Workbook for Introduction to Digital Humanities: A-State

Anonymous's Tool Review

ATLAS.ti is commercial software that allows one to "arrange, reassemble, and manage your material in creative yet systematic ways".  In the most basic sense, it allows one to perform qualitative analysis.  It can be used for coding documents, audio clips, photos, and videos.  Through Atlas TI, you can "Get to know your material in tremendous depth. Code systematically and develop a system of meaning that unlocks your specific research subject. Explore your data with the Network Editor, the Text Search Tool, word clouds, word frequency tables, and through the various query options.

These tools will help you to discover the intricate hidden “texture” of your data, its interwoven meanings."  

It allows for collaborative work, has user support, including training sessions (some at a cost), and a community in which you can ask questions.  It allows for project data export using XML providing portability and potential a long lifespan of data.  

Status: Active
Webpage: http://atlasti.com
Platforms:Current version: 8

Version being reviewed: 6.2

Licensing options: 
YouTube Videos:
Project Setup video for Atlas.ti 6 


ATLAS.ti Tutorial: Coding Basics - Creating and Assigning codes 

GEO-coding with ATLAS.ti



ATLAS.ti manuals
ATLAS.ti 6.2 - What's New - http://atlasti.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/newfeatures62.pdf?q=/downloads/newfeatures6.pdf
ATLAS.ti 6.1 Quick Tour - http://downloads.atlasti.com/quicktour/QuickTour_a6_en.pdf
ATLAS.ti 6 User's Guide - http://atlasti.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/atlasti_v6_manual.pdf?q=/uploads/media/atlasti_v6_manual.pdf​

Personal Observations: ATLAS.ti is a powerful piece of software for analyzing content.  They keep improving the product, but this reviewer only has access to version 6.2, and this access is through the university's site license for faculty.  While not an intuitive software, it is not overly difficult to learn to use.  One of the most difficult parts is learning to effectively code information.  As one is working with a set of interviews, documents, photos, or whatever, it is easy to realize that when one started, what they thought was the best way to code may not have been, so there can be a high learning curve.  As one gains more experience doing work like this, it is likely to become easier.  Also, as a project grows over time, set coding methods make training others to code much easier.

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