Explore diagrams

Explore diagrams focus on a single project item, showing all of the items connected to that item. The diagram is dynamic, allowing you to step forward and back through your project data to explore the connections between items.

An explore diagram starts with a selected project item in focus. All of its connected items are displayed around it.

The power of this diagram is that it is dynamic. You can select any of the connected files, codes or cases and refocus the diagram on that project item, generating a new diagram showing all of its connected items.

Your history of interacting with the diagram is remembered—letting you step forward and back through your project data exploring the connections between items.

Example of moving through items in an Explore diagram.

For example, this diagram is initially exploring the case Dorothy. She is coded to the Positive attitude code. You can explore this code to see who else has expressed a positive attitude.

You can change the type of associated items that are displayed on the diagram—for example, show child codes and hide memo links.

Explore diagrams are not retained in your project when you close them or when you close NVivo. If you want to keep a particular diagram, you could export it as an image file which you could then insert into a document or memo. Alternatively, you could copy & paste it into another application—for example, into a Word document.

What can I use explore diagrams for?

You can use explore diagrams to see:

  • Codes that have coded a particular file—for example, What codes have coded Dorothy's interview? Next, you might explore one particular code to see what other files it has coded.
  • All the files coded to the parent code Attitude. From here, you can explore each child code to see what different attitudes your cases have been coded to.
  • A visual display of the all the connected project items to a selected file, code or case.

Generate an explore diagram

  1. In List View, select the file, code or case you want to explore.
  2. On the Explore tab, in the Visualizations group, click Explore Diagram.

Click the Undock icon (in the top right of the Detail View) to open the file in the Detail View into its own window, making more space to work. See Customize the workspace