How can I create views in ATLAS.ti Web?

Create and export diverse reports of your data in the Views section to examine code distributions and frequencies across your documents

Using views to query your data

ATLAS.ti Web has a special section dedicated to generating and exporting reports that are called views. In the Views section of your project, you can visually explore the frequencies of your codes and how they are distributed throughout your documents. In other words, once you have coded your data, you can query and retrieve your results through views. A great benefit of ATLAS.ti Web's views is that you can save multiple reports to capture different queries. Thus, you could save a view for each research question you may be interested in, easily edit any view in the future if you wish, and, most crucially, these saved views will automatically update as you continue coding your data to reflect the corresponding results.

The code distribution view show how many data quotations are associated with each code, and the code-document table displays frequencies of codes across documents. Thus, you can use code distribution reports to explore how the data linked to each code, and you can use code-document tables to examine where in your data the different codes are appearing.

Access the Views page in the left-hand toolbar (see below). Then, click on “+ New View” to create a new view

Code distribution view

A code distribution chart displays all the codes in descending order of their frequency (i.e., the codes with the most associated quotations appear first). Below the chart, you can see all of the data quotations. By clicking on any code in the chart, ATLAS.ti Web will filter the quotations below to only show quotations that are associated to your selected code(s).

You can choose whether you would like to view the results as a bar chart, donut chart, or tree map. You could save a screenshot of the graphic if you would like to include the image in research reports or presentations. The resulting quotations can be downloaded as an Excel report. 

A powerful way to query your data is to apply filter rules. Click on the “Filter Quotations” button (in the upper righthand corner), and then you can select the information by which you want to filter the quotations. You can filter by the content of quotations, document name, document group, code, code group, comment, or creator.

You can add as many filter rules as you would like. The more specific the criteria, the more relevant the data displayed will be.

You can also add a comment to this view by clicking on the three dots in the top-right corner. The comment space offers a perfect space to note down your research question (or the purpose for which you created this view).

You can also choose how you want to sort the resulting quotations by clicking on the header row at the top of the column you want to sort. Finally, you can save the report to your computer by clicking on the download icon in the top-right corner. This will generate an Excel spreadsheet of the data quotations, their associated codes and comments, and the document from which each quotation comes.

Code-document view

You can construct code-document tables to explore code frequencies across your documents. In other words, the code-document table lets you see where in your project the different codes are being used.

From the code-document table, you can add codes, code groups, documents, and/or document groups. For example, if we wanted to determine which themes are discussed by different groups of people, we can select codes that represent our themes and document groups for each group of people we have interviewed.

The code-document table then shows how many times each code was used across all the data from the different groups of people, providing a helpful global overview and permitting comparisons across the data. With this tool, you can construct tables that show the frequencies of your codes and/or code groups, so you can see how many times a certain code (or code group) was used in a particular document (or document group). As always, ATLAS.ti also keeps you close to the data: Click on any cell in the table to view the quotations behind the numbers.

You can also edit the name and comment of this table by clicking on the “information” button at the top of the screen. The comment space of the report view offers a perfect space to note down your research question (or the purpose for which you created this view).

You can also choose how you want to sort the resulting quotations by clicking on the header row at the top of the column you want to sort. Finally, you can save the report to your computer by clicking on the download icon in the top-right corner. This will generate an Excel spreadsheet of the data quotations, their associated codes and comments, and the document from which each quotation comes.

Code co-occurrence view

The Code Co-Occurrence view shows the frequencies of co-occurrence in a multitude of ways, for instance a matrix similar to a correlation matrix that you may know from statistical software, a Sankey diagram, or a force-directed graph.

The aim is to relate codes to each other that have been applied either to the same quotations or to overlapping quotations. You can find out which topics are mentioned together or are in proximity to each other. Thus, the results depend on how you have coded the data.

When creating a code co-occurrence table, click on "Code" after "Add Row:" to bring up a list of possible codes to analyze. Scroll through the list or enter a search term to find and toggle the relevant codes you want to include in the table. Repeat the same process for codes that represent the columns in your table.

The resulting table will list the frequencies for each pair of codes, or the number of times that both codes are applied to the same data (in which case, they co-occur).

Clicking on any cell in the table will bring up the relevant segments of text in which the two selected codes co-occur. The resulting list will show each data segment, the document in which it is located, and any codes or comments already attached to it. From here, you can view the details or add codes or comments to any individual data segment in the list without having to navigate to the relevant document.

Concepts view

The Concepts view is a useful report to illustrate what words and phrases appear most prominently in your textual data. With this tool, you can code entire segments of data containing the same word or phrase, no matter where it is in your project, and create a thematic analysis faster than before.

You can choose from codes, code groups, documents, or document groups to analyze in the Concepts view. Toggle the entities you want to include in the analysis in the respective pop-up menus.

The resulting view will look like a word cloud, with the most frequently occurring concepts appearing larger in text and closer to the center of the cloud.

Clicking on each word in the cloud will bring up the relevant segments of text that include the selected concept. The resulting list will show each data segment, the document in which it is located, and any codes or comments already attached to it. From here, you can view the details or add codes or comments to any individual data segment in the list without having to navigate to the relevant document.

The Concepts view also allows for auto-coding of multiple data segments at once. Simply toggle the checkboxes of the segments you wish to code, press the settings button (indicated by three dots) in the resulting text box that appears, and select "+ Add code" to bring up the code dialog box.

You can also click on "Quote...results" in the top-right corner to bring up the code dialog box to code all of the results in the list at once.