February 2008

Stanford University
Social Science Data and Software
Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys
This document covers the basic features of SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys. Compared to other
qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo and Atlas.ti, SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys is
designed more for analyzing verbatim responses to survey questions rather than for analyzing large
blocks of text from open-ended interviews. SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys provides numerous tools for
manipulating, viewing and classifying verbatim responses to survey questions. Researchers are then able
to export the newly categorized information into SPSS or other quantitative software for further analysis
and graphing.
SPSS Text Analysis is publicly available on designated computers in the Social Sciences Resource
Center (SSRC) Reading Room cluster in the Bing Wing of Green Library. Currently, SPSS Text
Analysis is only available for Windows. To use any of the public computers on campus, you must have a
SUNet ID (Stanford University Network Identifier). If you do not have a SUNet ID, visit the Web at
http://www.stanford.edu/services/sunetid for information on obtaining one.
Table of Contents
Getting Started with SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys ....................................................................... 2
Working with Projects .............................................................................................................................. 3
Creating a Project .......................................................................................................................................3
Opening a Project .......................................................................................................................................4
Saving a Project .........................................................................................................................................4
Importing Data .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Categorizing Data..................................................................................................................................... 6
Extracting Data...........................................................................................................................................6
Refining Extraction Results..........................................................................................................................7
Creating and Managing Categories ..............................................................................................................8
Exporti ng Data ........................................................................................................................................10
For More Information and Assistance.................................................................................................11
Help within SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys ............................................................................................... 11
Documentation ......................................................................................................................................... 11
Consulting..................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

- Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 2
Getting Started with SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys
No two projects will be exactly the same. However, the following is a summary of five basic steps that
you will probably follow while using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys.
Import: Bring your survey data into the application from SPSS for Windows, Excel or other
database program.
Extract: The extractor engine automatically collects the most salient terms and patterns
expressed in your survey responses for each open-ended question that you want to analyze.
Refine: Review the extracted terms and fine-tune your extractions by directly manipulating one
or more libraries containing word types, terms, synonyms, and other linguistic constructs.
Categorize: Create categories manually or automatically using classification techniques.
Export: Save your category results in a file for further analysis and graphing.
The interface of SPSS Text Analysis is made up of two windows. The first is the text analysis window,
where you will perform the bulk of your work. The second window is the Dictionary Editor window,
where you can fine-tune the linguistic resources used by the extractor to collect the terms, types, and
patterns in your survey responses. Use the toolbar buttons on the far upper right to switch between these
two windows, clicking to display the text analysis window and to display the Dictionary Editor
window. This documentation introduces procedures for the data analysis window. For more advanced
users who want to work with the Dictionary Editor window, please refer to the Help menu of the
software or reference books at the Velma Denning Room of the SSRC in Green Library.
In the text analysis window, you have the choice between two kinds of views: the Question view(s) and
the Entire Project view. You can change views by selecting one from the drop-down list on the toolbar
in the text analysis window. The majority of your tasks will be performed in the Question view.
The main toolbar in the Question view provides easy access to common tasks. Refer to the following
table to learn more about the toolbar buttons:


Button Description

Create a new project

Open an existing project

Save a project

Open Project Properties dialog box

Delete categories from the tree

Undo the last operation in the text analysis window

Repeat the last operation in the text analysis window

Display the Find toolbar to locate information

Display/hide the Highlight mode for the find feature
Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys -
3

By default, the Question view contains the following three panes.
Data pane: Located on the right side, it contains a filtered set of responses for the question.
While you can view the data that you imported in this pane, you cannot edit, delete or append the
records.
Extracted results pane: Located in the lower left corner, it is the area where you can run an
extraction on your response data to collect the key concepts or terms that you will use to create
your categories.
Categories pane: Located in the upper left corner, it is the area where you will create and
manage your categories. You can also see category summary statistics in this pane.




Working with Projects
Creating a Project
From the menus, choose File > New Project. The Project Properties dialog box appears. Enter a
name for the project in the Name text box. If desired, enter a comment or description for the project in
the Annotation text box. The Project Properties dialog box offers an additional feature that corrects
Question
drop-down
list
- Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 4
possible mis- grouping. When extracting terms from your survey data, you may find that certain words
that are spelled similarly are incorrectly grouped together under one term. You can correct that by
entering the pairs here. SPSS Text Analysis offers an automatic fuzzy grouping feature that
temporarily ignores double or triple consonants as well as vowels in order to group commonly
misspelled words. In this text area, enter one pair per line to exclude them from fuzzy grouping. When
entering the pairs, separate the words by a tab character. Use only lowercase letters here. These pairs
will be read during extraction. Click OK to create the new project. The dialog box closes and the
project properties are applied. (You can always edit project properties later by selecting File >
Project Properties.)


Opening a Project
You can return to an existing project by opening it. You can have only one open project at a time. From
the menus, choose File > Open. The Open Project dialog box appears. In the list, locate the project you
want to open. From the list, select the name of the project you want to open. Click OK to open the
project in the main window.
Saving a Project
Remember to save your SPSS Text Analysis project frequently. From the menus, choose File > Save
Project. Although a new project is called Project 1 by default, you cannot save a project with that
name. When saving, you must enter another name for this project.
Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys -
5
Importing Data
In order to begin creating your categories from your response data, you must first import your survey
into the application. You can import data into SPSS Text Analysis from several different sources: SPSS
data files (*.sav), Microsoft Excel files (*.xls) and ODBC databases. This documentation introduces
how to import an Excel file.
From the menus, choose File > Import > Excel File. The Open dialog box appears. From
the Look In drop-down list, select the drive and folder in which the file is located. Click Open.
The Select Sheet dialog box appears, listing all of the worksheets in your Excel file. Select the
worksheet from the list. You can import data only from a single worksheet in a given project. If
the first row of this worksheet contains the column headers, select that option. Click Next to
continue to the next step. The Select Variables dialog box appears.

From the list of available variables on the left, select the variable that corresponds to the ID
variable in your data set and click the arrow button to move it into the Unique ID box. The ID
must be a unique number or alphanumeric string that distinguishes one record from another. If
your data set contains duplicate IDs, an error message appears.
From the list of available variables, select one or more variables that correspond to the open-
ended response variables and click the arrow button to move the variable(s) into the Open Ended
Text list. The variable(s) will each be imported as a separate question whose responses you will
analyze and categorize.
From the list of available variables, select one or more variables that correspond to the reference,
or categorical, variables and click the arrow button to move the variable(s) into the Reference
box. Reference variables are not analyzed in this product. However, you can view their content
and use them to help you make informed decisions when categorizing your responses.
- Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 6
Categorizing Data
Extracting Data
After importing your data, you can begin to analyze and categorize your responses. To begin your
analysis, select the question that you would like to analyze. From within the extracted results pane, you
can run an extraction to obtain the terms, types, and patterns that will make up your category definitions.
These results are presented in the extracted results pane located in the lower left corner of the text
analysis window.

To extract, choose Tools > Extract from the menu or click the Extract button on the extracted
results pane. The extraction results consist of terms, types and patterns. You can switch among terms,
types and patterns by pushing one of the buttons at the upper-right corner:
Terms: Terms are single and compound words that appear in your text responses. Such terms are
deemed relevant and are extracted. You can view your terms by clicking the third button from
the right on the pane's toolbar. The picture above presents the view of terms.
Types: Types are named dictionaries of terms. You can view your terms grouped in types by
clicking the second button from the right on the pane's toolbar. When terms are extracted, they
are assigned a type to help group similar terms. For example, the Location type groups
geographical terms. This type would be assigned to terms such as Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo.
Patterns: Patterns are a combination of terms and built- in types representing qualifiers and
adjectives. You can view your terms qualified in patterns by clicking the rightmost button on the
pane's toolbar. Patterns are most useful when you are attempting to discover opinions about a
particular subject. For example, simply extracting your competitor's product name provides little
useful information. However, you can look at the extracted patterns to see if you can find
examples where respondents found the product to be, for example, good, bad or expensive.
Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys -
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Refining Extraction Results
The extraction results serve as the building blocks for categories. It is wise to review your extraction
results at least once before beginning building categories. The reason is simple. Computers are great for
doing repetitive tasks consistently and accurately, but they lack the human intelligence that is needed to
detect the subtlety and nuance in survey answers. Chances are that the computers would make mistakes
in categorizing answers. For example, as you review your results, you may find information that you
would like to exclude from the extraction, or you may want to group synonymous terms or reassign
terms to different types.
To refine results from the text analysis window: Select the term from the extracted results pane. Right-
click the selection. A context menu appears with several options. Choose the option for the task that you
want to perform.

Add Term to Type: This option allows you to add the term to a type dictionary or to create a
new type dictionary. For example, the extraction may have typed Johns Hopkins (the university)
as a Person rather than as an Organization. In this case, you can add this term to the Organization
type. In another example, you may want to use a word or phrase found in your data as part of a
category definition. However, since it was not extracted, you must select the term in the data
pane and use this option. If you select New Type, the Type Properties dialog box appears, in
which you can create a new type.
Add to Synonym: This option allows you to add a term to an existing synonym target or to
create a new synonym definition. A synonym target is the term under which the other synonyms
are grouped. For example, a synonym definition may already exist to substitute wireless for
mobile. In this case, wireless is the target. If you find cellular in your data and want it to be
grouped with wireless as well, you can add cellular to that synonym.
Exclude from Extraction: This option allows you to add the selected term to the exclude
dictionary. All variations of the excluded term disappear from your extraction results the next
time that you extract.
- Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 8
After making your modifications, the background color of the extracted results pane changes to show
that you need to re-extract to view your changes. Likewise, a message in the pane indicates how many
changes have been made since the last extraction. If you are working with larger data sets, it may be
more efficient to re-extract after making several changes rather than re-extracting after each change.
Creating and Managing Categories
There are several different approaches to create categories. Because every data set is unique, the number
of techniques and the order you apply them may change. None of the automatic techniques will perfectly
code your response data. We recommend finding and applying one or more automatic techniques that
work well with your data. After applying these techniques, review the resulting categories. You can then
use manual techniques to make minor adjustments, remove any misclassifications, or add records or
terms that may have been missed. The following categorization techniques are available:
Drag and drop (manual). Right-click the All Record. Choose New Category option. A new
category with a default name appears in the pane. You can rename this category or add a label if
desired. From the extracted results pane or the data pane, select one or more terms, patterns,
types, responses or partial responses. While holding the mouse button down, drag the element to
an existing category or to the window area to create a new category. When you have reached the
area where you would like to drop the element, release the mouse button. The element is added
to the category tree.

Term inclusion and Semantic networks (automatic). They work best in combination, but can
be used separately. Term inclusion creates categories by taking a term and finding other terms
that include it. For example, seat would be grouped with safety seat, seat belt, and infant seat
carrier. Semantic networks create categories by grouping terms that have known relationships,
such as computer, pc, hard drive and monitor. From the menu, choose, Tools > Create
Categories > Based on Linguistics. The Create Categories Based on Linguistics dialog
box appears. Check the options you prefer and then click OK.
Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys -
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Frequency (automatic). It works best when data contain straightforward lists or simple terms.
This technique allows you to get either one category for each value of a frequently occurring
item (type or term) or one category that groups all of the less frequently occurring items. From
the menus, choose Tools > Create Categories > Based on Frequency. The Create
Categories Based on Frequency dialog box appears. Check the options you prefer and then click
OK.


Once you have created your categories, you can edit them by modifying their definitions, forcing
responses into and out of the categories, editing their properties, and deleting them. Most of the category
managing techniques are quite straightforward except force in and force out. Here is a brief
introduction.
Forcing responses into and out of categories allows you to override the category definitions created by
the automatic classification techniques without changing the actual category definition. You may find
that although the response contains terms that are used to define a particular category, the response itself
- Using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 10
should not be in that category. In this case, you can force the response out of that category without
having to remove the terms from the category definition. From within the data pane, select the response
that you want to force in or out of a particular category. Right-click the response. A context menu
appears. From the menu, choose Force In or Force Out. A submenu displays the list of categories
from which you can select. Select the category to which or from which you want to force this response.

Exporting Data
When you are satisfied that you have accurately categorized your text data, you can export your
categories in a text format for import into a quantitative analytic application, such as the SPSS Base
system, for further analysis and graphing. The resulting file contains the IDs for the responses as well as
the category names and labels. You can export the data in two formats: SPSS files (*.sav) and Microsoft
Excel files (*.xls). The export function is located in the main menu: File > Export.
Depending on the purpose of your analysis and categorization, you can define the data type you want for
the export. You can select from:
Dichotomies: The results center on category membership flags for each response ID. For each
category in the data, the response ID either belongs or does not belong to the category. The data
are structured in a table format, with the ID in the left column and one column for each category.
Adopting this type is easier for later statistical analysis and thus recommended.
Categories: The results center on the set of categories to which a response belongs. For each
response in the data, each category to which it is assigned appears as a separate value. The data
are structured in table format, with the ID in the leftmost column, followed by one column per
category to which at least one response belongs.
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For More Information and Assistance
This section of the guide directs you to useful resources for learning SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys
and resolving any questions or problems that could arise as you become familiar with the software.
Help within SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys
SPSS Text Analysis has an extensive hypertext Help system. To access the Help system, go to the
Help menu in the project pad and select Text Analysis for Survey, or use the shortcut key F1.
Documentation
The Velma Denning Room (Green Library Bing Wing room 120F) has a collection of books and
manuals about qualitative analysis and qualitative software. To view a list of our current collection, you
can either stop by or click on Reference Library on our website (http://ssds.stanford.edu). The
collection is non-circulating, but circulating copies of some books and manuals may be available in
other Stanford University libraries or on Course Reserve.
SSDS Software Services at Stanford
If you have questions about using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys, please contact the software
consultants at Social Science Data and Software. Software Services provides technical support for
NVivo users at Stanford. Users can ask questions or make appointments with the consultants via our
website. For more information or to contact us, see the web at:
http://ssds.stanford.edu/
Note: This document is based on SPSS Text Analysis for Windows XP.
Copyright 2008, by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Permission granted to copy for non-
commercial purposes, provided we receive acknowledgment and a copy of the document in which our material appears. No
right is granted to quote from or use any material in this document for purposes of promoting any product or service.
Social Science Data and Software
Document revised: 2/20/2008