Exporting Reports

[Alan Sloane]

I've generated a number of reports – using Tools>Reports>Node Summary – so I can document versions of my coding structure, before I revise it. (I also saved the NVivo Project File, just in case).

The Report pops up in the Report Viewer, and all that's fine. The Report Viewer has a very useful "Tree Viewer" which I'd hoped would be exported in one of the export file formats, e.g. PDF or HTML. However it seems it is not – is that correct? In which case Word (.doc) is as useful as anything else for me. I also wondered if the Report files could be saved in their native format  and maybe that would retain the Tree information, but I can't see any option for that or the files themselves — I tried searching Temp, showing hidden files, and via "date modified:" for newly created files, but no joy.

I've searched the offline and online help, but it doesn't seem to cover this topic very much.

Thanks,

Alan.

[QDATRAINING Admin]

Hi Alan,

Yes you can export to multiple formats. Right click in the report and choose 'Export Report Results'. When the dialogue box comes up to save and store your report file, you can change the 'save as type' drop down menu from the default 'MS Word Files' to XLS (Excel File) PDF, HTML, RTF or plain text.The reports are dynamic and so will change as your data change but you can save and store reports as you go using this method.

In relation to preserving the structure, perhaps a better option would be to export the structure straight into Excel? This way you can include information like number of references or citations, number of sources or whether they had an analytical memo for example. To do this:

1. Go to your tree nodes
2. Expand the codes you wish to display (you can use expand/collapse->Expand all nodes if you want to report on all
3. Right click on the top level node and choose export 'Export->Export List

Your entire coding structure will be exported to Excel and here you can make the table look pretty perhaps as an appendix to your methodology chapter. By capturing the changes that occur in your coding structure in this way, as you move from one cycle of analysis to another, you preserve a perfect history that shows any observer how your codes changed throughout the analytical processes you subjected your data to. This evidence can be very useful for the production of a clear audit trail. 

You can also use matrices to show how your coding structure intersects with your background information such as demographics or even co-occurrences between different parts of your coding tree. 

Does this address your question Alan?

Kind regards,

[Author]

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