This article is for people who are upgrading from Q5.12 to Q5.18. You would be referred to this article if you were eligible to upgrade to Q5.18. If you have updated Q recently, then you’ve probably already seen most of the changes. If you haven’t updated Q for a year or more, then this article is for you.
The major changes are discussed below. If you're in the middle of something important and you don't feel like upgrading, then feel free to come and check this out later and upgrade in your own time.
Not sure which version of Q you have now? Just check Help > About Q.
What are the most noticeable changes to your workflows?
These sections of Q will look different from what you are used to. The biggest change in terms of appearance will be in the Weighting window, with some smaller changes in the Text Coding window, in your Table Options when exporting, and in the Statistical Assumptions.
Weighting
The Weighting window has a new coat of paint, and it also provides some new options, including the ability to cap weights and use Numeric variables to set targets.
To learn more about the technical options, see: How to Configure a Weight from Variables
The interface now looks like this:
Everything that you are used to is still here, it's just shuffled around slightly:
- Choosing additional variables for cell weighting is done using the Select Adjustment variable(s) menus.
- Choosing additional variables for Rim weighting is done using the + Additional adjustment variable set button.
- Choosing variables such that the weights are computed independently within categories or dates are chosen at the top in Recompute weights for.
- Choosing whether to specify targets as Percentages, Counts, or as a formula is done using the Targets are menu just above the target entry table.
Exporting to a new Excel or PowerPoint document vs updating an existing document
You can now choose to update an existing Excel or PowerPoint report by choosing Export to > Update Existing Presentation at the start of your export process. This used to be done as the final step of the process.
If you prefer to use the Legacy export option, that is also still available and unchanged.
Text Coding
The main changes in Text coding relate to the Semi-Automatic categorization workflow. Formerly, you had the option to ask Q to Suggest a category. Now, if you use Semi-Automatic categorization, 10 categories will be pre-generated and populated for you. If you want to choose a different number, click Cancel, then choose the desired number of Categories before clicking the Auto button.
For more on automatic coding, see: How to Semi-Automatically Code Text Data
Statistical Assumptions
The options for choosing your settings for statistical settings are still here, but have been split into sections as shown below.
- Significance Levels allow you to choose default levels for all of your tests.
- Test Type allows you to choose the types of tests for Categorical and Numeric data, Correlations, and Dates.
- Exception Tests contains settings relating to how individual table cells are highlighted as significant with Arrows and Font Colors.
- Column Comparisons contains all of the settings relating to displaying pairwise comparison results as letters.
Other New Features and Improvements
Performance Updates
Thanks to a range of under-the-hood changes, larger Q projects should now be faster to load, and larger Banner tables will be faster to view.
New Custom QScripts Menu
You can now run your own custom QScripts directly from the menu in Q without needing to paste in the code or go hunting for the file in Windows.
For more info, see: How to Add a Custom Menu to Q.
Language Translation in Text Coding
You can now choose the input and output language of your verbatim survey responses when using Q’s Text Coding tool. So if you have gathered responses in French but you need to translate them to English in order to read, understand, and code them, you can now do so.
Rules
You can now edit a rule just for the current table instead of editing the rule for every table where it is used.
For more information, see: How to Use Rules in Q.
License Protection
There is a new option available on your customer page to prevent unauthorized use of Q licenses by someone who has left your company. This is particularly useful if you are managing a lot of Q licenses.
For more info, see: Password and License Protection in Q.
Data file merging now supports QDat Files
The QDat file format is much more efficient than the SPSS .SAV format. If you are making use of QDat files to manage larger data sets, you can now merge two QDat files directly or merge a QDat with an SPSS .SAV file when adding new cases.
For more information, see:
Minor Updates
A range of bug fixes and smaller updates are also available in the latest version.
- The options for controlling the footers on exported tables in Table Options > Footer have been updated.
- If you want to create a filter that selects respondents relative to the current day (rather than to the last date in your data set), the binary filter tool now contains a Within Last option.
- When sorting tables, rows like “NET”, “Other”, “None of these” are now anchored to the bottom of the table more intelligently.
- You can now choose whether Column Comparisons are placed beside or beneath data labels in charts exported to PowerPoint from the Advanced menu when exporting.
As always, if you have any questions about the latest change, please reach out to us a support@q-researchsoftware.com