margin" and the main text area when the Display Codes in Context feature is active.

Text source files may be split into multiple pages if the user wishes. In this case, the Text Source Window displays the current page and the total number of pages; clicking on the left- and right-arrows beside the Page Number information allows you to view the previous or next pages in the source file.

Graphic Source Window

The Graphic Source Window allows you to display still images (.gif or .jpg or similar graphic files) and assign codes to selected portions of the image.

Movie Source Window

The Movie Source Window displays movie files (with their audio tracks, if any) using Apple's Quicktime software. You may select and code any number of frames, to be replayed when recalling the source material from the Study Window or in a hyperlinked report.

Audio Source Window

The Audio Source Window uses Apple's Quicktime software to allow you to play back an audio file, and select portions for coding."Viewing" the coded source material of an audio file (either by selecting the code reference on the Study Window with the "View Source" feature active, or clicking on a hyperlinked code reference in a report) recalls and replays the selected portion of the audio track.

Code List Editor

The Code List Editor allows you to view and manipulate your Master Code List. You may add codes, edit codes (with changes being reflected in individual code references in the Study Window), and enter detailed definitions for your master codes.

Annotation Window

The Annotation Window allows you to add a memo or annotation to any code reference in your study. Unlike a Code Definition, which applies to a master code, an Annotation is specific to an individual code reference and its underlying source material.

Code Map Window

The Code Map Window allows you to explore graphic representations of the relationships between your Master Codes. You may group codes in any way you wish, and visually link master code names to one another. You may select codes using your Code Map, and apply that selection to the Study Window, which will then display only those code references corresponding to the selected Master Codes.

Report Window

The Report Window presents the report generation options. Use this window to customize the data you wish retrieved for a given report, then either "Display" it to your screen or "Export" it to a text file.

A Displayed Report looks like this (with some variations based on the options specified for the current report):

If the "Hyperlinks" elements are all included, the code reference lines will actually be hyperlinks. Clicking on a code reference (e.g. "MACKEY used hand methods before 1 TEXT 13109,13334 Mackey.txt") will recall the underlying source material in a Source Window. This allows you to view the source material in the context of the rest of the file if you wish.

Hypothesis Window

The Hypothesis Tester is an Expert System that helps you build theories and test them against the codes you've applied to your data. Like the Report Generator, the Hypothesis Tester consists of two windows: the Hypothesis Test Window and a Report Display Window.

The Hypothesis Test Window includes a portion that displays the current Hypothesis Test Rules, and a portion that allows you to edit those rules.

Autocoding

HyperRESEARCH 2.0 supports autocoding of multiple sourcefiles on a single pass. The AutoCode Window allows you to specify what source files to code, to which cases, what phrase to search for, and what codes to apply.

First you assign source files to the proper cases:

Then you specify the phrase to search for (HyperRESEARCH will look for exact matches) and how much surrounding source material to include:

And then you select the codes to apply to the matching source material.

The "Autocode" button becomes active when all necessary parameters are supplied. HyperRESEARCH will add the selected code or codes to all instances of the selected phrase it finds, and place the code references in the Study Window for the specified cases.