Switching from MAXQDA 2018 to

MAXQDA 2020
Switching from MAXQDA 2018 to
MAXQDA 2020
To see all the new features of MAXQDA 2020, visit the "New Features" website.

How to convert your MAXQDA 2018 projects to MAXQDA 2020

Start MAXQDA 2020 and select Open Project in the start window.

Opening a new project from the start window

Navigate to the location on your computer where the project file that you want to
open is saved. Select the project and click Open.

Should the MAXQDA project file be greyed out, change the file type in your Mac or
Windows dialog window to "MAXQDA 2018 Projects (*.mx18).

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 Select and open a project file that was created with an older version of MAXQDA

MAXQDA 2020 will read the data from the old project file and save it into a new
MAXQDA 2020 project file (.mx20). A message box is displayed as soon as the
conversion is successfully finished.

Successful conversion message

The new MAXQDA 2020 project file (.mx20) is saved in the same folder as the old
project. Your old project file remains untouched.

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 The new .mx20 file is saved in the same folder as the source file

Differences in MAXQDA 2020 and MAXQDA 2018 projects files

MAXQDA 2020 has features that are unvailable in MAXQDA 2018 and several
improvements were made to the data structure of the project files. Here are changes
between MAXQDA 2020 and MAXQDA 2018 that are important to note - especially if
you are planning to work in a team where not everyone is using the same MAXQDA
version.

Code Number Calculation: Separated Focus Group Speakers and

Paraphrased Segments codes

In MAXQDA 2020 the Focus Group Speaker codes and the Paraphrased Segments
codes are moved to the bottom of the Code System. Both code types are now
counted separately and their frequencies are no longer included in the total number of
regulare codes. Therefore, the total number of codes displayed at the top of the Code
System may be smaller than before. Scroll down the Code System to see Focus Group
Speakers and Paraphrased Segments codes

Teamwork: Teamwork Exchange Only available between MAXQDA 2020

projects

Due to the improved text handling in MAXQDA 2020, it is not possible to send project
elements to MAXQDA 2018 (or an even older version) via teamwork exchange. If you
want to use this feature in your team, everybody needs to work with the same version
of MAXQDA.

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Teamwork: Different Project Conversion on Windows and Mac

For research teams of mixed Mac and Windows users, who are planning on using
teamwork functionality relying on text character counts (intercoder agreement,
merging projects, moving codes etc. from one project file to another) we kindly
recommend converting their project files from MAXQDA 2018 to MAXQDA 2020 on
one computer and then distributing the new MAXQDA 2020 project files to all team
members. Due to the improved text handling in MAXQDA 2020 the converted projects
might differ slightly in their character count when they are converted on a Windows or
on a Mac computer.

However, once the projets were converted on either a Mac or a Windows machine,
thus ensuring each team member uses exactly the same data, MAXQDA 2020 projects
are accessible from either Mac or Windows, without any further need of compatibility
optimizations.

How to save a MAXQDA 2020 project for MAXQDA 2018

MAXQDA 2018 cannot open the .mx20 format of a MAXQDA 2020 project, but you
can save a MAXQDA 2020 project to the .mx18 file format of MAXQDA 2018.

Open the .mx20 project file in MAXQDA 2020 and select Save Project As from the
Home menu.

Save a MAXQDA 2020 project for MAXQDA 2018

In the following dialog windows set the file type to “MAXQDA 2018 Projects”, enter a
file name, select a location to save the project file to, and then click Save.

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 Change the file type to MAXQDA 2018 Project

A few elements of MAXQDA 2020 will be changed, because MAXQDA 2018 does not
have the functionality to handle these new features:

● Codeset memos are converted into free memos.

● The memo type “RQ” is converted into a normal memo type.
● Document links that refer to a memo or are saved within a memo as well as coded
segments that are assigned to a memo are not saved in the project file.
● Maps from MAXMaps are not saved in the project file.
● Documents that are organized in subgroups are placed in the parent document
group and all subgroups are deleted.