Edit by topic: fix it where it matters
Gathering, summarizing, mapping, or coding leave you with the analysis done and the document untouched. Then comes the part nobody names: opening the file, finding each passage, fixing it, and starting over. That work has no name, no tool, and takes days.
Here, the passages that talk about the same thing appear together, with their page and their context. You fix them on that same screen and download the full document with the changes applied, as .docx, with the original untouched.
- The passages of a topic, one under the other
- Edited together, with the context in view
- You download the document, not a list of quotes
Four paths and a single screen
Gathering a topic, summarizing it, mapping it, or coding it are different ways of finding the passages that matter. None is the end: all four lead into the same editing.
Everything the document says about a point
You type a topic and the scattered passages that talk about it appear, even when they're said in other words, each with its page. Useful for seeing whether an argument holds up from start to finish before touching a single line.
Everything on a point, in a single document
What the document says about a specific question, with references to get back to the original. It's the natural step before: first you see what's there, then you decide what to fix.
The topic and its branches, drawn
The same information seen as a structure instead of a list. Useful for finding which branch came out thin, and from there you go in to edit that branch's passages.
Mark the passages and give them a name
The finest path, and the one that people coming from qualitative analysis bring. You mark, you name, and then you edit everything that ended up under that name. It has its own page if your material is interviews.
Editing together is a different thing from editing one by one
When the fifteen passages that talk about the same thing sit one under the other, you see things you don't see reading the document in order: that you said the same thing three times in different words, that the tone changes between chapter two and chapter six, that a promise from the beginning never comes back. Fixing that by skipping from page to page is what makes the final review eat up a week. And at the end you aren't left with a list of corrected quotes: you are left with the document, downloadable, and the original untouched.
What's in and what isn't
Better to say it on the first screen than in the first minute of use.
Codes from another program
If you already coded in Atlas.ti, NVivo, or MAXQDA, that work can't be brought over. You can upload the exported file, but HILO reads it as plain text: it doesn't recognize the code structure, so the codes don't come through. To edit here, you have to code here.
The document, and everything you do to it here
Word and PDF documents. And once inside, codes, gathered topics, notes, and summaries live together and lead to the same place. Several documents can form a folder and share codes.
Editing happens on your computer
Reading the document and the changes happen in your browser. When you sign in, saving goes to your own Google Drive or Microsoft 365. What you download is a new file: the original stays as it was.
No. If you upload a file exported from another program, HILO reads it as plain text: it doesn't recognize its code structure, so the codes don't come through. To work here you have to code here. Better to know that before uploading the file than after.
The passages that talk about the same thing appear one under the other, each with its page and with the text around it in view. You fix them there, on the same screen, without jumping from one part of the document to another. It's what is done today by copying each quote into a separate file and losing track of where it came from.
It stays untouched. What you download is a new .docx document with the edits applied, and the original is never overwritten. The change history, for going back and seeing what was touched, is a Premium feature.
No. Codes are one path, not a requirement. You also get there by gathering a topic, asking for a summary of what the document says on a point, or starting from the concept map. All four paths end at the same editing screen.
A PDF is read, searched, and coded just like a Word document. What you download with the changes is always a .docx, because a PDF isn't rewritten: it's converted.
Yes. Several documents can form a folder and share codes, so a code created in one is available in all of them, and it can be renamed or merged across the whole folder at once.
The document with the edits applied, as .docx. The passages of a topic with the page of each. The topic summary: its passages gathered and ordered in a document. And the concept map, as PNG or SVG.
From qualitative analysis software to the edited document
Upload a document of your own, mark a topic, and see the passages together. In ten minutes you'll know whether it's useful to you, and you won't have spent anything.