| |
Atlas.ti 7
Product Description
ATLAS.ti is arguably the
most powerful qualitative analysis software on the market today. It
offers the greatest variety of tools for accomplishing all the tasks
associated with a systematic approach to unstructured data, i.e.
data that cannot be meaningfully analyzed by formal, statistical
approaches. It helps you to explore the complex phenomena hidden in
your textual and multimedia data.
For coping with the inherent complexity of the tasks and the data,
ATLAS.ti offers a powerful, intuitive environment that keeps you
focused on the analyzed materials. It is a tightly integrated suite of
tools that support your analysis of written texts, audio, video, and
graphic data. The integration of its tools is designed to perfectly
support the work flow of the qualitative researcher. Hence, ATLAS.ti
brings to the job highly sophisticated tools to manage, extract,
compare, explore, and reassemble meaningful segments of large amounts
of data in flexible and creative, yet systematic ways.
It has been said that qualitative analysis is equal parts art and
science. But ATLAS.ti proves that sophisticated technology can
perfectly amalgamate both aspects--it is qualitative analysis software
incarnate.
If qualitative data analysis is what your job requires, you will be
hard pressed to find another QACDAS package with the same power,
elegance, and support for an equally wide range of data formats.
ATLAS.ti sets the standards for qualitative research software.
Qualitative research and researchers the world over rely on ATLAS.ti
for all of their data analysis needs. Join the ATLAS.ti family of
qualitative (and quality!) research today!
Principal Characteristics
Superior Functionality
ATLAS.ti
offers numerous functionalities that are either completely unique or
clearly stand out from the rest of all QDA software packages out there.
Here are just a few.
- Meaningful Coding Hierarchies: The ATLAS.ti Object
Explorer is a clickable tool that lists all work and connections
between documents and their quotes. It shows connections of every code
with every other code and provides sophisticated views of the coding
scheme ( including all the interconnections). Of course, hierachical
views of the coding scheme are also possible.
- Grouping: ATLAS.ti lets you group codes without
changing the coding scheme via its simple-to-use code families
(shortcuts to codes)
- Transitive Relationships: A unique and extremely
powerful feature of ATLAS.ti is its capability of letting you define
functional relationships, embodied in transitive (or hierarchical)
links, such as 'is a', 'part of; 'causes' etc. Its powerful Query Tool
lets you retrieve data based on transitivity.
- Flexible Searching / Retrieving / Filtering: ATLASti
makes it quick and easy to focus attention on parts of the dataset
without even opening its dedicated search tools. Double clicking on
code and/or document families filters your work in various ways,
providing great insight into the dataset without . Codes can be sorted
in multiple ways in ATLAS.ti; this adds great flexibility to the ways
information about progress and frequency can be produced.
< ATLAS.ti sports powerful search & retrieve functions with
Boolean, semantic, and proximity-based operators. Searches always
locate coded quotations in context which keeps you very close to the
source data at all times.
- Comprehensive Annotations: ATLAS.ti gives you
numerous different ways to fully annotate your material. Attach
extensive comments (even containing multimedia and embeded objects!) to
any program object, i.e. quotations, documents, codes or networks. Or
create standalone memos that become automous objects and are centrally
listed, accessible and searchable.
- Powerful Hyperlinking: Hyperlinking allows for precise
point-to-point jumping around the dataset at text level. ATLAS.ti
enables this very effectively for both text and multimedia, e.g.
audiovisual data. In text the hyperlinks flagged in the margin view are
easily navigated by clicking.
Great Usability
From its first release over a decade and a half ago, ATLAS.ti
has been hailed by users for the way it has been designed with their
concrete needs and the way they work in mind. Here are a few
highlights:
- Interface:
Any combination of functions can be open together, which allows equally
for extremely comfortable and efficient work. A major independent study
specifically praised ATLAS.ti for its "slick interactivity between
different objects and tasks" which contributes to the high degree of
"fluidity with which you can flick between views and functions."
(Lewins/Silver, p.) Unlike other programs, ATLAS.ti employs line
wrapping of text when the window size is reduced.
- Interactive Margin: ATLAS.ti introduced the classic margin view as early as 1996.
It is ATLAS.ti's perhaps most central work view, and it facilitates
work by providing an extremely intuitive environment that emulates a
traditional paper-and-pencil feel. Your codes are conveniently in view
at all times, even appearing simultaneously as you code.
Its ability to let you choose between viewing codes, memos or
hyperlinks, or combinations of them is unique to ATLAS.ti and makes it
the most intuitive and most flexible QDA tool out there.
- Navigation,
Units of Context: ATLAS.ti displays the widest variety of units
of context while at the same giving you the most precise text segments
at the lower levels (word, sentence, paragraph). Clear and concise
points of reference (such as line and paragraph numbers) always make
moving around--even large documents--easy.
Unique Multimedia Capabilities
ATLAS.ti's multimedia capabilities are and have always been
second to none (remember that ATLAS.ti introduced multimedia analysis
features as early 1996!)
 Create quotations in any type of audio / video / image file just like in textual documents
- Annotate multimedia quotations
- Hyperlink between multimedia quotations and text files (and vice versa, of course...)
- Assign multimedia files like textual files as standalone documents
Team-Enabled, Collaboration-Savvy, and Secure
ATLAS.ti is fully teamwork-oriented and puts special emphasis on supporting group work.
- Its project merging capability is superior to that of
any other QDA software because ATLAS.ti uses a stronger and more
rigorously designed authorship model than anyone else.
Each object is clearly assigned to an author, allowing for flexible
merging, filtering, and multiplication of projects. And ATLAS.ti's
strong authorship rights model also supports a concise security model.
Merging a project from a multitude of sources--local or remote!--is
just as you would expect: straightforward, logical, and simple.
- Various tools and functions make collaborative work a
breeze--all the more when you consider that collaboration in most cases
means several individuals primarily working separately on independent
aspects of a problem. The crucial point is the software's ability to
exchange work between users and to merge contributions into a larger
context.
- ATLAS.ti has highly developed, powerful functions to
perform all of these tasks reliably. Its Merge tools and its Copy
Bundle function, along with its support for data access on remote
drives and even through VPN, help you to master all aspects of
collaborative project management and flexibly support the way your
research team likes to work.
Unrivaled Exporting and Reporting Features
ATLAS.ti understands the necessity to sometimes re-use research results
for processing and publication in other applications. It therefore
sports the widest range of export and reporting facilities of any QDA
package.
- SPSS, Excel, and HTML are standard export formats for
your projects. But they by no means exhaust the possibilities for
integration with your IT demands.
- Through its native XML output and and assisted by an
extensive number of XSLT-filters that come included in the package,
ATLAS.ti can export your complete data to virtually ANY application. By
supporting the open standard XML, ATLAS.ti is the first QDA tool to
create a platform for the universal exchange, storage, and processing
of QDA data.
- Formats that can be supported by implementing this
standard are as manifold as their intended purposes: Elegant reporting
on- and offline, professional pre-print, conversion into the most
diverse application formats, and many more.
- ATLAS.ti comes with several dozens filters for
reporting, exchanging data between users, and export to application
formats, all of which can be modified and adapted by users to suit
their specific purposes. Custom programming services are also
available.
Easy to Learn and Well Supported
No doubt, ATLAS.ti is a
sophisticated and complex piece of software. However, despite its many
formidable capabilities, independent testers have praised it to be
"very interactive and flexible" (Lewins/Silver, p.) as well as easy to
get started with.
- Nearly all activities that you will need to perform
in ATLAS.ti are based on drag and drop: Linking, coding, and merging,
use of the data managers and last but not least its fully interactive
margin area are extremely user-friendly and work just the way you would
expect it. There is simply no more intuitive and no more efficient way
of working than the one you're already used to from countless Windows
applications.
- A great manual and a live help system, easy-to-follow
quick start instructions and especially a growing library of online
video tutorials help you get started without too much trouble.
- Our much-praised online support is included in the
price of every license. And if you still feel you need more or more
specific guidance, numerous independent trainers offer dedicated
workshops all over the world.
- These sources of support are available to you at all times:
- Comprehensive Program Manual
- Interactive Program Help
- Quick Tour
- FAQ
- ATLAS.ti Forum
- Mailing List
- Online Support Center
Long Upgrade Cycles, Profit from Ongoing Development
- ATLAS.ti is known for its long upgrade cycles (we
release major versions only every few years), but also for its active
update policy that always gives you that latest available
developments--for free!
- We release numerous free updates and minor version
upgrades each year, almost all of which are not mere "bug-fixes" but
add significant new functionality.
- Typically, there are somewhere between 10 to 20
"mini-upgrades" during the life-cycle of a major version. What others
tout as new versions (and charge users for are considered included in
the initial purchase price. Your software keeps "growing" and adapting
to new developments for years to come--all free of charge to you.
- When we do release major versions, they present
significant steps forward and introduce powerful, innovative, and
elegant new paradigms not available anywhere else. Simply German
engineering at its best.
System Technical Requirements
Windows
|
Minimum*
|
Recommended**
|
Processor
|
Intel/AMD 1GB
|
PC: Intel Dual Core, 2 GB
Mac: Intel Mac with Boot Camp or Parallels
|
RAM
|
500 MB
|
2 GB or more
|
Disk Space
|
50 MB
|
50 MB
|
Operating System
|
Windows XP, Windows Vista, WIndows 7
|
Windows XP, Windows Vista, WIndows 7
|
* Minimum configuration means just that:
You will be able to install and run the program. You will be able to
perform all basic functions and work with text and multimedia files.
But please do not expect to work with larger or a great number of
multimedia files or to run auxiliary applications in parallel.
** Bigger is better! The more available resources (especially RAM and
processor power) your system has, the more comfortably and smoothly
will you be able to work with ATLAS.ti. For work with with multimedia
material, embedded content, or for running auxiliary applications we
strongly recommend PC systems of a solid mid- to upper-level capacity.
Non-Windows Platforms
Apple Macintosh
There is NO native Mac version of ATLAS.ti and
ATLAS.ti will not work under MacOS. -- However, there are ways to use
ATLAS.ti on your Intel Mac.
ATLAS.ti still needs to be installed in a Windows world but the
hardware no longer needs to be simulated in a resource-draining manner.
There are several ways to create a Windows world on an Intel Mac:
- Apple Bootcamp: It allows you to install the Windows
operating system on the Intel Mac and decide upon startup which
operating system you'd like to start.
More information: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
- Parallels: The parallels desktop allows you to
simultaneously run Mac OS and the Windows operating system - you can
switch from one operating system (and its features) to the other at the
push of a button.
More information: http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/
- VMWare Fusion: This virtualization product also
allows you to simultaneously run MAC OS and the Windows operating
system. It also lets you easily share data between the two operating
systems by simply dragging and dropping files and data from one
environment to the other.
More information: http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
- Older (Non-Intel) Macs: On older Macs,
simulating a Windows environment is possible through "classic" PC
emulator software such as VirtualPC. Here you have to install a Virtual
PC that emulates a PC environment on which ATLAS.ti can be installed.
Please note: All of the above solutions require you to purchase your
own separate Windows license to work. Also, please direct any specific
questions re. these options to your regular Mac support or other
pertinent Mac resource. ATLAS.ti GmbH can only assist with issues
specific to its own software on Windows operating systems.
Unix / Linux
There is NO native Unix/Linux version of ATLAS.ti. -- Please look into
software that lets you create a virtual or simulated Windows PC
environment on your Unix computer. Make sure you have enough system
resources (especially RAM, processor speed) left for smooth operation.
© Copyright 2002-2015 - ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH.
|
|
