Emails

Emails are imported as PDFs, and any attachments are also included.

When you import emails, NVivo creates cases and relationships for the sender and recipients; and classifies the cases and email file.

Importing emails and creating cases and relationships.

1 The email is imported as a PDF file and assigned a classification of Email Message. Any supported attachments are also imported and placed in a folder called Email Attachments.

2 A case is created for the sender, and the email is coded to this case. The case is classified as Person with their email address as an attribute value.

3 A case is created for each recipient (including anyone on the CC list), and classified as Person—with the email address as an attribute value.

4 A directed relationship is created between the sender and each recipient, with a type of Emails to, and the email is coded to the relationship.

Import emails

Results of the import process

Work with emails

When you open the email in Detail View, the header details of the email (like sender, receiver, date and subject) are shaded in gray. These details are recorded as attribute values in the file classification. If there is a long chain of emails in the one message, the header details of all previous emails are treated as content and are not shaded in gray.

Emails header details are recorded as attribute values.

Since email files are imported in PDF format, you cannot edit them, but you can:

  • Code selected content to thematic nodes or case nodes that represent people, places or other entities
  • Record your thoughts and ideas by annotating selected content
  • Make connections to other files by adding see also links to selected content

NOTE  Word Frequency Queries and Text Search Queries will pick up email information that may not be meaningful to your analysis, like names and email addresses. To avoid this, code the email body and then run queries on nodes or cases that code the email content rather than the entire email file.