Concept
Coding strips
The coloured bars beside a paper that show every coded passage, where codes overlap, and the edge markers that jump to the next coded passage.
When you code a paper, a column called Coding strips sits beside its text. It works like coloured tabs in the margin of a printed paper: you can see at a glance what you have coded, and where.
One lane per code
Each code in your codebook has its own lane, in the codebook's order and in the code's colour. Every coded passage draws a thin bar in its code's lane, at the same height as the passage in the text. A long passage gives a long bar.
The strips scroll with the paper, so the bars always line up with the text beside them.
Labels, not just colours
Colour alone is easy to misread, so each group of bars carries a label with the code's name in its colour and a short note:
- p.4 · 2: on page 4, two passages have this code.
- p.4 · overlap: on page 4, this passage also carries another code. Overlapping codes are normal in qualitative work: one sentence can be about both motivation and assessment.
- ✦ suggested: a passage the AI suggested and you haven't reviewed yet. Its bar is paler until you accept it. See Suggest codes with AI.
Point and jump
Hover over a bar or a label to highlight its passage in the text. Click it to scroll to the passage and open it, where you can change its code, write a memo or delete it.
The edge markers
Coded passages are often pages apart. When there are coded passages above or below what you can see, a marker sits at the top or bottom edge of the strips: an arrow, the nearest passage's code and its page, and how many more lie that way (for example, ↓ Motivation p.9 · 3 more). Click it to jump straight to that passage, even several pages away.
Before you have coded anything
A paper with no coded passages shows a short how-to in the strips column: "No coded passages in this paper yet. Select a passage, then choose a code, and its strip appears here."