Chapter 4
Lines as Text Units

The Line is the most commonly used text unit.

The placement of a hard carriage return in your document determines which size text unit you use in your project. If you want to use 'lines' as your text unit each line must end with a hard carriage return.

When you use lines as your text unit you can highlight a line of text and code the concept or idea contained in the line. If the concept you want to code extends over two or more lines then you can highlight the desired number of lines. When you choose lines as your text unit you will be able to highlight and code only lines, not portions thereof.

One limitation of choosing 'lines' as your text unit is that the text search feature of NUD.IST will not be able to locate phrases that extend across two lines. As long as you understand this limitation, you can adjust your search strategies accordingly.

If you've decided to use 'lines' as your text unit then you're ready to learn how to format (prepare) your documents before importing them into NUD.IST.

Now it's time to make a decision. To continue choose one of the following two options:

  1. If your document has uneven line lengths (see Figure 23 below) then go to Uneven Line Lengths, and learn how to do some preliminary formatting to tidy up your documents.

    I am just beginning to analyze my data on my
    dissertation
    relating to developing on-line learning
    communities.
    I have several sources of data.

    What is the best way to set up these different
    sources of
    data within NUD.IST?

    Figure 23. Example document with uneven line lengths.

    OR CHOOSE

  2. If your document doesn't have these uneven line lengths (or if you'd prefer to ignore them) then skip ahead to Saving Documents.

 


Copyright Bobbi A. Kerlin, Ph.D.
http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/nudist/
Last updated February 10, 2002