It's been some time since I analysed any data. For the last few projects I used MaxQDA, a neat little piece of software that I installed on my first netbook which was one of these:
I bought it nine years ago when I first started working for ICAEW and it cost more than the Mac I've just bought! But it fitted in my handbag and meant that I could work easily in the Members and Guests room at Chartered Accountants Hall (which is now the Business Centre, with lots of PCs available and none of the old comfy sofas that one often found aged members snoozing in). I could also work on the bus to and from London because the two bus companies were among the earliest public transport to offer free Wi-fi access. I used it a lot so I think the expense was justified. It still works, but slowly, running XP. It's had a couple of new batteries over the years but I put it away at the point where a charge was only lasting a couple of hours, compared with the eight or more when it was new. And I inherited a newer, lighter Vaio model from Son.
I managed to transfer all the data from it to the newer model but couldn't get MaxQDA to run. I had a note of the code but it wouldn't work. And I haven't needed it lately. But now I've transferred over to Macs. You'd think there would be plenty of CAQDAS stuff for Macs. But there isn't. MaxQDA for Mac is due out later this year, and looks expensive. I've looked at some other software but it's either very user unfriendly or costs a lot. So for the moment it looks like back to highlighting and annotating Word docs. Still, it could be worse: the version of Word I used when I wrote my PhD thesis didn't even have a highlight function....
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