Before you can start an analysis, you need to select the documents that should be included. The Analyse button becomes active only after at least one document has been selected.
- Click the checkbox in the upper-left corner of a document card to include it - a check mark confirms it's selected.
- Click Select All to include every document currently displayed in the project view.
Another way to define the set of documents for analysis is by using Filter, described below. This is especially useful in larger projects: when working with 10 or more documents, filters are often the easier way to create a meaningful subset. In smaller projects, manual selection is usually quicker.
Use manual selection when you want to choose a few specific files directly. Use filters when you want to include documents based on shared characteristics, such as document type, profile data, or another defined subset.
Specifics when Analysing Spreadsheets Data
When you select an Excel file for analysis, QInsights asks you to select which columns should be included in the analysis. This step is necessary because it often doesn't make sense to analyze all columns together - for example, all answers to different open-ended questions at once.
You'll see the available data columns for the selected Excel file. Use the checkboxes to choose the columns that contain the text you want to analyze - select individual columns, or use Select All where it makes sense to include every available text column at once. Adding the Case ID column to the analysis lets you include the case ID as a reference if you ask for direct quotes.
After making your selection, click Select to continue with the analysis.
Selecting Documents or Respondent Characteristics Via Filters
This option requires that you've already created profiles - see Data Context.
To set one or more profile characteristics as a filter:
- Navigate to the Filter button on the right-hand side of the screen.
- Select either Document Filter or Respondent Filter.
- A window opens listing the available profile characteristics. You can select values across multiple characteristics at once (for example, Gender: male and Marital status: single) - each selection activates automatically.
- Click Apply.
All documents that pass the filter remain in subsequent analyses; everything else is filtered out and hidden from view.
When setting a characteristic of type text, all values you've entered are shown as options. For text or Boolean characteristics, the options are True or False. For a characteristic of type number, you can choose: is, different, less than, greater than, or from-to.
The filter you've applied is displayed at the top of the document list in your project, and in any analysis you now run. The number of filters applied is shown in the Active Filters tab.
A further example is:
Removing a Filter
To remove a filter, click the Filters tab, select Document or Speaker Filter, click Remove all filters, and click Apply.
With documents selected and any filters in place, move on to The Five Analysis Options - An Overview to choose how you want to analyze your data. See also Prompting Strategies - Querying All Data vs. Subsets for guidance on when a targeted subset produces better results than querying everything at once.