Selections

Annotating your sources with codes results in a "selection" (as defined by REFI). In text sources, selections are defined by a range (from start index to end index; indexes inclusive), depicted by the pattern <start index>:<end index>.

Consider the following sentence:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The sentence itself is 45 characters long, starting at index 0 and ending at index 44. If you'd select the word 'fox', the range would be defined as 16:19, because it starts at index 16 and spans over three characters, thus ending on index 19.

Note, we purposely decided against lines as measurement of selection positions.

Why does the index start at zero?

If you wonder why it starts at zero instead of one, there are two answers.

The simple answer: computers naturally count from 0, and it would be highly prone to errors if OpenQDA would instead count from 1, because any operation on selections would have to transform indexes by offset, before computing.

If you are even more curious about the reason, why computers start counting at zero, please read the following answer and the original paper by famous computer science pioneer Edsger W. Dijkstra.

Assign codes

There are multiple ways to assign selections. The easiest one is to select a range (click and drag the mouse cursor) of text and then click on the code you want to assign.

Another way is to select a range then open the selection menu by right-clicking on that selected range. There you can also select the codes from the list by clicking on the intended one.

The selection is now colored with the color of the related code. You can hover your mouse cursor over the text in order to reveal the range and related code's name.

Alternatively you can also right-click on the selection to reveal such information or execute actions (assign another code to selection, delete selection).

In a collaborative project you will also see who assigned the selection.

NOTE

For now there is full transparency for collaborative selections. In future releases we will provide multiple collaboration modes to support transparent coding, as well as independent coding (inter coder reliability).

Additionally, the selection is added to the code in the left panel's code list. You can reveal it by clicking on the selections list button, right to the code entry. This will collapse a panel, listing all selections related to the given code.

Replacing a selection with a new code

If you right-click on a selection you will see the selection menu. There you are able to select a new code for the given selection. Click on the button with the exchanging arrows to reveal the list of codes and select a new code. The selection range will remain the same but the color and related code will update to the new selected one.

Overlapping selections

OpenQDA supports overlapping selections of arbitrary depth. In such case, the overlap will not be assigned a color, but a white background with a border instead. Hovering or right-clicking this range will reveal all involved selections, including their range and related code.

Manage Notes for Selections

You can also manage Notes for selections, which are displayed as a list in the selection entry. The number of Notes is displayed next to the chat bubble icon.

NOTE

Notes for Selections exist only for the given selection, so they are not related to the Code itself but to the specific assignment of the code to the source. Team-shared Notes for a Selection do only show up, if the selection is also shared with the team.

NOTE

Do not confuse the Selection Notes with the Code Notes. The Selection Notes will not count up the numbers next to the Code Notes.

Notes in the Selection Menu

If you right-click on a selection you will see the selection menu. There you can also manage notes the same way you do in the Code menu.

Notes for Selections in the Editor

If a paragraph contains a Selection with Notes, you will see a black underline of the selection, as well as a black background of the paragraph number.

Deleting a selection

If you right-click on a selection you will see the selection menu. There you are able to select a new code for the given selection. Click on the button with the trash icon in order to delete the selection for the given range.

WARNING

You will not be asked to confirm the deletion.