A step-by-step guide to doing qualitative analysis and coding, using the simple qualitative data analysis software Quirkos. The presentation covers installing the software and creating a new project, importing data and managing it, before creating codes or themes and coding sections of data. There's also link to the free trial to practice with.

1. http://www.quirkos.com
Getting started with Quirkos
A visual guide to qualitative
analysis with simple CAQDAS software

2. What is qualitative analysis?
The process of exploring qualitative data
to look for trends, patterns and contradictions
Time consuming process to summarise or find
relevant quotes in large amounts of qualitative
data
Can be done on paper,
highlighting interesting sections of text

3. What is qualitative analysis software?
CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data
AnalysiS) can make the process easier
Based around ‘code and retrieve’:
Code a section of text by highlighting
and assigning to a topic/theme
Later, ‘retrieve’ the text across different sources
Searches make it easy to find keywords
Visualisations can give an overview of data
(examples include NVivo, AtlasTi, MaxQDA, Dedoose…)

4. What is Quirkos?
A software package for coding
and exploring qualitative text data
Designed for ease of use, and graphical
visualisations
Works the same on Windows, Mac and Linux
Software to download and install,
not a App or web-based

5. Obtaining Quirkos
Your university or institution may have a site licence
Otherwise go to www.quirkos.com/get.html to
download the software (there is a one-month trial)

6. Cloud or Local?
There’s a free trial of both the cloud storage and
offline modes
You can login
and store data
on the cloud, or
save projects
locally on your
computer

7. Project window
Alternatively, you can click to ‘Upload local’ files,
or create a ‘New Project’
The project
window shows
recently used
projects you can
open

8. New project
Selecting Structured Questions creates a project where
identical questions are posed to each source (for example written
surveys).
Enter your name
or initials as
Author to
record who has
worked on the
project
You can
optionally
Password
Protect a new
project

9. Choose a file/project
name
Quirkos saves your work after every action, but
like all data, remember to backup your work!
Click ‘New
Project’
Choose a local
location to save
your project and
give it a
filename, or
store in the
cloud

10. Main view
This is the main view in Quirkos. The home button will always take you
here
This is the canvas area
where topics are shown
as bubbles
Main
actions
buttons
on the
top Text from
your
sources is
shown in
this column
Keyword search
^
< Source
properties
Click here to add a new text source 

11. First run
If you ever want to see the Tutorial again,
click on the ‘Help’ button at any time.
The first time you
create a project, you
will be greeted with a
short tutorial.
Either close for now,
or click through the 9
slides.

12. Bringing in sources
Quirkos can import text from many common file types:
.txt (Plain text files)
.rtf (Rich text files)
.docx (Word files)
.pdf (Portable Document Format)
.csv (Comma Separated Values)
The (+) Add Source button (bottom right) lets you:
 Create a blank source
 Import text from one or more files
 Import text copied to the clipboard
 Import CSV spreadsheet / survey data
 Import a whole folder of files

13. Import source dialogue
When importing a single source, you will see this dialogue:
 Choose the file to import
 (Optional) change the name
of the source
 A preview of the text to be
imported
 When ready, click to import
the source into the project

14. Working with text sources
Text is displayed
in the right
column
 Right click anywhere in the
text to edit it for typos etc.Dragging the button here >
changes the width of the
text column
 The last 3 sources are shown as tabs
View and select any source in
the project by clicking here
for the Source Browser

<Define attributes for each
source using the
Source Properties
button

15. Source properties
Describe the characteristics/attributes of your sources with Properties
 Each property (e.g. Age) can be
assigned a specific value(s) for that
source (e.g. 45)
 The drop down box for the property lets
you quickly add already existing values,
or add a New Value
 Use the properties and values editor to get
more control over the project properties…
^ The [+] button here quickly adds one property and

16. The Properties and Values editor
Remove a
value or
property by
clicking on
the (X)
Use the editor to change, add or remove values or properties
Click on a property
to edit it
Multiple Choice
allows each
source to have
more than one
value for that
property
Click ‘Close’ then on the Home button to return to the main view.

17. Adding ‘Quirks’ or nodes
In Quirkos, topics or nodes are represented by ‘Quirks’.
These are used to collect sections of text on particular themes.
These can be added in three ways:
Click on the Add button to add a Quirk in
a
random location on the canvas
You can also drag and drop a section of
text onto the Add button to create a new
Quirk containing that text
Finally, by right clicking anywhere in the
‘Canvas’ area you can create a Quirk at
that location.

18. Quirk properties
When creating a new Quirk with the (+) add button this
dialogue will be displayed to customise the topic:
At any other time, right click on a Quirk and
select ‘Quirk Properties’ to bring up this dialogue.
Change the name/title of the Quirk >
A longer description of the topic >
Click to change the colour >
Groups allow you to group Quirks >
together
The Groups Manager lets you
create levels >

19. Groups
You can group Quirks by ‘Groups’: unlike sub-categories,
one Quirk can belong to many Groups
Right click on any Quirk and select ‘Quirk Properties’
and then Manage Groups to create and modify levels
Give the level a name >
Click ‘New Croup’ to create >
a new Group
Existing Groups in the project are
shown below >
Quirk Properties for each Quirk can
be used to assign a Quirk to one or
more Groups

20. Moving and grouping Quirks
Quirks can be dragged around the canvas
anywhere in the grey area that appears
Use the Canvas Zoom here to get a closer
^
look at one area of the canvas
Quirks can be grouped by dragging them
onto other Quirks.
This creates sub categories, with the
parent (e.g. Feelings) having child-nodes
(Happy, Optimistic and Scared)
You can also create sub-sub categories
(for example Very Happy, Quite Happy)
To remove a category, pull it out into the
open canvas.

21. Changing the canvas view
You can automatically rearrange the Quirks using the View options:
The Tree View lets you see all
your Quirks as an indented,
scrollable list
Use the Arrange by options to
sort Quirks in a regular grid, based
on name, number of codes, or
order of creation

22. Adding text to Quirks
Select a section of text, and
hold down the mouse button
inside the selection…
Drag that text onto the relevant
Quirk and release…
The text is added, and the size
of the Quirk grows. A colour
coded highlight shows the
colour of that Quirk next to the
text.
Drag and drop text onto a Quirk to add it to that topic:
^ Right click on the coloured highlight at any
time to remove that section of coding.

23. Showing coded text
If there are sub
categories, they will be
displayed as a hierarchy.
By default, quotes will be
shown from all Quirks in
the hierarchy.
Clicking on one node in
will show just quotes from
that Quirk.
You can code from this
view, an easy way to
recode similar themes
To see all text coded in a Quirk, double click on that bubble
(or right click and select ‘Quirk Hierarchy’)
Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main
screen

24. Keyword searching
Toggle searching through all
sources or just the current one
with the All/1 button
(…) buttons can be used to
expand context around result
You can code from the search
results – just drag and drop text
The text search function lets you quickly code based on keywords
^ Hide or show the search tab with the
‘Dock’ button here

25. Search options
 The drop down box shows search
history and allows you to rerun a search
(this session only)
 Synonym search lets you selectively
add associated words to your search
 Use other criteria, including Source
Properties, Quirk, or Author to filter
search results
Use options to refine or expand your search criteria:

26. Overlap view
You can see a visualisation of how often one piece of text is coded
to multiple Quirks, showing connections in the codes
Right click on
any Quirk and
select Show
Overlap View
The more times
a theme has
been coded with
another theme,
the closer it will
be to the centre
Clicking on a
Quirk will show
just the
overlapping
quotes for that
theme
You can also
code in this view,
and results are
updated live
Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main
screen

27. Query view
Use different criteria to show coded results from certain sources,
level, particular authors, or work done during a date range
Click the PR button to
choose the criteria, in
this case source
properties
Choose a property
and value
(eg Gender = Female)
Clicking ‘Update’ shows
just results from
women
Results are displayed
in descending order
Click on a topic to see quotes from just that Quirk

28. Comparison view
The Compare view lets you run two queries, and compare results
In addition to running
separate ‘left’ and
‘right’ queries, you
can add up to 10
additional criteria
using the blue (+)
button.
The And/Or operation
makes your extra
criteria narrow or
widen the results
You can export a
report with quotes
just from your results
Click the ‘Home’ button to return to the main
screen

29. Reports
The Export > Report button generates a summary of the project
Tick boxes to
choose which items
you want to include
in the report
This can include
statistical
summaries, canvas
views, and coded
text, sorted in
various ways
When happy with
the layout,
Save PDF saves
the report
The left side of the screen shows a preview: the right, sections that you tick to
include
You can also save a HTML ‘website’ to share with others, ^
allowing them to explore the report. This also exports a
folder of canvas views as image files to insert into other
documents.

30. Export options
Click on the Project button to save your work with in a new file
(Save As…) or export as a Word file, or CSV files for Excel
Create a Word file for each source,
or one for the whole project with
coding shown as colour-coded
comments
CSV spreadsheets can be opened
in Excel or SPSS to do graphs or
statistical analysis of coded data

31. For video guides, full manuals and tutorials:
www.quirkos.com/support.html
To download Quirkos:
www.quirkos.com/get.html
For questions and support email:
support@quirkos.com