Teamwork
Many projects involve multiple researchers working together. The simplest way for team members to collaborate on a project, is to work with a single project file—however only one user can open and work with the project at any point in time.
If more than one user wants to work on a project at the same time, you can establish a 'master' project, and then give a copy of the master project to each team member. The team members work in the copied projects while you work in the master project. At regular intervals, import your team members' work into the master project.
Each team member can have their own user profiles in the project, however, users are not 'authenticated', so team members must take care to use the correct user profile.
We recommend that all team members use the same version of the software. We do not recommend working in teams with some members using the Windows platform and others using the Mac platform due to some known limitations and issues. Converting projects between Windows and Mac
When you first start NVivo, you are prompted to set up your default NVivo user profile. When you work in a project, this user profile is used to create your project user profile. If each team member accesses the project using their own user profile, you can monitor the work done by different team members.
If you change your default NVivo user profile, the next time you work in your project, a new project user profile will be created. Work you do from this point onwards will be associated with the new project user profile.
If you accidentally create two separate profiles in your project, you can merge the two user profiles, by removing one of the project user profiles and assigning all associated project content to the other user.
If team members login to a computer using a shared user account, then—if you want to be able to track their work individually in a project—it is important that each person uses their own NVivo user profile.
Each team member can create their own user profile and should ensure they use the correct user profile whenever they access the project. When a team member opens the project, they can check to see which user profile is currently in use. If they are not using the correct user profile, they can switch user profiles without closing the project.
You can also turn on the automatic prompt for user option, so that team members are prompted to enter their user account whenever they launch NVivo. When one team member finishes working with the project, they should exit NVivo, so that the next user is forced to launch NVivo and will be prompted to enter their user profile.
- A 'Read/Write' password—allows full access to the project.
- A 'Read Only' password—allows users to view the project. This password also allows users to copy your project or import data from your project into another project.
Set project passwords in Project Properties—click File > Project Properties.