http://www.quirkos.com

1
Getting started with Quirkos A visual guide to
qualitative analysis with simple CAQDAS software
http//www.quirkos.com
2
What is qualitative analysis?
The process of exploring qualitative datato 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
Project window
The project window shows recently used projects
you can open
Alternatively, you can click to Open Other
files, or create a New Project
7
New project
Enter your name or initials as Author to record
who has worked on the project You can optionally
Password Protect a new project
Selecting Structured Questions creates a project
where identical questions are posed to each
source (for example written surveys).
8
Main view
This is the main view in Quirkos. The home
button will always take you here
Keyword search ?
lt Source properties
Main actions buttons on the right
Text from your sources is shown in this column
This is the canvas areawhere topics are
shown as bubbles
Click here to add a new text source
9
Choose a filename
Click New Project Choose a local (not network)
location to save your project and give it a
filename
Quirkos saves all the data in one small single
file. You can move it across computers
easily. Quirkos saves your work after every
action, but like all data, remember to backup
your work!
10
First run
The first time you start a new project, you will
be greeted with a short tutorial. Either close
for now, or click through the 9 slides.
If you ever want to see the Tutorial again,
click on the Help button at any time.
11
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)
The () Add Source button (bottom right) lets
you

• Create a blank source
• Import text from a file
• Import text copied to the clipboard
• Import CSV spreadsheet / survey data
• Import whole folders or specific multiple text
  files.

12
Import source dialogue
When importing a single source, you will see this
dialogue

• Choose the file to import
• (Optional) change the nameof the source
• A preview of the text to beimported
• When ready, click to importthe source into the
  project

13
Working with text sources
Text is displayed in the right column
Define attributes for each source using the
ltSource Properties button

• Right click anywhere in the text to edit it for
  typos etc.

Dragging the button here gt changes the width of
the text column
View and select any source in the project by
clicking herefor the Source Browser
The last 3 sources are shown as tabs
14
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 value
15
The Properties and Values editor
Use the editor to change, add or remove values or
properties
Click on a property to edit it
Remove a value or property by clicking on the
blue X
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.
16
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.
17
Quirk properties
When creating a new Quirk with the () add button
this dialogue will be displayed to customise the
topic
Change the name/title of the Quirk gt A longer
description of the topic gt Click to change
the colour gt Levels allow you to group Quirks
gt together The Levels Manager lets you
create levels gt
At any other time, right click on a Quirk and
select Quirk Properties to bring up this
dialogue.
18
Levels
You can group Quirks by Levels unlike
groups,one Quirk can belong to many levels
Right click on any Quirk and select Quirk
Propertiesand then Manage Levels to create and
modify levels
Each level must have a number gt Describe the
level category gt Enter text and click
Save to create gt a new level Existing levels
in the project are shown below gt Quirk
Properties for each Quirk can be used to assign a
Quirk to one or more levels
19
Moving and grouping Quirks
Quirks can be dragged around the canvas anywhere
in the grey area that appears
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.
Use the Canvas Zoom here to get a closer
look at one area of the canvas
20
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
21
Adding text to Quirks
Drag and drop text onto a Quirk to add it to that
topic
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.
Right click on the coloured highlight at any
time to remove that section of
coding.
22
Showing coded text
To see all text coded in a Quirk, double click on
that bubble (or right click and select Quirk
Hierarchy)
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
Click the Home button to return to the main
screen
23
Keyword searching
The text search function lets you quickly code
based on keywords
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
Hide or show the search tab with theDock
button here
24
Search options
Use options to refine or expand your search
criteria

• 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

25
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
26
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 Run
Query shows just results from women Results are
displayed in descending order
Click on a topic to see quotes from just that
Quirk
27
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
28
Reports
The Report button generates a summary of the
project
The left side of the screen shows a preview the
right, sections that you tick to include
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
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.
29
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
30
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_at_quirkos.com