Step by step
Code your papers by hand
Select a passage, give it a code, and watch your codebook and coding strips grow.
- Time
- 3 minutes
- Steps
- 6
Coding is how you turn a pile of papers into themes: you mark passages and give each one a short label, a code, such as "Teacher workload" or "Peer feedback". Later you group your codes into themes on the Synthesis Map.
Coding by hand is free and works on every plan, even offline.
Step 1Open Coding
In your project, open the Analysis lens and choose Coding. You see the project's papers, each with how many passages and codes it has so far. Your Codebook is in the sidebar on the left.
Step 2Choose a paper
Choose a paper from the list (or type in Search papers). It opens in its own layout, with the Coding strips column beside it.
Step 3Select a passage
Drag across the words you want to code, as you would to highlight them. When you let go, a small box opens beside the selection: Code the selected passage.
Tip: with the keyboard, select the text, then press Alt+C (Option+C on a Mac).
Step 4Pick a code, or create one
Type to search your codes and choose one. To make a new code, type its name and choose New code “…” (or press Enter). New codes join the codebook in their own colour.
Step 5See its strip appear
The passage is now coded: it is tinted in the code's colour, and a bar appears in its lane of the Coding strips, labelled with the code's name and page. The code's count in the codebook goes up. See Coding strips.
Step 6Open a coded passage
Click a coded passage (or its strip) to open it. Here you can write a Memo (your own note, never sent to the AI), Change code, Open in PDF, or Delete passage.
What's next
- Build and tidy your codebook: colours, child codes, definitions, merge and split.
- Suggest codes with AI on the Student and Researcher plans.
- Synthesis map: group your codes into themes.