Merging and Organizing Nodes

Once you have gotten started coding in NVivo, you might want to consider organizing your codes. Below you will find step-by-step instructions on how to organize and merge codes in NVivo.

Top Level Codes and Child Codes

A common way to organize a coding scheme is by organizing it into main codes and sub codes. In NVivo these are called Top Level Codes and Child Codes. You can easily turn a code into a Child Code by dragging the code to the desired Top Level Code. To revert this change, drag the Child Code to "Codes" in the menu on the left. This will turn the Child Code into a normal code.

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Open Coded Material for a Top Level Code and all its Child Codes

If you want to open all the coded material for a given Top Level Code and all its Child Codes at the same time, right-click the Top Level Code and click "Aggregate Coding from Children". This option can be turned on and off. If this option is turned on you will be able to open all coded material for the Top Level Code and all its Child Codes at the same time by double clicking the Top Level Code. The Top Level Code's "Reference" field will also summarize all references for the Top Level Code and the Child Codes.

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Merging Codes

If you want to merge some of your codes, you can do this as follows:

Right-click the code you want to merge with another code and click "Cut"
Select the other code, right-click and select "Merge into Selected Code ..:"

Warning! This operation can only be undone immediately (CTRL-Z) and cannot be undone the next time you open your Nvivo project.

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