Tutorials: importing aTrain output into QDA software

aTrain offers a number of different output formats, including the _maxqda output file for integration in several widely used qualitative data analysis (QDA) software packages, including MAXQDA, ATLAS.ti, and NVivo for Windows. This lets you sync the timestamps of the transcript with the original audio or video file, so you can click a text passage to play the corresponding audio/video.

MAXQDA

Start by importing the _maxqda output file from aTrain via Import → Transcripts and select Transcript with Timestamps:

Select the transcript file in the file browser opened by MAXQDA. You are then prompted to select the media file of the transcript. Select the media file in the file browser again. MAXQDA now imports the transcript and matches the timestamps with the media file. Clicking the clock symbols on the left border of the transcript plays the corresponding audio.

NVivo

Windows

Import the audio or video file into Documents. Open the file (double-click), then choose Edit, then Transcript (only appears if the Edit button is active), then Import Rows.

Import the _maxqda.txt output file from aTrain and select Timestamp next to "Create one transcript row for each…".

Turn off Edit mode by clicking the Edit button again. You can now code the text in the Content column as you would any other text, and you can either listen to the whole recording or right-click any row and choose Play Selected Rows.

macOS

NVivo for macOS can also import these transcripts, but not as they are output by aTrain. You need to remove the [] from around each timestamp that starts a new paragraph. You could search and replace all [], but you might end up with many more transcript rows than you want. To get one row per speaker, remove the timestamps within each section, or remove only the [] from each leading timestamp. See NVivo's guide on importing transcripts in macOS.