When the software was launched on October 21st, we spent around two hours downloading it (Aotearoa New Zealand Internet speeds are not remarkably quick, are they?) and a further hour installing the software.  And then came the playing, a process that continues...

The look and feel of the software is very good with the new 2007 ribbon being used to make navigating easier and a large number of new features introduced.  These include, amongst other things, being able (for the first time) to import Excel datasets as a source, having a slide bar that enables a range of text search options and a capacity to show word finds as a word tree (with direct click-able links to relevant text). There are many more features than this but I won't go into them here because that is not the purpose of this news item... 

I always check is out the help files first because they are my lifeline to learning.  When I'm stuck, or I want to find out about something, I routinely hit F1 and read to learn.  For NVivo 9, the help files are quite useful.  They don't, however, seem to have the Lyn Richards touch of explaining how to work with data - instead, they focus on explaining how to do things and in the main, I've found them to be adequate.  The other thing I always check out are the tutorials.  In this case, they comprise videos and whilst these are great to look at, I'm bound to say that they appear to be more about what the software can do as opposed to leading the user through how to come to grips with dimensions of the software functionalities.  I'd like to see tutorials operate in ways which assist the user to become a proficient manipulator of the software but having said that, and having looked at the tutorial videos on numerous occasions now, they are very good at providing an overview of the capabilities of the software.

Since first toying with the programme, I've shown it publicly at a doctoral symposium at the Southern Cross University (it went off with a bang on Guy Fawkes day) and I've taught a workshop at the Manukau Institute of Technology (on November 12th).  I'm also teaching a small group of researchers and some of my students about the software on December 9th and in January, probably on the 29th, we'll run an open workshop at the Woodhill Park Research Retreat.  (More details later..watch this space.)

My overall impression NVivo has a huge number of bells and whistles and a very large price-tag.  There's no doubt in my mind that the software, as with all QSR software, is leading edge in it's capacity and that you get a lot of bang for your bucks.  Time will tell if the price-tag is too prohibitive irrespective of the many bangs that are available.