Import Comments From Word Document

This form enables you to import content from Word documents into your project. You select a Respondent, a Word document containing the Respondent's comments, and specify which Word styles map to content. When the text is imported, Symphony creates a comment for each paragraph of text that uses the specified Word style. If styles are specified for Field Notes or codes, Symphony imports them as well. The style for Comments is the only one required.

 

This form can be brought up using any of the following methods:

 

1. Choose Import Comments/Word from the main menu.

2. In Standard View, drag the file from Windows Explorer onto the Respondent's name in the Project Tree. This opens the form with the Respondent and File values already set.

3. In Standard View, drag the file from Windows Explorer onto the Respondent node in the Project Tree. This brings up the Respondent Form and enables you to create a new Respondent. Symphony makes an attempt to set the Respondent's name using the file name.

 

The Comments from only one Respondent can be contained in the Word document

 

When content is imported from Word, Symphony compares the checks the Word style used for each paragraph of text to see whether it matches a style defined in Symphony. If a match is found, the text is imported and treated as the corresponding data type. In this manner, both Codes and Comments can be harvested from the Word document. If Codes are included in the document, Symphony keeps track of the last one used, and codes subsequent Comments to it until another Code is encountered.

 

Respondent Information and Word Form Fields

 

In addition to Codes and Comments, Symphony can extract Respondent information (name, title, and demographic values) from the document. To have Respondent information extracted, you define Word Form Fields to correspond to the data item you want to collect. The consultant then fills out the form along with transcribing the interview Comments. Here are the rules:

 

1. If you have fields called FirstName and LastName, the Respondent's first and last name will be set to the values provided.

2. If you have a field called FullName, Symphony will attempt to separate it into a first and last name and set the Respondent's first and last name accordingly.

3. If you have a field called Title, the Respondent's Title will be set to the value provided.

4. If you have a field that matches the name of a Demographic, Symphony will set the Demographic value for the Respondent to the value provided.

 

If a value is not provided for one of the fields, Symphony skips over it and does not import the empty value.

 

Protecting Word Forms

 

If you include a Word form in your document, it is good to "protect" it so that the consultant filling out the form does not accidentally remove any fields. To do this, you use Word's document protection feature. By default however, this feature protects the entire document, allowing the consultant only to fill in the form, and preventing him/her from including the Respondent's Comments in the document. To enable filling in the form while also allowing Comments to be entered, it is necessary to separate the form and the Comments into separate sections of the document, then apply protection only to the form. Here's how this is done in Word 2003:

 

1. With your Word document open, click on the document somewhere below the form and above the where you want the consultant to transcribe Comments.

2. From Word's Insert menu, choose Break, then under Section break types, choose Continuous.

3. From Word's Tools menu, choose Protect Document. A side window should open.

4. On the side window, check the checkbox next to "allow only this type of editing in the document"

5. From the dropdown, choose Filling in Forms.

6. A link labeled "Select Sections" will appear beneath the choice. Click this link. A list of sections contained in the document will appear.

7. Remove checkmark from all sections except for the one containing the form, then click OK.

8. On the Windows Forms toolbar, click the Protect Form button. (Clicking this button toggles protection on and off.

 

If you are not sure in which section contains the form in step 7, you can experiment by changing which one is checked. You have it right when you can enter values into the form fields but cannot modify the form, including surrounding text.