Quantitative research is all about asking the right questions. And with those questions, the more you anticipate the likely answers, the better you can process quantitative results from your project. But you can't always know all brands for a brand awareness question, nor can you know what opinion the respondent has in store for you. That's why quantitative research tools allow open-ended answers to be given at selected questions. Any answer that does not fit the pre-defined codes may then simply be recorded - by typing it in on the keyboard, by writing it down on a pentop, or by making a voice recording.

But however flexible as an opt-out the open-ended answers are, they come with a penalty. Before you can use them in any quantitative figures the open-ended answers need to be properly divided into descriptive headings. The process of categorizing open-ended answers under existing or new headings is known as coding.

Coding can be a laborsome and time-consuming chore in the field of research, which nonetheless has to be taken care of with meticulous precision.

A short overview of the most important Nfield Code features:

Modify Code Frames on the fly while coding, or pre-define Code Frames for other coders to work with

Start your coding job long before the fieldwork period is finished, while adding additional open-ended answers as fieldwork progresses, thereby decreasing your delivery time

Code open-ended text answers, voice-recorded answers and bitmap answers (answers written on pentops)

Work with translations - translate question variables, code labels and open-ended answers for easier coding

Use automatic coding to speed up the coding process, having the application either suggest the coding for open-ended answers or code entire sets of answers automatically

Create Code Frames and reuse Code Frames for more than one question

Track changes made by other coders for reasons of quality control

Work with teams - split a coding project among independently working coders to speed up the coding process

A code project with Nfield Code may be started at any time during or after your fieldwork process.

Before starting, the data coming from your fieldwork department will need to be exported into an Nfield Code readable format. The exact procedure for such exports are described in the NIPO ODIN Developer documentation, versions 5.09 and higher. After importing the fieldwork data into Nfield Code and creating your code project file, coding can be started.

At any time during the coding process, you may...

Import new open-ended answers into your project that come from the fieldwork department

Split off parts of your job for team members, for faster, simultaneous coding

Have translators translate open-ended questions, Code Frames and their open-ended answers for languages you do not master

Merge your codings back into the fieldwork data, for reviewing the results in the statistical package of your choice

Finally, at the end of a code project, you export your survey with its new Code Frames and codings to your preferred statistical software using the NIPO ODIN Developer