Chapter 6
Document Annotations

Document Annotations provide you with a method for adding brief comments, observations, or other notations to your documents.

All document annotations are coded at the Annotations Node in the Node Explorer.

Document Annotations can be coded at other nodes like any other text unit.

There are three different ways to add annotations to a document:

  1. while browsing a document in the Document Browser, use the Insert Text Unit button on the Coding Palette and check the Document Annotation box. This will automatically code the annotation at the Document Annotations node in the Node Explorer. Coding in this manner will treat the entire annotation as ONE text unit.
  2. while formatting your Raw Files you can add annotations to your documents by placing a unique character (or string of characters) before the annotation, thus allowing you to use the Search Text ... Search String... from the Documents menu bar to code the annotations after you import the documents. (Also see String Searches in Chapter 7).
  3. you can use Command Files (Chapter 8) to automate coding using string searches.

The Document Annotations node has the same characteristics and functions as the other types of nodes therefore allowing you to search and make reports about annotations in your data. Figure 33 below illustrates some of the available options for making node reports.

Figure 33. Make Node Report - dialogue window

For example, if you have many documents you can generate a report that illustrates which documents include annotations. In the Node Explorer window click the Make Report button and choose the first option, Show general data - With document summary. Alternatively, you can use the Make Report function with the option to Show references for this node - With Text.

You can also use the IndexSystem Search tools (Chapter 9) to Intersect the Document Annotations node with some aspect of your Base data, such as age or gender and locate selected annotations for males, for 20-year olds, for women age 30-40, or for some other permutation of your data.

Using the Restrict option in an IndexSystem search allows you to include or exclude all annotations or only annotations in specified documents.



Copyright Bobbi A. Kerlin, Ph.D.
http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/nudist/
Last updated February 11, 2002