Coding Window

After a question has been allocated to a coder (go to Locking Questions for Coding for more information), the specified coder can access the question.

1. Go to the Survey Data > Coding > Online Coding menu command.
2. Follow the hyperlink by clicking on the question which is to be coded.

A screen similar to the one shown below will appear. Note that a coder will only see hyperlinks for questions to which he/she is allocated.

The coding window is where the coders can perform the actual coding work on the survey. The coder can search for records using either a text search of respondent's answers and/or a code number search. The coder can choose which field to sort by, whether they want to sort ascending or descending, and if they want to see coded and/or un-coded questions.

Figure 1 - Example of the coding window

Press the <Enter> key on your keyboard or use the arrow keys to move the cursor to and activate the next field in the Online Coding Window.

Header Row

The Coding window's header row shows the question that the coder is currently working on, and includes:

• The Coded question ID.
• The Open question ID.
• The Question text.
• The Keep empty fields uncoded checkbox (relevant when coding into a multi question).
• The Suppress Empty Fields checkbox.

Searching and Sorting

The central section of the coding window is for "searching and sorting" answers - .

Figure 2 - The searching and sorting section

You can filter the list of respondent answers by coded status; view coded and/or un-coded answers. The default is "Not coded", to list all the questions that have not yet been coded. You can also search for a text string and/or code numbers. Use wildcards (*) to find answers that start with, end with, or include a specific string. When the appropriate search criteria have been added, click Search.

Search criteria	How to write the search word
Includes:	*Text string* or *Text string
Starts with:	Text string, or Text string*

To perform a code search:

1. In the Code field, enter the number of the code(s) to be searched.
2. If searching for multiple codes, separate the codes with commas.
3. Click Search.

You can sort the list by Respondent-ID or Answer-text in ascending or descending order. Answer lists are by default sorted by respondent ID (Resp-ID).

Note that sorting and searching is performed on all the answers for the specific question. When sorting/search is changed, the answer list will be refreshed and will return you to the first page of the list.

Navigation

Navigate through the set of respondent answers in the current question by using the arrow buttons below the answer list - . The total number of responses to be recoded is given as the Count, and the full list of responses is divided into pages. The number of responses on each page is specified in the "Coding Screen Size" (go to Coding Screen Size for more information) property in the User Settings page (go to User Account Settings for more information).

Figure 3 - The Navigation buttons

Click on the navigation buttons to save the data shown for the current displayed code. Use the Save button to save codes on completion or when an interruption in the coding is expected.

Replace Function

The replace-function is similar to a global replace. It can be used to re-code answers in order to sum up different codes under an "over code" - . An example could be that you want to put all answers which have been coded for one category into another category.

Figure 4 - The Replace function

Note that this operation replaces the codes and is IRREVERSIBLE, so the replace function should be used with caution. A warning message is displayed (- ) showing which codes will be affected. If the codes are correct, click OK to continue, otherwise click Cancel to end the operation.

Figure 5 - Example of a Warning

An error message will also be generated when the coder tries to use a number that is not on the list of codes defined in the code list of the single/multi question.