Using A Word Processor To Tag and Retrieve Blocks of Text: Article

10.
1177/1525822X03261269
Ryan
FIELD / TAGGING AND RETRIEVING BLOCKS OF TEXT
METHODS ARTICLE
Using a Word Processor to

Tag and Retrieve Blocks of Text
GERY W. RYAN
RAND Corporation
Sophisticated text management software is currently available for doing thematic or

code-based analysis, the principal procedural approach to qualitative data analysis.
Such packages allow researchers to tag and retrieve contiguous blocks of data,
maintain complex codebooks, manage large corpora of data, and display search
results in interesting ways. For simple projects, however, with a few themes and a
small number of texts, a complex program that requires a large investment of time to
learn may be more technology than one needs. This article provides tips for making
better use of the humble word processor, in this case, Microsoft Word. The use of
text-formatting features, find-and-replace command, and Microsoft Word’s macro
programming language can be used to mark themes in texts and retrieve exemplars
of themes on demand.
Keywords: qualitative analysis; text analysis; computer assisted qualitative data

analysis systems (CAQDAS)
Today, sophisticated text management software is widely available for

doing thematic or code-based analysis, the principal procedural approach to
qualitative data analysis. These software packages allow researchers to tag
and retrieve contiguous blocks of data, maintain complex codebooks, man-
age large corpora of data, and display search results in interesting ways. For
simple projects, however, with a few themes and a small number of texts, a
complex program that requires a large investment of time to learn may be
more technology than one needs. This may be particularly true for short-run
market or applied research (e.g., consultancy, evaluation studies) or where
the analysis needs to be done by participants (or stakeholders, in the jargon of
some fields) who are unfamiliar with the basics of qualitative analysis. One
potential solution is to make better use of the humble word processor.
Early in the microcomputer revolution, Gillespie (1986) noted that word
processor macros could be constructed to handle repetitive tasks in qual-
itative data analysis. Since Gillespie made his suggestion, better word-
processing programs have been developed and the macro-programming
Field Methods, Vol. 16, No. 1, February 2004 109–130

DOI: 10.1177/1525822X03261269
© 2004 Sage Publications
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110 FIELD METHODS
language of top-end word processors, such as Microsoft Word and

WordPerfect, have become quite sophisticated. (See Bernard [1991] and
Ryan [1993] for other examples of using macros for text management.)
Later, I will offer some macros for Microsoft Word that can be used for mark-
ing themes in texts and retrieving exemplars of themes on demand. But first,
some background.
GENERAL APPROACHES TO CODING

IN QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Coding serves two purposes in qualitative analysis: (1) Codes act as tags
to identify text in a corpus for later retrieval or indexing. Tags are not associ-
ated with any fixed units of text. They can mark simple phrases or extend
across multiple pages. (2) Codes act as values assigned to fixed units of data
(see Bernard 1991, 2002; Seidel and Kelle 1995). In this case, codes are nom-
inal, ordinal, or ratio scale values that are applied to nonoverlapping units of
texts (such as paragraphs, pages, or documents), episodes, cases, or persons.
Codes as tags are associated with grounded theory (e.g., Glaser and Strauss
1967; Strauss and Corbin 1990; Dey 1993). Codes as values are associated
with classic content analysis and content dictionaries (e.g., Berelson 1952;
Pool 1959; Krippendorf 1980; Weber 1990). The two types of code are not
mutually exclusive, but the use of one gloss, code, for both concepts can be
misleading.
Table 1 illustrates the difference between codes as tags and codes as val-
ues. The three illness narratives come from undergraduates at a Midwestern
university. Signs and symptoms are tagged with italicized text; treatments
and behavioral modifications are tagged with underlining, and diagnosis is
tagged with small caps. Note that the tags vary in size from a single word
(cold) to several lines.
The columns to the right of the narratives represent value codes. Each nar-
rative is coded as a separate unit. The variable diagnosis takes on nominal/
categorical values such as cold or sinus/upper respiratory/asthma. Signs and
symptoms and treatments are dummy variables, with dichotomous values
(yes or no). Duration is coded in days, an interval-level variable.
Assigning values to a unit of data is inherently an interpretive, qualitative
act. Of course, sometimes the interpretation is obvious. When a respondent
says in a narrative that he had a cough, runny nose, and headache, it is clear
that we would code the variable coughing as a yes. Coding decisions are not
always so simple. In one narrative, the respondent says, “Then the next min-
ute it was like I was in an ice-cube bath!” Coding this as “having chills”

TABLE 1
Example of Tagging and Value Coding
Signs and Symptoms Treatment
Cough
Sore Throat
Vomiting
Fever
Chills
Fatigue
HR
OTC
WM
CAM
Duration
ID Sex Narratives Diagnosis
108 M SINUS/UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTION/ASTHMA. Drainage into lungs, Sinus/upper Y N N N N Y N Y Y N 3 days

down back of throat, lower breathing capacity, used peak flow meter, respiratory or
shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, wanted to sleep more. Annually oc- infection/ 14
curring. Wheezing, used inhaler three times a day, about every four hours. asthma days
Had symptoms for three days before going to health center. Coughing
up phlegm, sinus headache, ears popped, runny nose. Amoxicillin for two
weeks. Dizzy, lightheaded. Lungs felt tight, harder to breathe.
116 F The last time I had a COLD my throat was sore. It felt like I had needles in Cold ? Y N Y Y N N N N N ?
my tonsils. Every time I would swallow it felt like needles were digging in
farther and farther. It also felt as though my throat was closing up making
it hard to breathe. My nose was stuffed up but it was running like a faucet.
There was a lot of pressure in my head like my head was in a vice. I had a
horrible headache like someone was smashing my head with a hammer.
Every muscle in my body ached. It felt like I couldnt move. I had a 102
degree fever. Sometimes I was so hot I felt like I was on fire. Then the next
minute it was like I was in an ice-cube bath! I had difficulty breathing not
only because my throat felt like it was closing but also because I felt like
someone was sitting on my chest.
118 F The last time I had a COLD was back in November, I think. I was tired, Cold Y Y N N N N Y N N N 5 days
crabby, had a sore throat, runny nose, and a bit of a cough. I remember
going to Wal-Mart to look for the new Cold-Eeze throat lozenges that my
mother swears by. They have zinc in them and are supposed to reduce the
lengthof your cold. I couldn’t find them at Wal-Mart because they are a
pretty hot item. So I think I just suffered this way throughout the cold with

no medication because I’m not a big believer in their benefits (unless, of
course, my mother swears by it). I did have some peppermint tea that the
midwife at work gave me (I work as an office assistant at a birth center).
I tried to get more sleep than usual, but I didnt take any time off of work
or school. I remember trying not to kiss my boyfriend (thats pretty tough,
you know!) so that he wouldn’t get sick, too. My cold lasted probably five
days. It was about the fourth time I had been sick that semester, which is quite
111
unusual for me. I usually only get sick only once or twice a year.
NOTE: Signs and symptoms are in italics. Treatments and behavioral modifications are underlined. Diagnoses are in small caps. HR = home remedies; OTC = over the counter;
WM = Western Medical; CAM = complementary and alternative medicine.
112 FIELD METHODS
requires an inference, an interpretation. And if you think this is a high infer-

ence, just think of all the subtle (and not so subtle) ways there are to say that a
person vomited.
The interpretive act of assigning a value also requires that the investigator
recognize ambiguity and bring his or her own experiences and knowledge to
bear. For example, in another narrative, it is unclear just how long the illness
lasted. The respondent reports that he waited three days before going to the
health center, but then he reports that he took amoxicillin for two weeks.
From our experience, we might know that two weeks is the time frame for a
standard antibiotic regimen and that the duration of the signs and symptoms
may have been much shorter.
There are advantages to each coding system. Tagging retains the richness
of the data, in that nothing is lost. If you want to mark and retrieve exactly
what people said, then tagging is the way to go. Value coding is clearly a
data-reduction step, but it allows us to make systematic comparison across
units. If you want to know what percentage of narratives mentioned fever and
chills, or if you want to know whether having fever and chills is correlated
with seeking treatment at a clinic or a doctor’s office, then you simply have to
do some sort of value coding. An ideal system would allow you to do both.
In the rest of this article, I describe techniques for tagging text. La Pelle
(2004 [this issue]) describes techniques for assigning value codes to text.
APPROACHES TO TAGGING AND RETRIEVING
Over the years, researchers have developed many ways to tag and retrieve
themes from data. Before computers, we wrote notes in the margins, high-
lighted texts with colored pencils and markers, and cut and sorted multiple
copies of notes and transcripts. (These are still good ways to start a project.)
High-tech solutions to the tag-and-retrieve problem in precomputer days
involved edge-notched cards and knitting needles. (One famous system was
the McBee Cards. See Bolton [1984] for a discussion of how these systems
were used in the coding and managing of field notes.)
The simplest tagging system is an index, like the one at the back of a book.
An index provides a reference table that links themes (subject headings) with
pages in a text. Indexes, however, do not specify where on the page any
theme occurs, nor do they tell us what other themes are located nearby.
With point markers (another tagging system), you place codes directly
into the text to indicate that the theme occurs “around here.” Notes scribbled
in the margins are point markers. The retrieval process consists of extracting
chunks of text (e.g., sentences or paragraphs) above and below the marker.

Ryan / TAGGING AND RETRIEVING BLOCKS OF TEXT 113
Deciding how much text to extract is important: Picking too much produces
extraneous information, and picking too little produces truncated hits.
Contiguous tagging solves this problem by linking themes with contigu-
ous blocks of data. In written data, blocks include words, phrases, sentences,
paragraphs, or entire pages. For sound and video, blocks mark segments of
tape. For visual data, blocks mark segments of an image. Using colored pen-
cils to underline sections of text or circle portions of an image is an example
of contiguous tagging.
Below, I outline three approaches to tagging and retrieving texts with
Microsoft Word. (Similar results can be achieved with other word proces-
sors, such as WordPerfect.) The first approach allows you to tag and retrieve
contiguous blocks of text but is best used with small codebooks (i.e., less than
ten themes). The second solution allows for larger, more complex codebooks
but limits you to using point markers. The last approach allows for contigu-
ous coding and large codebooks but requires more programming steps.
CONTINUOUS TAGGING FOR SMALL CODEBOOKS
Tagging with Text Attributes

Since at least version 1997, Microsoft programmers have included a fea-
ture in Word’s search command that lets users locate examples of text char-
acteristics such as bold, italics, and underline. This means you can mark a
text related to Theme1 with bold and then retrieve instances of Theme1 by
searching the entire document for bolded text. The same works for over-
strike, all the colors of the palette, and highlighting. You can tag the same text
with several themes by choosing characteristics that can co-occur, such as
bold, underline, double underline, overstrike, and italics. If the themes are
mutually exclusive, you can use colored fonts and highlighting. Use of color,
of course, is not for those who are color-blind.
Searching for Text Attributes

To search for text attributes (underline, bold, color) or combinations of
these attributes, do the following:
1. Type Ctrl F (find).

2. Click on the More button.
3. Click on the Format button and select Font (a window similar to the one in
Figure 1 should appear).
4. Select all the attributes for which you want to search in the font dialogue box.
5. Click on OK.

114 FIELD METHODS
FIGURE 1
Word’s Find Font Characteristic Screen
6. Leave the Find What text box blank (this allows you to search across all text;
the attributes you selected will appear under this box).
7. Click on Find Next.
Word finds the next instance of the desired attribute(s). Note that Word will
highlight the block of text. If you close the Find dialogue box and hit Ctrl C,
the block of text will be copied into memory. You can then switch to a second
document, hit Ctrl V to paste the copied data, and then switch back to the
original document. (If you like using the mouse instead of commands such as
Ctrl C and Ctrl V, just click on Edit at the top of the document and choose
either “copy” or “paste.”)

You can automate this process with Word’s macro capability. Macros
allow users to record and play back a series of keystrokes or mouse clicks.
Before making a macro, it is good practice to run through the steps a couple
of times to make sure you consistently get the desired results.
Creating a Macro
The easiest way to create a macro is to turn on the macro recorder, run
through all the steps you want to do, and then turn off the macro recorder
(described below).
Before creating the macro, you need to do three things:
1. Open up your original document (the one that has been coded).
2. Open up a second, blank document. Save this blank document with the name
Hits.doc.
3. Return to the top of the original document.
Next we will build a macro that (1) locates the next chunk of text you have
marked in red to indicate a particular theme, (2) copies the red text to mem-
ory, (3) pastes it in the Hits.Doc document, and (4) returns you to the original
document:
1. Start recording a macro (Tools/Macro/Record New Macro).

2. Name the macro Find_Red.
3. Hit OK. (A little Macro toolbar should appear in the upper left of your docu-
ment, and the cursor should now have a cassette icon attached to it. You can
now begin recording.)
4. Hit Ctrl F (find).
5. Click on the More tab.
6. Click on the Format tab and select Font.
7. Under the font color pull-down menu, select red.
8. Click on OK.
10. Close the Find and Replace dialogue box.
11. Hit Ctrl C (copy). (This copies the red text into memory.)
12. Click on Windows in the top toolbar and select Document 2 (Hits.doc).
13. Hit Ctrl V (paste). (The copied red text should appear.)
14. Hit the Enter key a couple of times to add some blank lines.
15. Click on Windows in the top toolbar and select Document 1 (your original
data file).
16. Hit the right arrow key once. (This deselects the marked texts and moves the
cursor one position to the right so you are ready to search for the next texts.)
17. Click on the square in the Macro toolbox. (Alternatively, hit Tools/Macro/
Stop Recording.)

116 FIELD METHODS
You have now recorded a macro called Find_Red.
Running Macros, Creating Buttons, and Shortcut Keys

To run the macro again, do the following:
1. Select Tools/Macros.
2. Select Find_Red.
3. Hit Run.
The macro should find and paste the next instance of red text into Hits.doc.
To save time, you can either place a button on a toolbar for the macro or
define a shortcut key for it. This can be done either before you record your
keystrokes or afterward.
To assign the macro to a either a toolbar or a specific keystroke before
recording your keystrokes, do the following:

2. Click on either the Assign macro to: Toolbar or Keyboard button.
3. Select the toolbar or keystroke you wish to use.
4. Hit OK and follow the procedures describe above.
To place the macro onto a tool bar after you have recorded the keystrokes,
do the following:
1. Right click on any blank portion of a toolbar.

2. Select Customize.
3. Click on the Command tab.
4. Select Macros.
5. Find the file for Find_Red (it should be called Normal.NewMacros.
Find_Red).
6. Drag the file up to a place on the tool bar (you must drop it on an active portion
of a toolbar; do not try to drop it on a blank space on the screen).
7. You should now see a button with the name Normal.NewMacros.Find_Red.
8. To change the name of the button, right click on it and type in a new name,
then hit Enter when you are done.
Now to find, copy, and paste the next instance of red, all you have to do is
to click the button.
To assign a macro to a shortcut key after recording your key strokes, per-
form the following steps:
1. Select Tools/Customize.
2. Click on the Keyboard button at the bottom of the window.

3. In the Categories window, select Macros.

4. In the Macros window, select the macro you want to play as a shortcut key (in
this case, Find_Red).
5. In the window titled “Press new shortcut key,” type in the shortcut key combi-
nation. For example, if you want the macro to play each time you use Alt + X,
then hold down the Alt key and hit X. You see Alt + X appear in the Shortcut
window.
6. Click Assign.
7. When you are done assigning shortcut keys, hit Close, Close.
To run the macro, hold down the Alt key and hit X.
Paragraphs of Text That Do Not Wrap

When searching for attributes such as italics or bold, Word stops when it
encounters a hard return or blank line. For imported text that has hard returns
(text that does not wrap when you change the margins), you will need to
replace hard returns with soft returns if you want to do your retrieval as a con-
tinuous operation. The following sequence of find-and-replace commands
accomplishes this task.
Step 1:
• Find: ^p^p (^p is Words code for new paragraphs or hard returns)
• Replace: **pp**
Step 2:
• Find: ^p
• Replace: (hit space bar once)
Step 3:
• Find: **pp**
• Replace: ^p^p
This first step converts blank lines to **pp**, the second step converts single
hard returns to spaces, and the final step converts the **pp** back to blank
lines. I recommend running this procedure on all text before tagging it with
any of the Word features described here. This is especially critical if you are
working with colleagues and you are sharing texts. You never know when a
pesky hard return will creep into a text.
Simple Boolean Searches

Researchers often want to conduct simple Boolean searches such as find
all occurrences of themes “X and Y” or “X or Y.” Unfortunately, Boolean
logic is currently not an option in Word’s Find command. You can, however,
find such combinations by using a simple succession of steps. To find text

118 FIELD METHODS
marked by both Theme X and Theme Y, check multiple text attributes in the
Font Dialog box describe above. For example, checking bold and underline
locates all texts that are underlined and bolded. The simplest way to find text
marked by either Theme X or Theme Y is to search first on one theme, then
the next. All hits will be placed in the Hits Document. (Beware, though: You
might encounter duplicates if the same text is marked for both themes.)
Microsoft Word offers ten or so text attributes for marking themes (ital-
ics, bold, underline, double underline, strikethrough, shadow, and so on).
Themes also can be marked with combinations of attributes (e.g., bold and
strikethrough, underline and shadow, etc.). Such combinations, however,
tend to be more cumbersome and make it more difficult to search for overlap-
ping themes. If you anticipate building a longer codebook with subthemes,
then consider using a system of point markers.
POINT TAGGING FOR LARGER CODEBOOKS
With point markers, you place codes or mnemonics directly into the text
to indicate that the theme occurs “around here.” To use this system, read
through your document. Each time you find a place that is related to Theme1,
type in the corresponding mnemonic (e.g., [[Theme1]]). If the paragraph also
refers to Theme2, then embed the mnemonic for Theme2 as well. For addi-
tional examples of point markers, particularly those used for field notes, see
Ryan (1993).
You can make light work of the theme-marking chore by building a series
of little macros, one for each theme. You can assign each macro to a button
and place them all in a tool bar such as the one shown in Figure 2. Alterna-
tively, you assign each macro to a key, such as Alt J, or whatever. If you use
key combos, be sure not to use things such as Ctrl F (or you won’t be able to
use that combination to find things in texts) or Alt F (or you won’t be able to
open the File menu at the top left of the screen) using the pull-down menus.
You can, of course, assign a macro to Alt F and still open the File menu with
the mouse. For theme mnemonics, be sure to use characters such as double
square brackets [[ ]] that don’t occur anywhere in your text except for theme
markers. That way, when you look for the [[marriage]] theme, say, you won’t
find all the uses of the word marriage in your text, only the uses of the word
that mark a section of text as being about marriage.
To retrieve all the paragraphs that refer to Theme1, you can build a macro
that searches for the Theme1 mnemonic and copies a fixed chunk of text
(such as a paragraph, sentence, or line) to the second document.

FIGURE 2
Toolbar for Inserting Point Markers
First, make sure that both the original document and the Hits.Doc files are
open and that you are in the original document. Then do the following:

2. Name the macro Find_Theme1.
3. Hit OK. (A little Macro toolbar should appear in the upper left of your docu-
ment, and the cursor should now have a cassette icon attached to it. You can
now begin recording.)
4. Hit Ctrl F (find).
5. In the Find What: text box, type [[THEME1]] (or whatever mnemonic you are
looking for). (Be sure to include the mnemonic indicators, such as square
brackets, to avoid finding words in the original text; see above.)
7. Close the Find and Replace dialogue box.
8. Hold down the Shift key and hit the up arrow key (this will move the cursor to
the top of the paragraph).
9. Hold down the Ctrl and the Shift key simultaneously, and hit the down arrow
key (this will highlight the entire paragraph).
10. Hit Ctrl C (copy) (this copies the red text into memory).
11. Click on Windows in the top toolbar and select Document 2 (Hits.Doc).
12. Hit Ctrl V (paste) (the copied red text should appear).
13. Hit the Enter key a couple of times to add some blank lines.
14. Click on Windows in the top toolbar and select Document 1 (your original
data file).

120 FIELD METHODS
15. Hit the right arrow key once (this deselects the marked texts and moves the
cursor one position to the right so you are ready to search for the next texts).
16. Click on the Stop square in the Macro toolbox (alternatively, hit Tools/
Macro/Stop Recording).
You have now recorded a macro called THEME1. Whenever the macro
encounters a mnemonic for Theme1, it copies the entire paragraph to the sec-
ond document Hits.doc. If you want to pull larger chunks, say the paragraph
above and below the point marker, just increase the number of times you hit
the Ctrl Up and Ctrl Down arrow keys in steps 8 and 9. For smaller chunks,
you can use just the up and down arrows to move highlight blocks one or two
lines above and below the point marker.
SEARCHING FOR THEME FAMILIES
With point markers, you can use a hierarchical codebook and search for
families of themes. For example, suppose you built the following codebook:
Theme1
Theme1.aa
Theme1.ab
Theme1.ca
Theme1.cb
Theme2
Theme2.a
Theme2.ab
Theme3.da
To search for theme families (e.g., Theme1.aa, Theme1.ab, Theme1.ca,

etc.), you can use the wildcard option in Word’s Find command. After hitting
Ctrl F, click on the box in front of Use Wildcards. (If Use Wildcards does not
appear in the dialogue box, hit the More button.) “Options: Wildcards”
should now appear under the Find What text box. Then type in your wildcard
search string. Here are some examples you might want to use:
[[Theme* Finds all instances of all themes

[[Theme1* Finds all general and subthemes associated with Theme1
[[Theme1.* Finds all instances of subthemes for Theme1
[[Theme?.?b Finds Theme1.ab, Theme1.cb, and Theme2.ab
If you plan to use the wildcard option, do not use wildcard symbols such
as *, ?, –, @, !, , (, ), {, or } in your mnemonic coding conventions.

CONTIGUOUS CODING FOR

LARGE CODEBOOKS
For those who want to use a complex codebook but need the functionality
of contiguous tagging, a two-step process is required. First, indicate where a
text block begins and ends. Then you can locate these blocks and copy them
to a second document. Following the marking system suggested by Truex
(1993), I have written two macros to accomplish these tasks.
To tag a block of text, first select the text, then start the macro
Tag_Theme. A dialogue box like that in Figure 3 will appear and ask you
which theme you want to use. If you type in “Treat” and hit the OK button,
the macro will embed [[<Treat]] at the beginning of the selection and
[[>Treat]] at the end.
To find all instances of a theme, move the cursor to the top of the docu-
ment. Start the second macro, Find_Theme. A similar dialogue box will
appear and ask you what theme you want to find. The macro then searches
through the entire text and copies all hits to a file named Hits.doc. (The
Find_Theme macro won’t work unless the Hit.doc file is located in the
default directory. See note in Appendix B for more details.)
Since each task requires input from the user, I have written the macros in
Microsoft’s Visual Basic. The code appears in Appendices A and B. The
codes are also downloadable from www.qualquant.net.
To reproduce the macro in Appendix A on your own computer, do the
following:
1. Hit Alt F8 (Or Tools/Macro/Macros).

2. In the Macro Name text box, type in Tag_Themes.
3. Hit Create.
The Microsoft Visual Basic screen will appear showing the current mac-
ros you have stored on your computer. At the very bottom of your screen, you
should see the macro you just created: Tag_Themes. A horizontal line should
separate it from the other macros, and the following programming language
should appear below the line:
Sub Tag_Themes()
'
' Tag_Themes Macro
' Macro recorded [date] by [your name here]
'
End Sub

122 FIELD METHODS
FIGURE 3
Tag_Theme Dialogue Box
You have two options: (1) Retype the code exactly as it appears in Appen-
dix A (you can skip the comments demarked by a single quote at the end of
each line) or (2) copy the code from the URL above and paste it into the
macro-editing window. When you are done, hit Ctrl S (save) and close the
Visual Basic screen. Follow the same steps to create the macro in Appendix B
(you might want to name it Find_Themes). If you want to assign these mac-
ros to a toolbar or a shortcut key, use the steps described above.
This approach works well if you want to tag and retrieve specific text
within a paragraph or larger text chunks that extend across paragraphs. You
can also search for “X or Y” combinations by first searching on one theme
then another. Unfortunately, it is difficult to search for “X and Y” combina-
tions. Such searches require many steps depending on the degree to which
themes overlap or are nested entirely within each other and are probably eas-
ier to do manually.

COMPARING APPROACHES
When asked to recommend text analysis software, I typically respond

with a series of questions. First, “What is it that you are trying to do?” Many
simple tasks can be done with a word processor. If the job requires develop-
ing a complex codebook or requires displaying data and codes in graphical
format, then I usually recommend a dedicated text management program.
If, however, the principal objective is to mark themes for later retrieval
(which is often the case), I ask a second question: “How many documents
will you need to work with?” The techniques described here work with only
with one file at a time and do not search across files. If you have stored your
text in twenty-five files and want to find the same theme in each, you will
have to replicate the search task twenty-five times. To work around this prob-
lem, you might want to merge all your files into a single document with a
delimiter code between texts (such as ### or qqq, something that can never
appear in any other context) to indicate where one file ends and another
begins.
Another solution is to use a program such as DtSearch (http://www.
dtsearch.com/) or Windows Grep (http://www.wingrep.com/) that will pull
text between beginning and end markers across multiple files. (See Truex
[1993] for a review of how to accomplish this procedure with an older DOS
version of DtSearch.) People familiar with Unix will recognize Grep as a
powerful search command. It is not for the faint of heart, however, and some
familiarity with programming is helpful. If neither solution looks feasible,
you will probably need to use a dedicated text management program.
Finally, I ask, “How many codes/themes do you anticipate using?” If the
number of themes is relatively small (say, fewer than ten), consider marking
and retrieving themes based on text attributes. The approach is quite intuitive
(it resembles marking themes on paper with colored pencils), the mechanics
are easy (especially for people familiar with word-processing basics, which
means just about everyone these days), and search results return precise hits
(see Table 1). The downside is that the researcher must remember what
themes go with which attributes, and the size of the codebook is limited to the
number of text attributes available in Word.
For tasks that require larger codebooks, consider using either point mark-
ers or beginning and end markers. Point markers are easily embedded in a
document. Accompanying searches are simple, require little programming
skill, and allow wildcard searches. Once you have made a macro for each
theme (or theme family), the search process is semiautomated. The main
drawback with point markers is that the search results are often imprecise
(see Table 1 for an example). If a theme represents only a small portion of a

124 FIELD METHODS
text, searches that retrieve the paragraph in which the point marker is embed-
ded will be filled with extraneous text. On the other hand, if a theme extends
across multiple paragraphs, hits will be truncated (unless you have marked
each paragraph separately).
Using the two macros describe above to embed beginning and end mark-
ers in the text allows researchers to tag and retrieve text with the same preci-
sion they can obtain using text attributes. In addition, the markers make it
easy to locate where specific themes occur in a document. Instead of creating
a macro for each theme, the two generic macros handle codebooks of any size
and complexity. Although the macro programming appears daunting, the
code is available on the Web and can be readily copied into the macro editor.
This approach, however, does not yet allow the use of wildcard or “X and Y”
Boolean searches. (I say “not yet” because the capabilities of modern word
processors are upgraded with each new release, and this might well be among
the next things that are built in.) Furthermore, the more themes that are
coded, the more cluttered the document becomes.
In general, using your word processor for basic tagging and retrieval tasks
is quite efficient. There is very little learning curve since you begin with a
program that you already know a lot about. You can use your original word-
processing documents without having to reformat them, and there is no addi-
tional cost for new software.

APPENDIX A
Macro for Marking the Beginning and End of a Text Block
The following macro can be used after you select a block of text in your document.
The macro begins by querying the user for the theme associated with the block, then
embeds appropriate beginning and end markers to the selected text.
Warning: Before Running the Tag Themes Macro
The Tag Themes document embeds beginning and ending code mark-
ers directly in your text. They are a hassle to remove. I strongly suggest
that you make a copy of your original text file before you begin tagging
the file for codes. This way, if you decide you don’t want to use the tags,
you can always start over with a clean document.
Sub Tag_Theme()
'
' Tag_Theme Macro
' Macro recorded 7/16/2002 by Gery Ryan
'
Dim Tag$
Tag$ = InputBox("What theme do you want to use?", "Mark Themes", "")
Tag$ = CleanString(Tag$) 'cleans nonprinting chars
Tag$ = LTrim$(RTrim$(Tag$)) 'removes spaces at beginning and end
If Tag$ = "" Then 'checks for cancel or blank text box

GoTo Finish
End If
Selection.Cut 'cuts selection for text, stores to memory

Selection.TypeText Text:=" [[" 'adds begin mnemonic symbols
WordBasic.Insert Tag$ 'adds theme
Selection.TypeText Text:="]]" 'adds begin mnemonic symbols
Selection.Paste 'pastes selection
Selection.TypeText Text:=" [[>"'adds begin mnemonic symbols
WordBasic.Insert Tag$ 'adds theme
Selection.TypeText Text:="]] " 'adds end mnemonic symbols
Finish::
End Sub

126 FIELD METHODS
APPENDIX B
Macro for Finding Contiguous Tagged Texts
The following macro can be used to find blocks of texts marked with the macro in
Appendix A. The macro begins by querying the user for which theme is to be
searched, then finds the appropriate text and copies each hit to document 2.
Warning: Before Running the Find_Themes Macro
This macro searches for themes in one document and pastes them in a
second document called Hits.doc. Two conditions must be met for the
macro to function correctly. First, the document to be searched must be
saved and have a real filename. Temporary files produced when you
open a new file in Word (i.e., document 1, document 2, etc.) do not
count. Second, the Hits.doc file must be located in the current default
directory. To see whether the Hits.doc is in the correct place, use the
pull-down File-Open menu and see if file Hits.doc is listed. If not, open
a new file and save it as Hits.doc.
Sub Find_Theme()
'
' Find_Theme Macro
' Macro recorded 7/16/2002 by Gery Ryan
'
Dim Tag$
Dim BeginTag$
Dim EndTag$
Dim Workdoc$
Dim Hitsdoc$
Dim Currentdir$
Dim Count_
Hitsdoc$ = "Hits.doc"
Workdoc$ = WordBasic.[FileName$]() 'identifies current working document
Currentdir$ = WordBasic.[FileNameInfo$](WordBasic.[FileName$](), 5)
Hitsdoc$ = "Hits.doc" 'identifies location of hits document
Hitsdoc$ = Currentdir$ + Hitsdoc$ '
Tag$ = InputBox("What theme do you want to search for?", "Search Themes", "")
Tag$ = CleanString(Tag$) 'cleans nonprinting chars

Tag$ = LTrim$(RTrim$(Tag$)) 'removes spaces at beginning and end

BeginTag$ = "[[" + Tag$ + "]]" 'creates beginning marker
EndTag$ = "[[" + Tag$ + "]]" 'Creates end marker
If Tag$ = "" Then 'checks for cancel or blank text box

GoTo Finish '
End If '
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Hitsdoc$, Revert:=0 'Result Header

Selection.TypeParagraph '
WordBasic.Insert "Searching For Theme:" + Tag$ '
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Workdoc$, Revert:=0 '
For Count_ = 1 To 1000 ‘Beginning of loop (max set for 1,000 hits)
Selection.EscapeKey
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting 'Search for beginning marker
With Selection.Find '
. Text = BeginTag$ '
. Replacement.Text = "" '
. Forward = True '
. Wrap = False '
. Format = False '
. MatchCase = False '
. MatchWholeWord = False '
. MatchWildcards = False '
. MatchSoundsLike = False '
. MatchAllWordForms = False '
End With '
Selection.Find.Execute '
If WordBasic.EditFindFound() = 0 Then 'Stop if not found
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Hitsdoc$, Revert:=0 '
If Count_ = 1 Then 'Hit summary
WordBasic.Insert "End of Search: No Hits Found" '
Else '
WordBasic.Insert "End of Search:" + Str(Count_ - 1) + "Hits Found"
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Workdoc$, Revert:=0 '
End If '
GoTo Finish
Else

128 FIELD METHODS
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1

Selection.TypeText Text:="**//**" 'Inserts temp front marker
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting 'Finds End Marker
. Text = EndTag$ '
. Forward = True '
. Wrap = False '
. Format = False '
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.Extend 'Starts at end of text chunk
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting '
. Text = "**//**"" '
. Forward = False '
. Wrap = False '
. Format = False '
End With '
Selection.Find.Execute 'Finds beginning of text chunk
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Copy 'Copies selection to memory
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2
Selection.TypeBackspace 'Erases temp front marker
Selection.TypeBackspace '
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find 'Moves cursor to end of hit
. Text = EndTag$ '


. Forward = True '
. Wrap = False '
. Format = False '
End With '
Selection.Find.Execute '
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1 'Sets up for next search
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Hitsdoc$, Revert:=0 'Switches to Hits document

WordBasic.Insert Str(Count_) + ". " 'Counts number of hits
Selection.Paste 'Pastes hit
Selection.TypeParagraph 'Blank line
Selection.TypeParagraph 'Blank line
WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Workdoc$, Revert:=0 'Returns to original document
Selection.EscapeKey
End If
Next
Finish::
End Sub
REFERENCES
Berelson, B. 1952. Content analysis in communication research. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Bernard, H. R. 1991. About text management and computers. Cultural Anthropology Methods
Journal 3:1–4, 7, 12.
. 2002. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bolton, R. 1984. Computers in ethnographic research: Final report. Washington, DC: National
Institute of Education.
Dey, I. 1993. Qualitative data analysis: A user friendly guide for social scientists. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Gillespie, G. W. Jr. 1986. Using word processor macros for computer-assisted qualitative analy-
sis. Qualitative Sociology 9:283–92.
Glaser, B. G., and A. Strauss 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative
research. Chicago: Aldine.
Krippendorf, K. 1980. Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Beverly Hills, CA:
Sage.
Pool, I. D. S. 1959. Trends in content analysis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

130 FIELD METHODS
Ryan, G. 1993. Using WordPerfect macros to handle field notes I: Coding. Cultural Anthropol-
ogy Methods Journal 5:10, 11.
Seidel, J., and U. Kelle. 1995. Different functions of coding in the analysis of textual data.
In Computer-aided qualitative data analysis: Theory, methods and practice, edited by
U. Kelle, 52–61. London: Sage.
Strauss, A., and J. Corbin. 1990. Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures
and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Truex, G. F. 1993. Tagging and typing: Notes on codes in anthropology. Cultural Anthropology
Methods Journal 5:3–5.
Weber, R. P. 1990. Basic content analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
GERY W. RYAN (Ph.D., University of Florida) is a behavioral scientist at RAND Corpo-

ration. He has conducted fieldwork on health care choices in the United States, Latin
America, and Africa. He also has written and lectured on qualitative data collection and
analysis techniques. Before joining RAND, Ryan was the associate director of the Field-
work and Qualitative Data Laboratory at the UCLA Medical School and assistant pro-
fessor of anthropology at the University of Missouri–Columbia. He was a coeditor of
Cultural Anthropology Methods Journal (1993-–98) and is currently on the editorial
board of Field Methods. He has published in Social Science & Medicine, Human Organi-
zation, and Archives of Medical Research.

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Using A Word Processor To Tag and Retrieve Blocks of Text: Article

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10.

Using a Word Processor to

Sophisticated text management software is currently available for doing thematic or

Keywords: qualitative analysis; text analysis; computer assisted qualitative data

Today, sophisticated text management software is widely available for

Field Methods, Vol. 16, No. 1, February 2004 109–130

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language of top-end word processors, such as Microsoft Word and

GENERAL APPROACHES TO CODING

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Signs and Symptoms Treatment

ID Sex Narratives Diagnosis

108 M SINUS/UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTION/ASTHMA. Drainage into lungs, Sinus/upper Y N N N N Y N Y Y N 3 days

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requires an inference, an interpretation. And if you think this is a high infer-

APPROACHES TO TAGGING AND RETRIEVING

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CONTINUOUS TAGGING FOR SMALL CODEBOOKS

Tagging with Text Attributes

Searching for Text Attributes

1. Type Ctrl F (find).

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1. Start recording a macro (Tools/Macro/Record New Macro).

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You have now recorded a macro called Find_Red.

Running Macros, Creating Buttons, and Shortcut Keys

1. Start recording a macro (Tools/Macro/Record New Macro).

1. Right click on any blank portion of a toolbar.

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3. In the Categories window, select Macros.

Paragraphs of Text That Do Not Wrap

Simple Boolean Searches

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POINT TAGGING FOR LARGER CODEBOOKS

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1. Start recording a macro (Tools/Macro/Record New Macro).

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SEARCHING FOR THEME FAMILIES

To search for theme families (e.g., Theme1.aa, Theme1.ab, Theme1.ca,

[[Theme* Finds all instances of all themes

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CONTIGUOUS CODING FOR

1. Hit Alt F8 (Or Tools/Macro/Macros).

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When asked to recommend text analysis software, I typically respond

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Downloaded from http://fmx.sagepub.com at PORTLAND STATE UNIV on April 17, 2010

Warning: Before Running the Tag Themes Macro

If Tag$ = "" Then 'checks for cancel or blank text box

Selection.Cut 'cuts selection for text, stores to memory

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Warning: Before Running the Find_Themes Macro

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Tag$ = LTrim$(RTrim$(Tag$)) 'removes spaces at beginning and end

If Tag$ = "" Then 'checks for cancel or blank text box

WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Hitsdoc$, Revert:=0 'Result Header

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Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1

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. Replacement.Text = "" '

WordBasic.FileOpen Name:=Hitsdoc$, Revert:=0 'Switches to Hits document