Symphony Documentation
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Home Browser Support Getting Started - Validate Email Start a new project Open a project Delete a project Rename a project Upload a project Download a project Give Team Members Access to a Project Import Excel File Format/Layout Open Import Excel Form Upload Excel File Map Excel Columns to Symphony Content Respondent Identifier (Required) Respondent Demographics/Ratings Comments and Codes Tag Groups and Tags Run the Import Import Word Document (interview guide) Upload Interview Transcript Map Styles to Content Hide Unwanted Texts Fix Incorrectly Styled Content Run the Word Import Import Text File Open Import Text Form Transcripts Upload & Transcribe Audio File Upload Word Transcript Edit Transcript Load a Transcript Assign Speakers Reassign Paragraph to a Speaker Convert Paragraph to a Code Code a Comment Run Import People View Add Respondents Assign Demographic Value Add Comments Paste Comments from Clipboard Code Comments Split Comments Split in Content Editor Split in Comment Properties Form Merge Comments Create/View a Field Note Edit While Navigating People View Word Tree Run Analysis Examine Results Code Results Venn Diagram Coding View Create a code Edit the text of a code Change Code or Comment Order Move a code Delete a code Merge Codes Code a Comment Edit the Text of a Comment Split a Comment Manage Field Notes Display Statistics Edit While Navigating Coding View Word Cloud Review Code a Comment Change Code or Comment Order Modify a Code or Comment Add/View Field Notes Decorators Queries Define a Query Modify Column Properties Crosstab Query Run a Query Download Query Results to Excel Predefined Queries Available Columns Entities Statistics Attributes Charts Set a Filter Spawn a Chart Charts Create a Chart Set Query Set Chart Type Run Query Resize Chart Clone a Chart Save as .PNG Word Cloud Create a Basic Word Cloud Resize Word Cloud Word Filter Word Proximity Save Word Cloud Feedback Report Create a Template Add a Query Add a Table Add a Chart Table of Contents Upload a Template Choose a Template Map Output Fields to Word Styles Set a Filter Add Decorators Restart Comment Numbers With Each Code New Page For Top Level Codes Where to Send the Report Run the Report Using a Report as a Template Filter Group Codes Tag Groups and Tags Respondents Words Sentiment Miscellaneous Language Translation Set Translation Scope Start Translation Replenish Quota () Tag Groups and Tags Create a Tag Group Modify a Tag Group Delete a Tag Group Move a Tag Group Create a Tag Tag Content Modify a Tag Delete a Tag Move a Tag Combine Tags Chat Widget Introduction Send Message Invite/Dismiss Cecil Minimize Chat Window Down-vote response from Cecil Go to Topic Email Chat Transcript Artificial Intelligence Enabling AI Maskifier Clustering Sentiment Autocoder Flagged Comment Reassignment Analysis Code Suggestion Component Comment Suggestion Component AI Code & Comment Rewrite AI Code Summary AI Chat Miscellaneous Optional Display Columns Content Editor Spawn Project Clone a Project Move Data Between Projects Import Feedback Report Edits Search Widget Ask Cecil Column Picker Flags Preferences Glossary Demographics Interview Guide Troubleshooting Introduction Process Guides Introduction Interview-based Team Assessment

About Symphony Content Analysis Software

Symphony is an application that assists you with organizing, analysing, and reporting on themes found in text data. Generally speaking, any text that can be summarized into one or more thematic ideas is suited for use with Symphony. Examples include:

  • Team assessment interviews
  • Executive development feedback
  • Employee engagement surveys

If you have had to organize texts by theme, you know how challenging it can be when you have hundreds or thousands of paragraphs. Some of the challenges:

  • If you are copying and pasting (e.g. in Word or Excel) it is easy for you to make mistakes such as deleting data.
  • Navigating within the document your data is in can be difficult if you need to move something very far.
  • As your analysis progresses, you become increasing commited to the interim results you've produced, making it increasingly difficult to change your coding structure to meet the newer insights.

Symphony is optimized for dealing with these issues. The basic idea is to free you from the administrative task of organizing data so you can focus more energy on the actual analysis - what is the data telling you.

The Symphony Content Analysis Console is the launch point and home page for the web-based Symphony. From there you open projects and invoke all Symphony features. The most frequently-used features are made accessible from a row of buttons at the top of the console. The remaining features are accessed through the main menu which is accessed by clicking the Menu button () in the upper-left corner.

Browser Support

Your browser must support JavaScript, Html-5, and CCS-3. Basically that's any of the popular modern browsers.

Google ChromeWindows, Linux, iOS.
Microsoft IE (Edge)Windows; uses Google Chromium engine, making it comparable to Chrome.
FirefoxWindows, Linux, iOS. Some things don't display correctly.
SafariSeems less standards compliant than others; recommend Chrome instead.

Getting Started - Email Validation

To use this application, you need to allow Symphony to validate your email address. Once validated, Symphony tries to store a cookie in your browser to identify you as the owner of your Symphony projects. If your browser doesn't allow cookies to be stored, you will need to log in each time you launch Symphony.

  1. At the activejava.com home page, click the Launch Symphony Web button.
  2. After Symphony loads, a menu will appear. Choose the Request Email Validation Key option.
  3. Enter your name and email address then click Submit. (Note: if you are already a Symphony Web or Desktop user, enter the email address associated with your license.)
  4. Check your email for a message from support@activejava.com. When it arrives, copy the key into your computer's clipboard.
  5. Paste the key into the Key field, then set and confirm your password and click OK. The Symphony Console should now be available, where you can begin creating a project.

If you were already given a key but don't remember what it is:

You can have your key emailed to you:

  1. Click the menu button () then choose Request Email Validation Key
  2. Enter your name and email address then click the OK button and watch for an email with your key from support@activejava.com
  3. After your key arrives, paste it into the Key field then click the OK button.

Start a new project

Each project you create is an analysis initiative. Examples are 360 reviews, team assessments, employee engagement surveys, and Tweets containing a particular hashtag. Ultimately your objective is to uncover and measure themes in a body of text.

Symphony projects are stored in stand-alone files with an .ca extension.

To start a new project:

  1. Click the Home button to show the Project List.
  2. Click the New button above the Project List.
  3. In the project properties form, give the project a name.
  4. Check this box if you want to use the AI. It is generally advised to leave this unchecked at first, then change it after you have imported data and have had a chance to use the Maskifier.
  5. Check this box if your top level codes are themes (as opposed to questions or broad categories). Only theme codes are considered by the AI as a destination when analyzing where comments should be moved.
  6. If you want to allow comments to be coded to more than one code by default, check the Multi-Code box. Generally speaking, you want each comment to contain only one theme, so in most cases it is best to leave this box unchecked. For projects such as employee engagement surveys where employees are likely to list two or more things they like or dislike about the company, it may be preferable to allow multi-coding.
  7. Click OK. Your project will be created on the server, and will be opened automatically.

Once you've created or uploaded a Symphony project, you can manage its content and produce reports from it. As a minimum, this means engaging in the following tasks:

  1. Add respondents and their comments
  2. Create a thematic coding structure
  3. Move comments into themes
  4. Run statistical analyses or detailed thematic reports

Depending on the nature of your project, each of these tasks might be performed multiple times and might utilize different Symphony features. The icons on the main toolbar toward the top of your browser give you access to the features that enable you to do most of your work. Additional features are available by clicking the Menu () button. Anytime while using Symphony you click the help () button or press function key F1, this help document will be loaded into your browser, preset to the topic that covers the view you have open.

Open a project

To open a project:

  1. Click the Home button.
  2. Either double-click the project name in the Project List, or click the project name then click the Open button.

The summary project information will appear to the right of the list. At this point, opening any views or forms will display data relevant to the project.

Delete a Project

Once you've completed your analysis, or if you want to start an existing project from scratch, you can delete it from the server. It is advisable that you make a backup of the project (using the Download option) if you think you might change your mind at a later date.

  1. Click the Home button.
  2. Click the project you want to delete so it is highlighted.
  3. Click the Menu button
  4. Click Delete Project.
  5. Click 'Confirm' when asked to confirm that you want to delete the project. The project will be disappear from the project list.

Rename a Project

If you decide to change the name of a project, do the following:

  • Click the Home button.
  • Locate the project you want to rename, then double-click it or click the Open button on the toolbar above the Project List. The Project's Properties form will open.'
  • Click the Name field and type the name you want for the project.
  • Click OK. The Properties form will close and your project will appear in the Projects List with the new name.

Upload a Project

If you have a Symphony project file that is not already on the server, you can upload it. You might do this if you created a project with Symphony Desktop, or if you downloaded and deleted a project from the server and now want to add it back.

  1. Click the Main Menu button then choose Upload Symphony File.
  2. In the File Selection dialog, click the Choose/Select button and navigate to the Symphony (.ca) file you want to upload.
  3. Click Submit. The file will be added to the server and will appear in the Project List.

Note: if the project file exists on the server even by a different name, you must delete it before uploading again.

Download a Project

If you want to archive a project, or if you prefer to store your project on your computer instead of on the server, you can choose to download a copy to your computer.

  1. Click the Home button on the main toolbar.
  2. In the List of Projects, click the name of the project you want to download.
  3. Click the Main Menu then choose Project/Download.
  4. Follow your browser's instructions for saving the file. It will be saved with an .ca extension.

Give Team Members Access to a Project

Symphony in conjunction with the Symphony Synchronization Service can provide you and members of your organization the option to work collaboratively in real-time on the same project. For this feature to work, both you and your members must:

  • have access to Symphony,
  • have a subscription to the Symphony Synchronization Service,
  • and be set up for access to your Symphony subscription. (We give Symphony users access at your request.)

Anyone that fits these criteria will show up as being available for addition to your project

The Symphony Synchronization Service coordinates changes you and your team members make to ensure that everyone sees the project the same. When you make a change in Symphony, that change is also distributed to each of the team members that are connected to the project. If any members are using Symphony Desktop, they see the changes when they synchronize.

To give a team member access to your project:

  1. Click the Home button to display the Project List.
  2. Open the project by double-clicking its name or highlighting it and click the Open button.
  3. Click the button on the toolbar in the Team Members list. All available team members -- excluding those already with access to the project -- will appear in a list.
  4. Check the box next to each team member you want to add.
  5. Click the "Add Checked Members" button.

When added, an automated email will be sent out to each new team member, instructing them on how to access the project. The instructions cover both the web and desktop versions of Symphony.


Import Excel Spreadsheet

The Excel Import utility lets you import Excel spreadsheets into Symphony. Typical uses:

  • Online survey results
  • Names and demographics of interviewees for interview-based projects such as board assessments and 360 reviews.

To import, you map the first respondent's data to Symphony. This is done by dragging cells from the spreadsheet to panels on the Excel Import form that are designated for various types of content. Symphony uses your cell mapping as a pattern to apply to each subsequent row. The pattern is repeated until Symphony encounters a row where the respondent name cell(s) have no value. At this point it is assumed that the end of the worksheet has been reached and processing stops.

File Format/Layout

When it comes to importing Excel spreadsheets, Symphony allows considerable flexibility with regard to format. Here's some guidelines:

  • Each row should contain the information for one respondent. For example, if the source is a survey, each row is one survey response.
  • A "name" is required for the respondent. This can be either an actual name or an identifier such as a response ID.
  • The respondent's name (or identifier) can be either one column, or two. If it is one column, it should be treated as if it was the respondent's full name. If two columns, it should be treated as a first and last name.
  • Each demographic should occupy a single column.
  • Any number of columns can contain comments.
  • No gaps in rows should exist; Symphony stops processing as soon as it encounters an empty row below the first respondent's row.
  • Excess columns with data you don't want to import may exist. Symphony will simply ignore them.
  • The columns you want to import can be in any order.

Open Import Excel Form

To open the Excel Import form:

  1. Click the Menu button.
  2. Click Excel Survey or Respondents Info under Import Content.

Upload Excel File

To upload an Excel spreadsheet to Symphony:

  1. Click the Upload Excel File button. The Upload Excel File dialog will open.
  2. Click the Browse/Choose File button and navigate to your spreadsheet. The file you choose must be an .XLSX file; Symphony does not read the older .XLS format.
  3. Click the Submit button. Your file will be processed and the sample rows downloaded.

Symphony reads the spreadsheet and returns a sample of rows -- the first 40 rows -- from the first worksheet. Symphony also returns a list of worksheets, so if your data is not on the first one, you can switch. You will use the sample rows as a reference for telling Symphony how the worksheet maps to Symphony.

Map Excel Columns to Symphony Content

When importing an Excel worksheet to Symphony, you tell Symphony which columns you want to import, and what the columns contain. You do this by dragging cells from the worksheet into regions on the Import Excel form that have special meanings.

The key to mapping the worksheet to Symphony is to think this way:

What cells do you want to import for the FIRST RESPONDENT? This can be any combination of cells with values as well as header cells such as categories and questions. Symphony will apply that pattern to the remaining respondents.

Respondent Identifier

Regardless of the nature of your data, you must include a cell or cells to uniquely indentify each respondent. This can be a number such as a response ID, or the respondent name if it can be guaranteed to be unique. If the worksheet doesn't include such a column or if the names aren't unique, you will need to add one. (A column with an auto-incremented value will do the trick.)

To import the respondent identifier:

  1. If the worksheet contains columns for first and last name, drag the first respondent's first name cell up and drop it in the Cell column next to the First Name attribute Repeat this for the last name column and Last Name attribute.
  2. If instead the worksheet contains a column for the full name of the respondent, drag the first respondent's name up and drop it in the Cell column next to the Full Name attribute.
  3. If your worksheet does not include the respondent's name but does have a column that uniquely identifies each respondent (e.g. a response ID) drag the response ID cell belonging to the first response up and drop it onto the Full Name attribute.

Respondent Demographics/Ratings

If your worksheet has columns for respondent demographics, or if you have ratings items, you can have them imported. To Symphony, demographics and ratings are the same thing, in that both become ways to aggregate or filter your data by respondent characteristics.

When demographics or ratings are imported, Symphony saves them as "Tag Groups" and "Tags". For Example, a rating item from a survey is a Tag Group, and each rating value is a Tag inside the group.

To map columns to demographics:

  1. Drag the demographic value or rating cell for the first respondent up and drop it in the Demographics/Ratings section of the form. When you drop it, a default name will appear. If the worksheet cell immediately above the demographic value cell has a value, this will be used as the name.
  2. Optionally modify the name of the demographic.
  3. Repeat for each of the demographics/ratings columns you want to import.

Comments and Codes

If you are importing a survey, the comments are probably the main reason you are here. Symphony lets you import as many comment columns as your worksheet contains. You can also optionally import decorators -- codes, tags, and tag groups -- that are related to the comments.

To map a comment cell to Symphony:

  1. Drag the comment cell up and drop it in the Comment Cell column toward the top of the screen.
  2. If you have a second comment column, do the same as the first but drop it below the entry that was created for the first comment cell.
  3. Repeat for the remaining comment columns.

You can have cells imported as codes, and have the comments initially coded to them. You might for example want to import the text of a question along with the comment. If you do this, a code will be created from the question and the comments that are in response to that question will be coded to it. This is a common practice; it provides an initial context for thematic coding. After all the comments have been coded to themes, the question code is empty and can be deleted.

Another practice is to import text that represents a high-level category for comments that are grouped together in the survey. For example, let's say the survey asks three questions relating to "Strategy". If your worksheet contains a cell with "Strategy" in it, you can map the three comments to it and they will all be coded to "Strategy" during the import.

To map excel code columns to Symphony:

  1. Drag the cell that you want as a top-level code and drop it in the Code Level 1 column next to an entry you already created for a comment
  2. If you have a second-level of coding, drag the code cell up and drop it in the Code Level 2 column of the same comment entry.

Tag Groups and Tags

You can optionally import Tag Groups and Tags along with comments. This is in addition to codes. This feature results in the imported tags being attached to the corresponding comments. This is not a common practice, but it is available for associating additional permanent or temporary attributes with individual comments. You could for example attach the text of a survey question to each comment as a means of keeping a permanent record of the question the comment was in response to.

To import tags and tag groups, do the following:

  1. To import a Tag Group, drag the cell that contains the value for the group up and drop it in the Tag Group column next to one of the comment rows you already created.
  2. To import a Tag, drag the cell that contains the value for the tag up and drop it in the Tag column next to one of the Tag Group column.

Run the Import

When you are satisfied with your Excel - to - Symphony mapping of content, click the Run () button. Your map will be uploaded and applied to the worksheet. A message will be displayed when it is finished. You can now close the form. If you go to People view or Coding view, you will see the comments and codes that were imported.


Import Word Document

The Word Import utility is used to import interview transcripts that have been stored as Word documents. As a minimum, the document will contain the verbatim comments you will attribute to a single interviewee (respondent). It can however contain other text. For example, it is a commom practice for those who use an interview guide to transcribe the comments into a copy of the guide and them import the copy. Symphony can be directed to import only the texts that belong to the interviewee, or alternatively additional texts such as the actual questions can be imported and used as an initial code and/or a tag for the comments.

The extraction of text is based on Word Styles. So it is important that your document be consist with styles usage. If you are not familiar with Word styles, you will find an abundance of explanations if you Google it.

Upload Interview Transcript

To import an interview transcript saved as a Word file:

  1. Click the Menu button followed by Word Interview Transcript under Import Content.
  2. Click the Respondents dropdown list and click on a respondent to whom the comments should be attributed.
  3. Click the Load Interview Transcript button to bring up the File Upload dialog.
  4. Navigate to the .DOCX file to upload. It must be an .DOCX file; Symphony does not read the older .DOC file format.
  5. Click the Import Content button. The file will be uploaded and the current view will be updated with the contents of the document.

Map Styles to Content

The styles-to-content mapping is how you tell Symphony which content to import and what to do with it. The styles are the Word styles used by the texts in your document, the content-types are the various types of Entities you can create from the text.

When a style is mapped to a content type, an icon appears to the left of each paragraph that uses that style.

To map word styles to content:

  1. Click on a style in the Styles List. The paragraphs that use this style are highlighted.
  2. Click the checkbox next to the content type you want to map this style to. The checkbox will become checked, and an icon corresponding to the content type will appear to the left of each paragraph using this style.

Hide Unwanted Texts

The Text Paragraphs list shows all the paragraphs of text in your document. While doing the styles-to-content mapping, you might find it useful to hide text that is irrelevant and display only the text you are interested in. For example, if your document has a lot of boiler-plate text. You can do this by choosing to ignore all the text that uses a given style.

  1. Click on a style in the Styles list. The paragraphs of text that use it will become highlighted.
  2. Click the checkbox next to the style to remove the checkmark. The paragraphs that use this style will no longer show in the Text Paragraphs list.
  3. To add the paragraphs back, click the checkbox again.

Fix Incorrectly Styled Content

While previewing the document, you may see that you have content that is incorrectly styled. For example, you might see a comment that is not using the style mapped to comments. If you leave it as-is, it will not be imported as a comment. You can fix it as follows:

  1. Click the paragraph you want to fix.
  2. Drag the paragraph with your mouse and drop it on the preferred style in the Styles list. The appearance of the paragraph will change to reflect the style change, and the appropriate icon will be displayed to its left.

Run the Word Import

When you are finished mapping Word styles to Symphony content, you are ready to perform the import. To do this, click the Run () button. A message will display when the import is finished. You can now close the form. If you go to People view or Coding view, you will see the comments and codes that were imported.


Import Text file

This feature enables you to import a text file. The entire contents of the file is imported as Comments, each one attributed to the Respondent you choose. A separate Comment is created for each paragraph. Example Uses:

  • Interview transcript saved as a text file.
  • Transcript of an online chat session.
  • Other text-based sources such as a Gutenberg eBook or the text selection from a Web page.

Open Import Text Form

To import a text file:

  1. To import an interview transcript saved as a text file, click the Menu button then click Text File under Import Content
  2. From the drop-down list, choose the Respondent to whom you want to attribute the comments.
  3. Click the File Browse/Choose File button and navigate to the text file you want to import.
  4. Optionally enter one or more regex (regular expression) patterns. The intent of the expressions is to filter and/or substitute text prior to importing. If you are not familiar with regex, leave this blank. If you believe your data needs to be pre-processed, please contact us and we will help you with defining the correct regex patterns.
  5. Click the Submit button to perform the import.


Transcripts

The Transcripts feature is used for converting 1) audio recordings from interviews, and 2) Word documents from transcription services into Symphony content. The following capabilities are provided in support of these objectives:

  • Upload audio files to Symphony and generate a text transcript
  • Upload transcript files in Word format
  • Edit transcripts
  • Create codes and comments from text in transcripts
  • Export transcripts to Word
  • Upload previously-exported Word transcripts (presumably edited versions of the file)

The following topics provide guidance on how to utilize these functions.

Upload & Transcribe Audio File

This option provides you the capability to upload an audio file to your project. You would do this if you want to include text from the audio file as codes or comments in your project. After the file is uploaded, the transcription process begins immediately. You'll receive an email when the transcript is ready. It takes about 20 minutes to transcribe one hour of audio.

To upload an audio file for transcription:

  1. With a project open in Symphony, click the Menu button.
  2. Click "Transcripts" under Import Content. the Transcripts page will open and the Transcripts List will appear.
  3. In the Transcripts List, click the "Upload Audio File" button. The Upload Audio dialog will open.
  4. Give the file a title. This can be anything that will remind you what the file is from. For example, "Joe Blow" or "March Conference Call".
  5. Click the Choose File button and navigate to the audio file. Valid formats are .m4a, .mp3, and .wav.
  6. Click the Upload button. The upload will begin. When it is complete you will be reminded that an email will be sent to you when the transcript is available.

Upload Word Transcript

This option is NOT for uploading Word Interview guides.

This option is for uploading transcripts in Word files, typically what you receive from a transcription service. It is also used to upload a transcript that was previously downloaded here and edited in Word. The file must conform to this format:

  • The speaker's name and subsequent transcribed words must be separated by a colon (:) The speaker's name and colon may appear either in a separate paragraph, or at the start of a paragraph.

Symphony attempts to match speaker names up with names of team members and interviewees. If matches don't exist, you can set them manually.

To upload a transcript:

  1. With a project open in Symphony, click the Menu button.
  2. Click "Transcripts" under Import Content. the Transcripts page will open and the Transcripts List will appear.
  3. In the Transcripts List, click the Upload Word File button. The Upload Word File dialog will open.
  4. On the Upload form, click the File control and navigate to the Word document that you want to upload.

After the upload is finished, the transcript will open for editing automatically.

Edit Transcript

The primary purpose of editing the transcript is to prepare content to be imported as codes or comments.

Load a Transcript

  1. With a project open in Symphony, click the Menu button.
  2. Click "Transcripts" under Import Content. the Transcripts page will open and the Transcripts List will appear.
  3. In the Transcripts List, located the transcript you want to load. If the audio file is available, the checkbox to the left of the transcript name will be enabled. Check the box if you want to download the audio file. The audio file is initially synchronized with the transcript so you can listen to sections you are not sure of.
  4. Click the transcript's button. The transcript will load. If you checked the audio box, the audio file will download as well.

Assign Speakers

A button is provided on the toolbar above the transcript for each speaker. If the transcript was produced by uploading an audio file, the speakers will not be associated with team members or interviewees so you will need to set them. If the transcript was uploaded from a Word file, Symphony will make an attempt to match the names in the transcript with names in the projects. If matches are not found, you will need to set them.

To make it easy to identify speakers with text in the transcript, the text and the speaker buttons are color-coded.

  1. With the transcript open, click the Speaker button for one of the speakers. A list of team members and interviewees in your project will open.
  2. Click the name of the person to whom the speaker button belongs. If the speaker is an interviewee, a "comment" icon will appear next to each paragraph belonging to this interviewee.
  3. Repeat for each of the speakers.

Reassign Paragraph to a Speaker

If a paragraph is attributed to the wrong speaker, right-click the paragraph then choose the correct speaker from the context menu.

Convert Paragraph to a Code

You can add new codes to your coding structure by converting team member speaker paragraphs codes. How you approach this depends on whether you want to create a new code in your coding structure, or if the code you want already exists. Once a paragraph is turned into a code, a folder icon appears next to it. When you click the import button, all comments that follow it will be coded to it until another code is encountered.

To create a new code from a team member speaker paragraph

This can be done one of two ways:

Approach 1

  1. In your coding structure, click the code you want the new code to go inside.
  2. Click on a paragraph belonging to a team member.
  3. Edit the text of the paragraph so it is worded the way you want the code to read.
  4. Click the Create Code button on the popup menu above the paragraph.

Approach 2

  1. Click on a paragraph belonging to a team member.
  2. Edit the text of the paragraph so it is worded the way you want the code to read.
  3. In your coding structure, click the radio button next to the code you want the new code to go inside.

To turn a team member speaker paragraph into an existing code

If the code you want already exists in your coding structure, do this:
  • From your coding structure, drag the code onto the transcript and drop it on the paragraph you want to convert. The text will change and the folder icon will appear.
If you converted a paragraph to a code and you later decide you want it to be a different code, you can drag the desired code onto the paragraph.

Code a Comment

All the texts of speakers designated as interviewees is considered to be comments, each paragraph being a separate comment. However they are not imported into your content as comments unless you explicitly import them. This can be done manually one-by-one, or en mass using the Run Import option described below.

To manually code a comment:

  1. With the transcript loaded, click the paragraph you want to code. The speaker attributed to the paragraph must have previously been designated as an interviewee.
  2. In the coding structure to the right, click the radio button next to the code you want for the comment. The comment will be removed from the transcript and into the coding structure.

Run Import

This feature provides you an automated way of coding a transcript. With this approach, you prepare the transcript for import, then you initiate the automated import. Here's some things to know:
  • Symphony starts at the top of the transcript and works its way to the end.
  • Each time a paragraph attributed to a team member is encountered, it assesses whether the paragraph has been converted to a code. If it has, it verifies that the code exists in the project and remembers it as the Active Code. If it has NOT been coverted to a code, the paragraph is ignored.
  • Each time a paragraph attributed to an interviewee is encountered, it removes it from the transcript and places it inside the Active Code.
  • If no paragraphs have been converted to codes, Symphony places all comments in the Unassigned code.
  • You can convert multiple paragraphs to the same code; it will exist only once in the project but will ensure that comments are coded as intended.

To run the automatic import:

  1. With the transcript open, ensure that all speakers have been appropriately identified as team members or interviewees.
  2. For each team member paragraph for which you want a corresponding code ensure that it has been converted. If it hasn't:
    • click the paragraph then click the radio button next to the code in your coding structure you want it to go inside, or
    • click the code in your coding structure you want it to go inside of, then click the paragraph, then click the "Create Code" button on the context menu above the paragraph.
  3. For each interviewee paragraph, assess whether you want to import it. If you don't, click the paragraph then click the "Delete Paragraph" button on the that the last paragraph
  4. Click the Run Import button. The comments will be removed from the transcript and inserted into the project's content.

Delete Transcript

After you've finished with a transcript, delete it as follows:

  1. With the Transcripts tab open, click the Transcripts button to open the Transcripts list.
  2. Right-click the transcript you want to delete, then click the Delete option on the context menu.

People View

People View is for managing respondents and their comments. In general, it is more efficient to import respondents from a spreadsheet and their comments either from a document or a survey spreadsheet, but this view provides the capability to add then one-by-on as well as edit their information after they've been added to the project through other means.

People View is organized into four sections:

  • The Left Panel is the Respondent List, showing all respondents in the project.
  • The Center Panel is Comment List, showing all comments attributed to the respondent that is highlighted in the Respondent List.
  • The Content Editor is a text region located below the Center Panel. It displays the complete text of the highlighted comment. You can edit the comment text in the Content Editor.
  • The Coding Structure is located on the right side of the view. It displays your project's coding structure. In addition, it show how the currently-highlighted Comment is coded.

In most cases, Symphony refers to people as "respondents". Comments are attributed to respondents. A respondent does not have to be a person; it can also be an event such as a focus group. Regardless of the actual entity, comments are attributed to respondents, and any attributes such as demographics that belong to the respondent are inherited by the comments attributed to the respondent.

Open People View

To open People View, click the People button on the console toolbar.

Add Respondents

It is usually quicker to import your respondents from a spreadsheet. You can however add them manually as follows:

  1. Click People on the main tool bar to bring up People view.
  2. Click the New Respondent icon above the Respondent List.
  3. Give the respondent a first and last name. If the respondent is a focus group or if the respondent has only a single name, enter it in the First Name field.
  4. Click OK to save the respondent and exit. Alternatively, if you have more respondents to enter click OK/More and the form will stay open and reset for entering another.

Assign Demographic Value

Demographics are custom attributes pertaining to respondents. Examples are Gender, Location, and Tenure. Each demographic has "demographic values" such as Male and Female for Gender.

The primary purpose of demographics in Symphony is to provide ways of grouping and/or filtering respondents to perform deep analysis or targeted reports. For example, with a Gender demographic you can compare the average comment sentiment for Males and Females. Or run a Feedback Report that contains comments belonging to respondents from a particular country.

Symphony implements demographics as "tag groups" and "tags". A demographic such as Gender would be a tag group, and Male and Female would be tags within the group. What differentiates a demographic from other tag groups is that you define the tag group to be used for respondents only.

To manage the demographic values assigned to a respondent:

  1. Open the Tags Widget at the bottom of the screen by clicking its icon.
  2. Scroll down to the Tag Group that contains the demographic you want to change for the respondent.
  3. Click the respondent you want to change. The radio button next to the current demographic value assignment (if any) will become selected.
  4. Either click the radio button next to the demographic value you want to assign, or drag the demographic value onto the respondent. (The other direction doesn't work.)
  5. Repeat #3 for each additional demographic you want to set for the respondent.

Add Comments

Generally if your comments exist in electronic form, it is more efficient to import them using the Excel or Word Import utilities. However, you can add/edit comments for a respondent directly in People View.

  1. In People view, right-click the respondent for whom the comment is to be attributed, and choose New Comment. Alternatively, left-click the respondent then click the New Comment button over the Comments List.
  2. Type or paste the text of the comment into the text field of the Comment Properties form.
  3. Click OK to save the comment and exit, or if you have more comments to enter click OK/More.

Paste Comments from Clipboard

You can add comments for a respondent using your computer's clipboard. Any text that is copied to your computer's clipboard can be pasted as new comments for a respondent. Each paragraph is saved as a separate comment, and they are placed inside the Unassigned code.'

  1. Copy the text from another application into your computer's clipboard'
  2. In People view, right-click a respondent and choose "Paste Comments from Clipboard". New comments will show up for the respondent, one for each paragraph pasted.

Code Comments

Code View has additional features to help you code efficiently. However, if you want to focus on coding comments belonging to specific respondents, you will find People view more suitable since the comments are organized by respondent.

  1. Click the respondent for whom you want to code comments.
  2. In the Comments List click a comment. The code(s) it is currently coded to will become highlighted in the Coding Structure.
  3. Either drag the comment onto the desired code, or click the checkboxwhen a code accepts comments that are coded to more than one code or radio buttonWhen a comment is coded here, it is moved out of any other codes. next to the desired code. The Coding Structure display will update to reflect the new coding.
If the code you want doesn't exist, you can create it by right-clicking the code you want as the parent, followed by New Code in the context menu.

Split a Comment

The ideal comment consists of a single theme relevant to the project. This is so that only the data relevant to a report or analysis is included in filter criteria. For projects such as large employee engagement surveys, this might not be practical, in which case you may want to take advantage of Symphony's multi-codeAllows comments to be coded to more than one code feature. However, for projects such as team assessments or comparisons of job candidates, single-themed comments might add to the overall project quality. Symphony's split comment feature gives you a way to do this efficiently. When you split a comment, Symphony removes the split portion from one comment and creates a new comment with the split portion, and attributes it to the same respondent. The split portion inherits all tags attached to the original comment, but these can be managed separately without affecting the original.

Comments can be split in People view and Coding view. They can also be split directly inside the Comment Properties form any place this form is available.

Split Comment in Content Editor

To split a comment in the Content Editor:

  1. Click the person to whom the comment belongs to.
  2. In the Comment List click the comment you want to split.
  3. In the Content Editor at the bottom of the view (where the entire comment text is displayed) use your mouse to select the text you want to split out.
  4. Using your mouse, click and hold the mouse button down on the hightlighted text and drag it onto a code in the Coding Structure. The selected text will be removed from the original comment and a new one created and coded to the code you dropped it on.

Splitting Comments in the Comment Properties Form

To split a comment in the Comment Properties Form:

  1. Locate the comment you want to split and double-click it to bring up its Properties form.
  2. Using your mouse, select the text you want to split out.
  3. Drag the selected text onto a code. The selected text will be removed from the original comment and a new one created and coded to the code you dropped it on.

Merge Comments

Merge Comments is the opposite of splitting: you want to combine two comments into one. The result is the same as if you select the text of one comment, delete the comment, then paste it to the end of another comment. In addition, if the consumed comment has tags that the consuming comment doesn't have, they are added as well.

  1. Open People view, then click the comment you want to merge -- this is the comment that will be combined into another comment.
  2. Press and hold your computer's Alt key.
  3. Drag the comment onto the comment into which you want to merge it, and drop it.

The text from the dragged comment is appended to the text of the target comment as a new paragraph, and then the comment is deleted. Any tags the dragged comment had are added to the target comment.

Create/View a Field Note

Field notes are basically comments about codes or comments. They are intended to provide you and your team with a way of communicating something about a comment, usually where you want to revisit it later on. For example, you might want to leave a field note asking a team member to reconsider the way they have a comment coded.

Field notes are visible in the comment's properties form. In Review view, an additional icon is displayed next to comments to indicate that they have field notes.

To create or view a field note for a comment:

  1. Double-click a comment to open its properties form.
  2. The comment properties form is divided into two primary regions. The top region is the comment text. The lower region is the field note. If you are leaving a field note, click in the lower region and begin typing. When you close the form or click somewhere outside the form, the field note will be saved.

Edit While Navigating People View

Symphony provides an efficient way of editing respondents, comments, and codes while navigating around People view.

  1. Double-click a respondent, comment, or a code. Its properties form will open and the entity you clicked will be loaded.
  2. Make edits to the entity you have any to make.
  3. Single-click another entity of any type that has a properties form. Any changes made to entity you edited will be saved and the one you single-clicked will be loaded into its properties form.

Coding View

Symphony's Coding view provides the capability to manage your coding structure and the location of comments within it.

Coding View is organized into three main areas:

Coding Structure - Displays your coding structure as a hierarchy tree Content List - Displays the codes and comments contained inside the code that is highlighted in the coding structure
Content Editor - Displays the text of the code or comment selected in the Content List. You can directly modify the text here

Open Coding View

To open Coding View, click the Coding button on the console toolbar.

Create a Code

New codes are always created either as a top-level code within the coding structure, or as a sub-code of an existing code. These instructions describe using the coding structure's context menu, which is the easiest way to create a code while engaged in coding activities.

  1. Using your mouse, right-click the root of the coding structure, or right-click the code inside which you want to create a sub-code. A context menu will open.
  2. Choose "New Code" on the context menu. The Code Properties form will open.
  3. In the Code Properties form, type the text you want for the code.
  4. Check the "Multi-Code" box if you want this code to allow comments in it to be coded to other codes. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to split multi-themed comments so they can be tracked separately. So before checking this box, be very certain this is what you want to do.
  5. Check the "This is a theme" box if this is a thematic code. This setting is relevant in two ways:
    • First, if you have Symphony generate interview guides for you, thematic codes are excluded from the guide. This is under the assumption that if it is not a theme, it is a high level category or a question -- both of which you would normally want in an interview guide.
    • The second case is with regard to the AI if you have it enabled for your project. Codes that are designated at thematic codes are considered destinations by the AI when classification is performed with features such as the Code Suggestion component and the Autocode feature. Also, in the case of top level codes, this affects how the AI writes labels. By default, top level code labels are brief and usually neutral in sentiment, more suited to broard categories. However, if a top level code is designated as a theme, the AI will generate a more verbose label that tends to be more actionable.
  6. Click OK. Alternatively if you have another code to create, click OK/More.

Edit the text of a Code

This can be done one of two ways:

  • Double-click the code in the Coding Structure. This will bring the Code's Properties form, where you can modify the text.
  • Alternatively, if you have the parent of the code selected in the Coding Structure, scroll down through the Content List until you find the code you want to edit, click on it, then modify the text in the Content Editor beneath the Content List. When you click your mouse outside the Content Editor, the changes will be applied.
When you have the Properties Form open for a code, clicking on another code in the Coding Structure saves the code and loads the code you just clicked into the Properties Form.

Change code or comment order

To move a code or comment up or down amongst its peers:

  1. Click the code or comment you want to move
  2. On the toolbar, click the up () or down () arrow, depending on the direction you want to move it. Alternatively, hold the Ctrl key down and press the Up or Down arrow keys on your computer keyboard.

A code or comment will move only if it can. For example, if a comment is the last in a code, clicking the down arrow will have no effect.

You can move multiple codes and comments at the same time by selecting a range.

Move a Code

Depending on your objective, there different actions. These actions can be modified with the Alt Key.

  • To move a code from one parent to another, drag it using your left mouse button onto the code in the Coding Struture you want for the new parent. You can start the drag in the Coding Structure, or in the Content List if it is there. Alternatively, you can click the radio button next to the target code and that will move it.
  • To move a code in or out one level while keep it in its relative order, click it in the Coding Structure, then click the or button above the Coding Structure. Note that the code has to be able to fit logically where the move implies. For example, a top-level code cannot be moved out.
  • To move a code up or down amongst its peers (that is, you want to change its order) click the code either in the Coding Structure or in Content List, then click the up () or down () arrow above it.

Delete a Code

Codes can be deleted only when they contain no codes or comments.

  • Click the code in either the Coding Structure or Content List, then click the Delete () button above it.

Merge Codes

Sometimes you might want to move the comments out of one code and into another and delete the code. You can do this by selecting the comments, dragging them into the destination code, then delete the code.

Symphony provides a short-cut approach that moves the comments and deletes the code all in one motion. The action also applies to sub-codes and their contained comments. So essentially you can consolidate an entire tree of codes and comments into a single code.

  1. With the Coding tab active, locate the code that you want to remove.
  2. Holding the Alt key down, drag and drop the code onto the code where you want the comments to be moved. Symphony will move the comments and delete the code as well as any sub-codes.

Code a Comment

  • Locate the comment in the Content List, then drag it onto the desired code in the Coding Structure.
  • Alternatively: click the comment, then click the radio button next to the code you want to move the comment into.

Edit the Text of a Comment

To edit the text of a comment:

  1. Locate the comment in the Content List and click on it so it is selected. It's text will appear in the Content Editor beneath the Content List.
  2. Make the changes to the comment text. When you click your mouse outside the Content Editor, the changes will be applied.

Split a Comment

Depending on your analysis objectives, you may want to split a comment into two or more separate comments when it contains more than one theme. When a comment is split, each portion is tracked as a separate comment attributed to the original respondent, and has its own coding and tags.

To split a comment:

  1. Locate the comment in the Content List and click on it so it is selected. It's text will appear in the Content Editor beneath the Content List.
  2. Using your mouse cursor select the portion of text that you want to split into another comment. Alternatively you can click at one end of the text then press and hold the Ctrl key as you use the left or right arrow to expand the selection.
  3. Now drag the selection onto a code in the Coding Structure and drop it. The selection will be removed from the comment, and a new comment will be created and coded to the code that was the drop target.
If the original comment has any tags, copies are created and attached to the new comment.

Manage Field Notes

Symphony provides the capability to make field notes for individual codes and comments. An example of a field note for a code is an elaboration on what you had in mind when you created the code. An example of a field note for a comment is you suggest to your team mates that the comment should be moved to a different code. You can use the code and comment field notes for whatever purpose you desire. But the general intent is to provide a way of making a statement or bringing attention to a code or comment.

Field notes are recorded in the lower section of the code and comment properties forms. To make a field note or to read one, simply double-click the code or comment to bring up its properties form.

Display Statistics

You can optionally display a statistic next to each code in the coding structure. This can be useful during analysis to gain a sense of comment distribution across your codes. Values are updated automatically as changes are make to your project. Here are the choices:

# Comments - Deep
This statistic shows you how many comments are contained inside a code, including all codes below it in the coding structure. If you take the branch of the coding structure that starts with this code, the vaue is the all the comments contained in that branch.
# Comments - Shallow
This statistic shows you how many comments are directly contained in a code. It ignores comments inside of codes below the code.
% Comments
This statistic shows you what percent of the comments are in each code, including its subcodes.
# Respondents
This statistic shows you how many unique respondents have comments inside a code, including all codes below it in the coding structure. Each respondent is counted only once, so if they have more than one comment inside a code, they are still counted once.
% Respondents
This statistic show you what percent of respondents have comments inside a code, including all codes below it in the coding structure.
Avg Similarity
This statistic tells you how similar Symphony thinks comments are inside a code. A higher percentage is associated with fine-grained coding. A lower percentage is associated with course-grained coding or comment that don't share a theme.
Net Sentiment
This statistic tells you how what the overall sentiment is of the comments contained inside a code and its subcodes. This statistic is valid only after you have sentiment calculated.

To set the display statistic:

  1. Click the chart () on the toolbar above the coding structure
  2. Click the statistic you want to display, or to stop displaying a statistic choose None
If you are interested in viewing only certain comments (e.g. ones that contain certain words or belong to respondents in a particular demographic) click the Filter button on the toolbar above the coding structure.

Edit While Navigating Coding View

Symphony provides an efficient way of codes and comments while navigating around the Coding tab.

  1. Double-click a code or comment. Its properties form will open and the entity you clicked will be loaded.
  2. Make edits to the entity.
  3. Single-click another code or comment. Any edits to the entity will be saved and the one you single-clicked will be loaded into its properties form.

Word Tree

The Word Tree organizes the words in your project into a hierarchy of "nodes", where each node represents one or more words found near each other in a set of comments. The frequency the word/phrase appears in your data is included. The primary use of the Word Tree is to uncover themes. Unlike Symphony's Cluster Analysis, the Word Tree can identify multiple themes in each comment. This makes it ideal for projects where multi-themed comments are common (e.g. employee engagement surveys). For other types of projects, it can still be used but you should keep the "Auto-Run on Code" option checked so as to unintentionally moving comments from one code to another repeatedly.

The Word Tree page is organized into four sections:

  • The left panel is the Word Tree itself. After you run an analysis, the frequently used words appear here (exclusive of pronouns and other common words) each one representing a separate tree. Below each of these words are "branches" formed by the most common words found in the subset of comments represented by the tree. This is repeated for each level until no new branches can be found containing at least two comments.
  • The center-top panel is the Comments List, populated by the Comments that contain the word highlighted in the Word Tree. If a branch is highlighted, the comments are the subset of words that contain all the words from the root of the tree down to that branch.
  • The center-bottom panel is the Node List consisting of all the nodes in the Word Tree where the comment can be found. Clicking an item here causes the Word Tree and Comment List to perform a navigation Where the corresponding node in the Word Tree is selected. This makes it easy to examine individual Comments in the context of other themes to see whether they are important to your analysis.
  • The right panel is the Coding Structure for your project. It shows you how the highlighted Comment in the Comment List is currrently coded.

Open Word Tree

To open the Word Tree View, click the Word Tree button on the console toolbar.

Run Analysis

  1. Click the Filter button and set a filter to narrow the scope to the comments you want to include in the analysis.
  2. Click the Run button. After a few moments, the Word Tree generated from your project will appear.

Examine Results

A big part of using the Word Tree is taking the time to understand what from the result is useful to you. Your data is decomposed multiple times into different branches. This can be a bit overwhelming, but gives you the latitude to pick a starting point that seems important to you analysis. Here are the things that will help you zero in on the nodes of interest:

  • Levels -- This dropdown collapses or expands the nodes to the level you choose. Displaying only higher levels is a good way of identifying the most common themes.
  • Items -- This dropdown filters out nodes containing fewer Comments than the selected number. This makes it easier to focus on nodes that represent enough Comments to be important in your analysis.

Code Results

The Word Tree page includes a copy of your coding structure so you can code comments as well as maintain your coding structure.

Code to Existing Code

Directly

  1. In the Word Tree, click a node. The Comments represented by that node will appear in the Comments List.
  2. In the Comments List, select one or more Comments.
  3. Either drag the comments onto a Code in the Coding Structure, or click the radio button/check box next to the Code.

Indirectly using Node

  1. In the Word Tree click a node so it is selected.
  2. Holding the Alt key down, drag the node onto a code. The comments represented by the node will be coded to the target code.

Code to New Code

You can create a new code from a Word Tree node and have its Comments coded as follows:

  1. In the Word Tree click a node
  2. Either drag the node onto an existing Code in the Coding Structure. A new Code will be create inside the destination Code and Comments will be coded to it. You can then edit the text of the new Code.

Create Venn Diagram

A Venn Diagram is made up of circles representing data. The circles overlap according to how closely the data is related.

In Symphony's Word Tree view, the circles represent words or phrases found in comments. The diameter of each circle is determined by how often the word or phrase appears.

Create a Venn Diagram

To create a venn diagram, check the checkbox next to each word or phrase you want to include.

To remove a word or phrase from a venn diagram, click its checkbox to remove the checkmark;

Save a Venn Diagram

You can save a venn diagram to your computer by clicking the Save Diagram button. The diagram is saved as a .svg file. You can open it directly in a browser, or you can insert it into other applications that accept .svg files as images.

Auto-Rerun After Code

Generally speaking, when you perform actions such as dragging a Word Tree branch onto your coding structure (which creates a code and moves the branch's comments into the new code) it is a good idea to re-run the analysis with the new code filtered out. The reason for this is that performing additional coding may have unintended results, particularly if your project's Multi-Code setting is turned off.

To make this easy, Symphony includes a checkbox setting that does this for you after new codes are created. By default it is checked, meaning after a code is created a filter will be set and the analysis will run again. If you don't want this behavior, uncheck the box.


Review

The Symphony Review is intended to enable you to get a feel of the overall flow of your analyzed content toward the end of your coding efforts. At the same time, it provides the same capabilities for creating and editing codes and comments and changing their positions as does Coding view. The difference is that Report view is optimised for viewing as opposed for coding. It provides a continuous flow through your coding structure, the same as it would be for a printed report.

Open Symphony's Review

To open Symphony's Review, click the Review button on the console toolbar.

Code a comment

In Symphony's Review view, the easiest way to code a comment is as follows:

  1. Click the comment you want to code
  2. Scroll the view until the destination code is on the screen
  3. Click the checkbox/radio button next to the code

Change code or comment order

The order of codes and comments matters in that how you see them here in Review view is the how you see them in a Feedback report.

To move a code or comment up or down amongst its peers:

  1. Click the code or comment you want to move
  2. On the toolbar, click the up () or down () arrow, depending on the direction you want to move it. Alternatively, hold the Ctrl key down and press the Up or Down arrow keys on your computer keyboard.

A code or comment will move only if it can. For example, if a comment is the last in a code, clicking the down arrow will have no effect.

You can move multiple codes and comments at the same time by selecting a range.

Modify a Code or Comment

To modify the text of a code or comment:

  1. Double-click the code or comment you want to edit. It's properties form will open.
  2. Make your changes, then either click OK or click another another code or comment. If you click another code or comment, the properties form will remain open and the code or comment you click will load.

Add/View Notes

The code and comment properties forms include an area for entering a field note about the code or comment. This can be used for any purpose you desire, such as a reminder to yourself about next steps related to the code or comment, or instructions to your colleagues. To indicate that a code or comment has field note, the Review displays an icon next to it.

To add or view a field note, double-click the code or comment to bring up its properties form. Also, you can quickly view field note by moving your mouse over the icon.

Decorators

Decorators are additional pieces of information optionally displayed about a code or comment. For codes, decorators are a statistic. For comments, decorators are either tags such as demographics or the name or title of the respondent that the comment is attributed to.

To choose decorators:

  1. Click the Decorators button on the toolbar. The Decorators List will open.
  2. Click the checkbox or radio button next to each decorator you want to display. The decorators immediately appear next to the codes and/or comments.
  3. When you are finished, close the Decorators List either by clicking the Decorators button a second time, or by clicking the list's close button.

Queries

Symphony's Queries view enables you to define and run queries against your project. Queries consist of:

  • A set of columns, each one representing either a Symphony entity, an attribute of an entity, or a predefined statistic.
  • An optional filter for extracting results from a specific slice of your project.

Symphony's Queries view is quite powerful and quick. It makes it possible for you to ask pretty much anything of your data and get an almost immediate response. If your project includes demographics or ratings items defined as demographics, you should find that Symphony's Queries view provides you with the tools you need to gain deep insights into your data.

Open Symphony's Query Utility

To open Symphony's Query Utility, click the Queries button on the console toolbar.

Define a query

To define a new query:

  1. Click the Queries button on the main toolbar to open Queries view.
  2. Click the New Query button on the toolbar directly above the Queries List.
  3. In the Query Properties form, give the query a name. The name can be whatever you want it to be, but be aware that if you output the query to Excel, the name will be modified to conform to the worksheet naming limitations.
  4. Optionally provide a description to remind you what the query does.
  5. Optionally choose a Layout. This setting is relevant ONLY if the query will be output to a Feedback Report.

    OptionDescription
    HierarchyThe query rows are arranged into a drill-down hierarchy. On the Feedback Report form you map each query column to a Word style in your template; this determines how the text will be formatted.
    TableThe query results are arranged into a Word table defined in your Word template.

  6. Optionally limit the number of rows output per code.
  7. Check the Include Totals if you want a row generated at the end that provides totals for numeric columns.
  8. Check the Maskify checkbox if you want words that you have identified as sensitive in the Maskifier widget to used their masked format.
  9. Click OK. The query will appear in the Queries list.
  10. Click the query in the Queries list so it is highlighted.
  11. In the Entities, Statistics, and Attributes lists, check the checkbox next to each column you want to add to the query. Or alternatively drag the entry onto the query results header. As you do this, columns will appear in the Results panel at the bottom of the view.
  12. If you decide to remove a column, uncheck its box or click the "close button" on the row header and it will be removed.
  13. Repeat until all the columns you want in the query appear in the Results panel.

Modify Column Properties

Once you've chosen columns for your query, you can customize various properties for each. Do this by double-clicking a column header or right-clicking the header and choosing Properties to bring up the Query Column Properties form.

Property Description
CaptionThis is the displayed in the header row of the output. By default this is the name of the column.
Value RequiredThis has different meanings for different types of columns.
Min ValueIf you want to restrict output to rows that meet a minimum value, enter it here.
Max ValueIf you want to restrict output to rows that don't exceed a certain maximum value, enter it here.
HiddenWhen checked, the column is not included in the output. This option is used when you want to use a column to place restrictions on rows but don't want the column included in the results.
Suppress RepeatsThis applies to Entity and Attribute columns only. When checked, the value for the cell is displayed only when the underlying Entity changes. Otherwise an empty cell is produced.
Harvey ballThis column applies to Statistic columns only. When checked, this column displays a Harvey ball instead of the statistic. The Harvey ball to display is determined by the "upper limit" setting for each Harvey ball. (These settings are visible only when the Harvey ball box is checked.)

When Harvey balls are used in a crosstab query: the Harvey ball upper limit settings apply to the individual crosstab columns. Not sure what values you want for the Harvey ball upper limits? Run the query once with the Harvey ball setting unchecked, take note of the values in the query results, and use what you learned as the basis for the values.
Pre-SortThe pre-sort sorts the query results immediately after the query executes and BEFORE the Max Rows setting is evaluated. This gives you an opportunity to have the desired rows returned in the event that Max Rows is set. For example, if you want the rows where a particular statistic value is the highest, you can have the results pre-sorted in descending order on that statistic; the rows with the highest values will survive the Max Rows test, if it is set.
Post-SortThis determines the final order of the rows returned. Choose the direction from the dropdown. The results can be sorted on multiple columns, in which case the sorts are performed from left to right first on Entities, then Statistics.

Crosstab Query

A crosstab query is a query that calculates a statistic, and then groups the results by two sets of values — one for each row and the other for each column.

Here's a query result that is NOT a crosstab:

OrganizationRegion# of Respondents
Customer ServiceNorth America1025
Customer ServiceAsia546
Customer ServiceEurope438
MarketingNorth America687
MarketingAsia138
MarketingEurope97
TechnologyNorth America254
TechnologyAsia94
TechnologyEurope408
OperationsNorth America2659
OperationsAsia869
OperationsEurope482

And here's the same query with the Region column displayed in a crosstab:

OrganizationNorth AmericaAsiaEuropeTotal Respondents
Customer Service10255464382009
Marketing68713897922
Technology2549460408
Operations26598694824010

Crosstab queries are created by converting an Entity column in a existing query into a crosstab column. Do this as follows:

  • After the query has been defined, right click the header of the Entity column for which you want the statistic calculated, then choose "Convert to Crosstab". The column will be replaced with new columns, one for each possible Entity.

Here are some important things to know about crosstabs:

  • They are limited to 100 Entity statistic columns. If you have more than that, set a filter prior to converting the Entity column that limits the number of columns.
  • If you add or remove Entity values in your project, the query columns set up for the crosstab are not automatically updated. If you delete Entities, delete the corresponding columns. If you add Entities, it will be necessary to remove the columns from the query, then add and convert the Entity column.

Run a Query

  1. Click the Query you want to run in the Queries list. Its columns will appear in the Results panel.
  2. Click the Run button () button on the view's toolbar. The results will appear in the Results panel.

Download Query Results to Excel

After you run a query, you can download it to an Excel file as follows:

  1. Run the query you want to download.
  2. After the query finishes, click the Download Excel button.
  3. Follow your browser's instructions for saving the file to your computer
The Download Excel button always downloads the results of the last query you ran. So if you run two queries and want to download the first one, you must run it again, or you will get the results of the last query.

Delete a Query

If you decide to delete a query you defined, highlight it in the Queries list and click the Delete () button directly above the list.

Predefined Queries

In addition to the queries you define, Symphony also creates four queries in every project. These queries can be modified, but they cannot be deleted. Here's what they each do by default:

  • Sandbox - this is a placeholder as a convenience to you, for quickly trying out ad hoc queries. Once you open Queries view, you can simply click the Sandbox query, add some columns to it, and run the query.
  • Codes Only - produces a table with a column for each level of codes.
  • Respondent List - produces a table consisting of each respondent's name and optional title.
  • Default - produces a table where each row consists of the text of one comment and the coding path to the comment. Each code level is in its own column. The rows are organized around the coding structure hierarchy. This query is used as the default for producing feedback reports.

Available Columns

Queries View includes four lists of columns that can be added to queries. This section describes each.

Entity Columns

Entity Columns represent the content in your project such as codes, tags, respondents, and so forth. Entities normally have relationships with other entities -- often many relationships. For example, a code has a relationship with all the codes and comments inside of it. When an entity column is included in a query, it effectively function as a row-level filter. What this means is that a row is output for each entity. If multiple entity columns are included in a query, a row is output for each combination of entities.

Column Description
Project Member ColumnOutputs the name of each Symphony user with access to your project. As a minimum it includes you but can include other users if you have a shared account and you give them access.
RespondentsOutputs the name of each survey respondent or interviewee for your project Respondents are the entities to whom comments are attributed to.
Code Level 1, Code Level 2, etcOutputs your codes at the respective levels.
CommentThis column produces a row for each comment, consisting of its text.
DemographicsIf you have any demographics defined, they are listed next. Including one of them outputs the values of each of the demographic values. For example, a Gender demographic might output two rows: one for Male and one for Female.
Tag GroupsOutputs a row for each Tag Group in your project. Tag Groups include demographics because demographics are set up as a special kind of Tag Group.
TagsOutputs the Tags contained inside your Tag Groups.
Word/PhraseOutput each word/phrase found in the project.
A key to understanding how to get what you want from a query is grasping the fact that when more than one entity column is included, an output row is created for each combination of values. For example if your project has demographics for Occupation and Gender, you will get a row for each Occupation/Gender pair if you include them both in a query. This effectively gives you the capability to create drill-downs into any slice of your project.

Statistic Columns

Statistic Columns produce numbers for you. They can be used by themselves, but when they are combined with one or more entity columns, a row is produced for each entity combination and the statistic is based on the entity.

ColumnDescription
# of RespondentsThis gives you the number of unique respondents in each row.
# of CommentsThis gives you the number of comments represented in each row.
# of WordsThis gives you the total count of words contained in the comments represented in each row.
Phrase CountThis is used in conjunction with the Words/Phrases Entity column. It gives you a count of how many times each unique Word/Phrase appears in each row.
Avg # of WordsThis gives you the average number of words appearing in the comments represented in each row.
# of Respondents CommentsThis gives you the total number of comments belonging to the respondents represented in each row.
Demographic SizeThis gives you the number of respondents belonging to the demographic(s) included in the query. If no demographic columns are included, this is always equal to the number of respondents in the project.
# of Respondents - OverallThis is the number of unique respondents included in the query.
% of Demographic ValueFor each row, this is the percent of unique respondents from the demographic(s) included in the query.
% of CrosstabFor crosstab queries.
% of RespondentsFor each row, this gives you the percent of respondents included in the query. If the query doesn't included a filter, the percentage is based on the total unique respondents in the project.
% of Respondents - OverallThis gives you the percent of respondents in the project represented in each row.
Demographic % of RespondentsFor each demographic value, this gives you the percent of respondents in the query.
% of CommentsFor each row, this gives you the percent of comments included in the query. If there is no filter, this is based on the number of comments in the project.
% of Comments - OverallFor each row, this gives you the percent of comments included in the project.
% of Demographic CommentsFor each demographic represented in the current row, this gives you the percent of comments belonging to the underlying respondents.
Positive SentimentThis gives you the average positive sentiment associated with the underlying comments. The average includes comments whether they have positive sentiment or not.
Positive Sentiment - StrictThis is the same as the Positive Sentiment, but the calculation includes only comments that have positive sentiment.
Negative SentimentThis gives you the average negative sentiment associated with the underlying comments. The average includes comments whether they have negative sentiment or not.
Negative Sentiment- StrictThis is the same as the Positive Sentiment, but the calculation includes only comments that have negative sentiment.
Net SentimentThis is the average sentiment. If the value is more than .5, the overall sentiment is positive.
Count of Level 1 CodesThis gives you the number of top level codes used by the comments represented in each row.
Count of Level 2 CodesThis gives you the number of second level codes used by the comments represented in each row.
Count of Level 3 CodesThis gives you the number of third level codes used by the comments represented in each row.
Count of Level 4 CodesThis gives you the number of forth level codes used by the comments represented in each row.
# of TagsThis is the number of tags used by the codes, comments, and/or respondents represented in each row.
% of TagsThis is the number of tags used by the codes, comments, and/or respondents represented in each row presented as a percentage of the total tags.
Count of Tagged ContentThis is the count of entities in the current row that have tags associated with them.

Attribute Columns

Generally speaking, these columns provide additional information about an Entity (code, comment, respondent, etc.). These are similar to the Entity columns, but they give you control over what is being displayed for the entity.

ColumnDescription
Comment IDThis column produces a row for each comment, consisting of Symphony's internal comment ID assigned to the comment.
Comment Field NoteThis column produces a row for each comment, consisting of the comments's field notes.
Code TextThis column produces a row for each code irrespective of code level, consisting of the text of the code.
Discussion 1This column produces a row for each top level code, consisting of the notes for the code.
Discussion 2This column produces a row for each second level code, consisting of the notes for the code.
Discussion 3This column produces a row for each third level code, consisting of the notes for the code.
Respondent TitleThis column produces a row for each respondent, consisting of the respondent's title.
Respondent First NameThis column produces a row for each respondent, consisting of the respondent's first name.
Respondent Last NameThis column produces a row for each respondent, consisting of the respondent's last name.
OutlineThis column produces a row for each comment, consisting of a dot-separated number that shows the coding hierarchy path to the comment.

Chart Columns

Charts you've defined in Charts View can be included as query columns. This results in a chart being generated in the corresponding cell for each row. The data for the chart comes from the query assigned to the chart, and the data for the chart's query is the subset of data for the row the chart is being generated in.

With chart columns, you can:

  • Display a chart for each row of data in Queries View.
  • Display a chart for each row of data output to a Feedback report.

Set a Filter

You can set a filter to narrow the scope of content included in a query. For example, you can have a query return comments only for respondents belonging to a particular demographic.

To set a filter:

  1. In Queries view, click a query in the Queries List.
  2. Click the Filter button toward the upper-left corner of the view.
  3. Click the tab that contains the type of entities on which you want to filter.
  4. Change the settings on the tab to the criteria on which you want to filter.

Spawn a Chart

Symphony's Spawn a Chart feature is a short-cut for creating a chart. After you define a query, you can simply tell Symphony to spawn a chart, and the new chart that uses the query will be available immediately in Charts view.

To spawn a chart:

  1. In Queries view, right-click the query you want to use.
  2. Choose Spawn a Chart from the context menu. A new chart with the same name as the query will be available in Charts view. (An arrow appear next the the query name, which when clicked will take you to the chart in Charts view.)

Charts

With Symphony Charts you can produce charts of your data. The charts use data from queries you define in Queries view. The charts are displayed in real-time from the queries, and can be included in Feedback reports.

With Symphony Charts, you can

  • Display ad hoc graphic representations of your project's data.
  • Save generated charts to .PNG files on your computer.
  • Have charts displayed in your Feedback reports.
  • Include as columns in queries.

As a minimum, all charts require the query to include at least one Statistic column. A single Entity or Attribute column can be included to produce a drill-down. If extra columns are included, they are ignored. Exceptions to the data requirements are noted in the table below.

ChartDescriptionQuery data requires
ColumnVertical bars where the height of each is determined by an assigned value
BarHorizontal bars where the eight of each is determined by an assigned value
PieCircle divided into slices, where each the size of each slice is an Entity whose size is determined by an assigned valueThe pie is sliced using the first visible Statistic column in the query; subsequent Statistic columns are ignored.
LineSeries of line segments connecting Entities represented by dots, the vertical position if each determined by its value
ScatterDisplays Entities in an XY grid
  • Two Statistic columns; subsequent Statistic columns are ingmored. The first is used for the X axis, the second is used for the Y axis.
BubbleSame as Scatter, but a third statistic is used to define the size of each data point.
  • Three Statistic columns; subsequent Statistics columns are ignored
RadarDisplays Entities in a circular grid, where the distance of each entity from the center is a measure of the relationship strength to another Entity.
  • Entity column (e.g. Respondent)
  • One or more Entity or Attribute columns.
  • Statistic Column
TreemapDisplays Entities in a rectangular grid, where the space occupied by each is a percentage of an aggregate statistic. Ideal for presenting the relative predominance of items in a hierarchy (e.g. how many Respondents are coded to each code throughout the coding structure)
  • At least one Entity or Attribute column. Each column produces a drill-down into the previous. For example, If the first Entity is Code Level 1 and the second is a Demographic, each top level Code box is sub-divided into the Demographic value.
  • Statistic column

Open Symphony's Charts Utility

To open Symphony's Charts Utility, click the Charts button on the main toolbar.

Create a Chart

To create a new chart:

  1. Open Charts view.
  2. In the Queries list, right click the query you want to use as a data source and choose Spawn a Chart. The new chart will appear in the Charts list and its properties form will open.
  3. In the Chart Types list, click the radio button next to the type of chart you want to use.
  4. Drag the lower-left corner of the chart to resize it or choose from one of the presets on the toolbar above the chart.
  5. Change other settings as desired on the Chart Properties form then click OK.
When the Chart Properties form is open, only the settings relevant to the Chart Type are displayed. You can change the Chart Type, Query, and size of the chart with the Chart Properties form open or closed.

Set Query

The data used by charts is provided by queries defined in Symphony's Queries View. By default, new charts are set up to use the predefined "Sandbox" query. You can change this to any query in your project.

  • In the Queries list, click the Radio button next to the query you want to use. The query will run automatically and the chart will be updated.

Set Chart Type

To choose the type of chart you want to create:

  • In the Chart Type List, click the radio button next to the type of chart you want. If the query selected for the chart meets the minimum data requirements for the current chart type, the chart displayed will be updated.

Run Query

The query used by a chart is run automatically when you make a change. If however you modify the query itself -- for example you switch to Queries view and add or remove a column -- the query will not run. To force it to run, click the Run Query button.

Resize Chart

To resize the chart, either

  • drag the lower-right corner of the chart region in any direction, or
  • choose dimensions from the Preset Size list on the toolbar above the chart.

Clone a Chart

Symphony's Clone a Chart feature creates a new chart from an existing one. You can for example experiment with the built-in Sandbox chart, then when you have something you want to keep, clone it.

To Clone a Chart:

  1. Open Charts view
  2. Modify the Sandbox or other chart until you have what you want
  3. Right-click the chart and choose Clone
  4. Double-click the new chart to open its properties form and modify its name

Save as .PNG file

After you've generated a chart, you can have it saved to your computer as a .PNG file. The dimensions of the file are the same as the chart region.

  1. Click the Save as .PNG button
  2. Follow your browser's instructions for saving the file you to your computer.


Word Cloud

Symphony Word Cloud Generator creates a word cloud from text your project. A word cloud is an image that has words arranged in a way that conveys their relative frequencies. There is a variety of ways to depict word clouds. Symphony does it by varying the font size. Words are arranged in alphabetical order for ease of finding a specific word.

After you generate a Word Cloud, you can right-click a word a jump to Coding view where a filter will be set on that word.

Open Word Cloud Generator

To open Symphony's Word Cloud generator click the Word Cloud button on the console toolbar.

Create a Word Cloud

All settings for a word cloud are optional. You can simply click the Create Word Cloud button.

  1. Click the Word Cloud button on the tool bar.
  2. Optionally set a filter by clicking the Filter button.
  3. Optionally set the maximum number of words to include in the word cloud. The word cloud will include the most frequently used words up to this number of words.
  4. Click the Basis button to choose how the calculations are to be performed. This enables you to choose from different ways to calculate the occurences of words.
  5. Optionally set a phrase length. If the setting is two or three, the output will consist of phrases instead of words.
  6. Optionally check the Show Count button to display the Basis calculation next to each word.
  7. Click the Create Word Cloud button.

Resize Word Cloud

This setting lets you control how large the word cloud is in terms of pixels. If you don't have much text you might want to make it smaller. Or if you have a document you want to include the word cloud in, you might want to set is to a size ideal for the document. These instructions assume that you have just generated a word cloud and it is currently being displayed.

Using your mouse, drag the lower-right corner of the word cloud region until it is sized as desired. As you drag, the current width and height in pixels is displayed above the region.

Blacklist Words

After you generate a word cloud, you may find words that you don't want included. You can exclude them by adding them blacklisting them. Symphony automatically excludes some words such as "the" and "is". If you see additional words that you don't want included, you can add them to the blacklist. When you update the word cloud, it is generated without those words.

  1. In the word cloud, locate a word you want to blacklist.
  2. Drag the word from the cloud and drop it on the Blacklist. The word will disappear from the current word cloud, and will appear in the Blacklist. If your browser doesn't support this, click the Blacklist and manually type the word; it will be included as a blacklist word the next time the wordcloud is created.
  3. Click the Create Word Cloud button.

Word Filter

This setting lets you specify a word that you want to make the subject of the analysis. When you specify a filter word, Symphony uses only paragraphs from your text that have that word in it. Paragraphs that don't have the word are ignored.

  1. In the word cloud, locate the word you want to use as the filter word.
  2. Either drag the word from the cloud and drop it on the Filter Word field, or left-click the word with your mouse and choose "Set as Filter Word". Depending on the version of your browser, these actions may or may not word. If you have difficulty, you can simply type the word into the Filter Word field.
  3. Click the Create Word Cloud button.

Word Proximity

This setting works in conjunction with the Filter Word field; it has no effect on the result unless a Filter Word is specified. the Word Proximity is an additional filtering setting. It limits the words included in the analysis to those within the Proximity setting of the Filter Word. So only words that are within the proximity of the Filter Word are included in the analysis. If the Proximity is zero, the entire text of each paragraph containing the Filter Word is used.

  1. Click the Proximity field and enter the distance away from the Filter Word you want to include.
  2. Click the Create Word Cloud button.

Save Word Cloud

You can save your word cloud to your computer. The file is saved as a .PNG image file. Simply click the "Save Word Cloud to .PNG file" button.


Feedback Report

Symphony's Feedback Report option produces a Microsoft Word report from your project data. By default, the report consists of your coding structure and comments organized into a hierarchy around the coding structure. It can also include tables of data from Symphony Queries and charts from Symphony Charts.

The report is produced from a Word document that you provide as a template. As such, the report has the look and feel that you provide. You tell Symphony what content you want included in the report by placing Word Bookmarks where you want output from Symphony to start.

Open Symphony's Feedback Report Utility

To open Symphony's Feedback Report Utility, click the Feedback Report button on the console toolbar.

Create a Template

A feedback report template is a Word document to which Symphony outputs the feedback report content -- datasets produced from queries defined in Queries view and charts defined in Charts view. The template can consist of anything from a simple blank Word document to something much more complex that contains your organization's branding, boiler-plate text about your analysis methodology, and a summary of your analysis findings or other information related to your project but not in the scope of Symphony.

The data for a Feedback report is provided by queries defined in your project and accessed in Queries view. You can have data from any number of queries output to the report. For example, you can include a table of Respondents, tables of various slices of demographics and statistics, and your coding structure with supporting comments all in one report. You can also include charts from Charts view driven by the queries.

To assist you with getting started, Symphony includes a template called "Symphony Default Feedback Template.docx". You can use it to get a sense of how Symphony Feedback reports work. You can also download a copy of it and make modifications, then upload the revision to see their effects.

Add a Query

To include the results of a query in a report, you create a Word bookmark in your template where you want the output to start. (See your particular version of Microsoft Word on how to insert a bookmark.) Symphony looks for bookmarks with the same names as queries in your project, with these qualifications:

  • Symphony ignores case, so a query named "My Query" will match with a bookmark named "my query".
  • Microsoft Word requires bookmark names to start with a letter, so the Symphony query needs to as well. Numerals can be used thereafter.
  • Bookmarks are limited to 40 characters.
  • Bookmarks cannot include spaces. If a Symphony query or chart name contains spaces, use underscores ("_") in the bookmark and Symphony will match them up.

Each query has a "layout" setting, which instructs Symphony on how to process the query results.

If your template contains no bookmarks that match queries or charts in your project, Symphony will run the predefined "Default" query and will output starting at the end of your template.

Add a Table

You can have query results output to a table in a Word document. To do this, you add a Word bookmark in your template where you want the results to go. If you place the bookmark in a table cell, the results will start there and a row will be added to the table for each row from the query. If the bookmark is not inside a table, Symphony will create a table and move the bookmark inside it. To add a table:

  1. In Query view define a query that produces the data you want in your table. Make sure to set the Layout setting to "Table".
  2. In the list of Queries, right-click the query name and choose "Copy Bookmark Name". This copies version of the name that is compatible with Word bookmarks to your computer's clipboard.
  3. Open your report template. (If you want to use a template that is already in Symphony, download it first in the Feedback Report page.)
  4. Navigate to where you want the table of data.
  5. If you want Symphony to create a Word template for you, simply click where you want the table. Otherwise define your own table and click in the cell where you want the query results to start.
  6. Add a Word bookmark. For the bookmark name, paste your computer's clipboard. This will ensure that the name is formatted to match the query.
  7. Save and close the template.
  8. In Symphony open the Feedback Report page.
  9. Upload the template.
  10. Click the template's radio button and run the report.

Add a Chart

To include a chart in your report, you create a Word bookmark in your template where you want the results to go. (See your particular version of Microsoft Word on how to insert a bookmark.) Symphony looks for bookmarks with the same names as queries in your project, with these qualifications:

  • To distinguish bookmarks used for charts from those intended for queries, the Bookmark name must end with '_C'
  • Bookmarks cannot include spaces. If a Symphony chart name contains spaces, use underscores ("_") in the bookmark and Symphony will match them up.
  • Symphony ignores case, so a query named "My Query" will match with a bookmark named "my_query_C".
  • Microsoft Word requires bookmark names to start with a letter, so the Symphony query needs to as well. Numerals can be used thereafter.
  • Bookmarks are limited to 40 characters.

Symphony makes this easy for you:

  1. In Chart view, right-click the chart you want added to the template.
  2. Choose Copy Bookmark Name. This will copy text to your computer's clipboard that is properly-formatted for this particular query.
  3. Open the template in Word and create a new bookmark where you want the chart to go.
  4. Save, close, and upload your template to Symphony.

Table of Contents

A Table of Contents (TOC) is a Microsoft Word field that is dynamically built from the contents of the document. What goes in the TOC is determined by the Word styles used in the document. Whenever Word encounters a paragraph of text that uses a style specified in the TOC field, it adds a corresponding entry to the TOC.

  • Symphony outputs contents using Word "styles". Heading 1, Heading 2, and Normal are examples. Decide in advance what styles you want to use, and make sure they are defined (font, paragraph format, etc.) the way you want them to look.
  • When you use the template, Symphony looks for styles named Code Level 1 to Code Level 4 plus Comment for the respective content types. If they exist, it assumes you want to use them. If it doesn't fine them, it assumes you want to use Heading 1 to Heading 4 and Normal. This is to make style-to-content mapping simpler for you.
  • If your template includes a Table of Contents, be sure it is defined to use the styles used for your top level codes down to whatever coding level you want included in your template. (A Table of Contents is a Word field. Symphony cannot update it for you. When the report is finished you can update it in Word. Just right-click the field and choose Update.)
  • By default, Symphony runs the "Default" query and adds its results to the end of the template. You can have it start anywhere you want. Just add a Word Bookmark called "Default" where you want it to start.
  • As with the "Default" query, you can have results from other queries added to the report as well. Simply add a Word bookmark where you want it to start, using the name of the query. (There are constraints on the names of Word bookmarks, so for this to work you need to give names to queries that are within those limits. One exception is spaces: if your query name contains spaces, the bookmark must have an underscore ("_") in place of each space.)

Upload a Template

Symphony lets you maintain a collection of templates. Templates can be used on each project, or you can have templates that are customized for specific projects. This can be any .DOCX file, but ideally should be one that is designed for your project, including boiler plate text and images, your organization's headers and footers, and so forth.

Symphony provides you with a starter template that you can use as-is or customize to look the way you choose.

By default, Symphony adds the report content to the end of the document. You can however tell it to begin inserting at a specific location by creating a Word Bookmark named "Default" inside your template where you want the output to begin.

To upload a feedback report template:

  1. Open the Feedback Report form.
  2. Click the Upload Report Template button.
  3. Navigate to the .DOCX file you are using as a template, then after its name appears in the form, click the Submit button. It must be a .DOCX file; Symphony does not read the older .DOC fies.
  4. Click the Submit button. The file will appear in the Word Templates list. The Output Fields table will be filled with the columns that will be used in the query, and the Word styles embedded in the template will show up in the Style list. Symphony will try to match output fields with styles for you, and any successes will show up with check marks next to them.

Choose a Feedback Report Template

The Symphony Default Feedback Template plus any you upload appear in the Word Templates list. The first step in generating a report is to specify which template you want to use. Once a template is chosen, the styles it contains are loaded into the Word Styles list. Symphony also makes an attempt to map content columns to styles.

  • If you have only one template, or if you have previously chosen another template for this project, it will be loaded automatically.
  • You can tell Symphony which template to use by clicking the radio button next to the template name.

Map Output Fields to Word Styles

Queries that use the Hierarchy format rely on Word styles for their presentation. If you are not familiar with Word Styles, a quick Google search will yield you more than you ever want to know.

When an Output Field is mapped to a Word style, a checkmark appears next to it. If you click on the Output Field, the style it is mapped to is highlighted and its radio button set.

You may not know this but if you have ever used Microsoft Word, you are already familiar with styles. Heading 1, Heading 2, Title, and Normal are all examples. Word uses the Normal style by default. Styles determine how the text applied to it will look.

To map an output field to a Word Style:

  1. Click on an Output Field that you want to map to a style.
  2. Locate the desired style in the Styles List and click its radio button.
  3. Repeat for each Output Field.

You may not need to map all the columns. For example, if your report only includes two levels of coding, you don't need to map styles for field that never get used. If while generating the report Symphony encounters a field that needs a style, it will tell you so can fix it.

Set a Filter

You can optionally set a filter to limit the scope of data output to the report.

  1. Click the Filter () button to open the Filter form.
  2. Click the tab that contains the type of type of entity you want to filter on.
  3. Uncheck the entities you want excluded.
  4. If you are setting a filter based on the specific words, click the Words tab and enter the words you want, along with the other optional settings. (Mousing over a setting's caption displays a description of its purpose.)
  5. Close the Filter form either by clicking its close button or by clicking the Filter () button a second time.

Add Decorators

Decorators are additional pieces of information attached to codes or comments and are displayed along with it. In the case of codes, a predefined statistic can be used as a decorator. In the case of comments, decorators can be the name or title of the owning Respondent, or Tags (e.g. demographics) associated with the Respondent or comment.

A code can be decorated by at most one statistic. Comments can be decorated by as many items as are chosen, each separated by a comma.

To add decorators:

  1. Click the Feedback Report button on the main toolbar.
  2. Click the Decorators button on the toolbar. The Decorators List will open.
  3. Click the radio button or checkbox next to each decorator you want to include.
  4. Click the Decorators button again to close the Decorator List.

Restart comment numbering with each code

The look and feel of Feedback Reports is provided by the Word styles you use in your template. One thing that can be tricky is getting the comment numbers right if the style you use for comments includes them.

To make this easier, Symphony makes available an override that will restart the numbering in each code. When used, this option supercedes the bullet/numbering settings for your comment style.

To force comment numbers to restart:

  1. Click the Feedback Report button on the main toolbar.
  2. Check the check box labeled "Restart comment numbering with each code

New Page For Top Level Codes (except first)

Word styles can be defined such that a new page is started each time a style is encountered. This is useful for large sections of documents. Many Symphony users like to have a new page started for each top level code.

Quite often, Symphony users want the first occurance of a top level code to be treated differently. An example would be when your report template includes text such as a heading or explanatory paragraph that you want to appear right before the first code is output to the report. If the style used for top level codes specifies to start a new page, then your codes and comments would start on the next page, leaving your heading and/or explanatory text orphaned on a page by itself.

Symphony provides a workaround, which is to start new pages for you as the report is generated -- except for the first code. In turn, you omit the start new page setting from your Word style and the result is as expected: the first top level code is output where it is should be, and thereafter a new page is started for each of the remaining top level codes.

To get this effect:

  1. Click the Feedback Report button on the main toolbar.
  2. Check the check box labeled "Start a new page before each top level code except for the first one"

Where to Send the Report

The Report Distribution panel has settings for determining what to do with the report. To choose where to send the report:

  1. In the Report Distribution panel, check the box next to each team member you want the report emailed to, if any.
  2. If you want the report to be downloaded directly to your browser, ensure that the "Download to your computer" box is checked.

Run the Report

To run the report, click the Run () button and wait for your report.

When the report finishes, it will be downloaded to your computer. Follow your browser's instructions for saving and opening the file. If you have fields in your report (e.g. a Table of Contents) Word will prompt you to see if you want to update it. The message itself is somewhat misleading in that it suggests that there may be external documents that it is dependent on. Ignore the meaning of the prompt and choose "Yes".

Using a Report as a Template

You can use a Feedback Report as a template for generating subsequent reports. In any given situation, this capability is useful for one of two reasons:

  • You want to customize a template for a specific project, and you want to see what the report will look like with the customizations. For example, you want to include a summary of your findings each time you run the report for that project.
  • You want to make changes to the styles or other layout settings for all future reports

You don't have to worry about generated content in the report; when you upload the file, Symphony will remove it.

To use a report as a template:

  1. On the Feedback tab and with a project open, run a report using the preferred template.
  2. After your report downloads to your computer, open it in Word.
  3. Make the desired edits, save and close the file, optionally renaming it.
  4. Upload the file like any other template. After Symphony removes the generated content, it will appear in your List of Templates with the name you gave the file.

Filter Group

Symphony's Filter Group lets you limit certain output on a variety of criteria. It is available in the following views/forms:

  • Coding
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Queries
  • Word Cloud
  • Feedback Report

When a filter is set, subsequent actions in that view/form behave as if your project consists only of data that fits the filter. Filters can be set on codes, tags, respondents, words, and sentiment.

When filters are set on items within one of these broad categories, the results are broader with each additional item. For example, setting a filter on two codes results in output related to either of the two codes.

When filters are set on more than one of these broad categories, the results are narrowed. For example if a filter is set on codes and tags, the results consist of the content related to the subset of filtered code further limited by the content that is related to the filtered tags.

Open the Filter Group

Where the Filter Group is available, a button is provided that looks like this: Filter. Clicking the button toggles the Filter Group open and closed.

Filter on Codes

When a filter is set on one or more codes, only content that is related to the included codes is included in the results. For example:

  • Comments that are coded to the included codes
  • Respondents with comments in the included codes
  • Tags attached to the comments, respondents, or codes in the included codes.

All codes that are checked are included in the filter.

To set a filter on one or more codes:

  1. In the Filter Group, click the Codes button.
  2. Uncheck the top-most node to uncheck all codes.
  3. Check the codes you want to include in the filter. Checking/unchecking a code causes all sub-codes to become checked/unchecked.

Filter on Tags

When a filter is set of one or more tags, only content related to the included tags is included in the results. For example:

  • When a filter is set on a tag, respondents with comments attached to the tag are included.
  • When a filter is set on a Tag Group, codes, respondents, and comments related to any code, respondent, or comment related to any of the tags in that group are included.

All tags or tag groups that are checked are included in the filter. Checking/unchecking a tag group causes all tags in that tag group as well as tag groups contain in that tag group to become checked/unchecked.

To set a filter on tags:

  1. In the Filter Group, click the Tags button.
  2. Uncheck the top level Tag Group button to uncheck all tags and tag groups.
  3. Check the tag or tag group you want to include.

Filter on Respondents

When a filter is set on one or more respondents, only content related to the included respondents is included in the results. For example:

  • Comments belonging to the included respondents.
  • Tags attached to the included respondents, comments belonging to the included respondents, or codes where the comments belonging to the included respondents are coded.

To set a respondent filter:

  1. In the Filter Group, click the Respondents button.
  2. Uncheck all respondents by unchecking the top-level Respondents node.
  3. Check the individual respondents you want to include.

Filter on Words

You can limit filter results to comments and their related entities by the words contained in the comments, or by the size of comments. For example:

  • Respondents with comments containing a particular word or phrase.
  • Codes with comments containing a particular word or phrase.
  • Comments consisting of at least 5 words and no more than 20.

To set a word filter:

  1. In the Filter Group, click the Words button.
  2. Type the word or words on which you want to filter.
  3. If you entered more than one word, enter how many of them must be present to be considered a match.
  4. Also if you entered more than one word, enter a number to indicate how close they have to be to each other to be considered a match. Zero means there is no restriction; they only have to appear in the same comment.
  5. Set a Min/Max value for the number of words comments must contain. (This is particularly useful when you are performing an Exploratory Cluster Analysis.)
When you set a Min/Max Words per Comment range, the number should be exclusive of prepositions and conjunctions, as they are automatically blacklisted.

Filter on Sentiment

The sentiment filter lets you filter output based on comment sentiment. For example:

  • Comments with positive sentiment and no negative sentiment.
  • Codes where the contained comments have a net positive sentiment.
  • Respondent demographic tags where their comments have a net positive sentiment.

The sentiment filter consists of a group of radio buttons whose collective settings capture your intent. For Positive, Negative, and Neutral sentiment, you specify what to include as follows:

  • Maybe -- The specified sentiment is not a consideration in the filter.
  • Yes -- Comments must have the specified sentiment.
  • No -- Comments must not have the specified sentiment.

All settings are assessed for their impact but where they become mutually exclusive, the Neutral settings take precedence.

To set a sentiment filter:

  1. Open the Filter Group by click the filter icon on the tool bar.
  2. Click the Sentiment button.
  3. Choose whether Positive sentiment may exist, must exist, or must not exist.
  4. Choose whether Negative sentiment may exist, must exist, or must not exist.
  5. Choose whether Neutral sentiment -- that is, where the comments have neither positive nor negative sentiment -- may exist, must exist, or must not exist.

Miscellaneous

The Miscellaneous tab currently has one setting: Max Comments per Code.

The Max Comments per Code settings isn't a filter attribute in the sense of the other Filter Group settings, all of which when applied to the project produces a copy of the project that consists of only content that passes the filter. This attribute instead functions as a marker that tells a query to stop outputting rows that rely on comments. It applies only in scenarios where comments are output. A typical application would be when you want to produce a Feedback Report that prints the text of comments, but you only want a small number of "representative" comments in the report. Any statistics that rely on the comments are unaffected.

By default, the Max Comments per Code is set to All, meaning the setting has no effect. To set a limit, you choose a value from the dropdown. A value of zero results in all other output being produced but no comments included.


Language Translation

If you have content in one language but need it in another, Symphony can translate it for you. Symphony accesses Google's Translation API on your behalf, translating text from virtually any language to any language. Google detects the source language, and translates it to the language of your choice.

To open the Language Translation tool

The Language Translation tool is opened by clicking the icon at the bottom of the Symphony screen. Clicking it more than once toggles it in and out of view.

The tool displays the quota balance on your account, the number of characters you will be charged to translate the current scope, and the projected quota balance.

Set Translation Scope

Translation scope is based on what content is selected:

SelectionScope
A commentThe comment you clicked on
A group of comments (e.g. a selection range inside a code or belonging to a respondent)The selected comments
A Respondent in People viewAll the comments belonging to the Respondent
A group of respondents (by selecting a range)All the comments belonging to the selected respondents
A CodeThe comments inside the code and sub-codes.

When the scope is changed the calculated usage is updated in the Language Translation tool.

If the source language is the same as the language you want to translate to, it will still be processed and the utilization will be charged against your quota.

Start Translation

To start the translation:

  1. With the Language Translation tool open, ensure that the scope is set as desired.
  2. Choose the language to which you want to translate in the Translate To dropdown
  3. Click the Translate button. A progress bar will display, showing you how many comments are being translated.

Replenish Quota ()

Every Symphony license and license renewal comes with a quota of 50,000 characters -- roughly 15 single-spaced typed pages. If you need more, you can add to your quota by purchasing additional characters in blocks of 10,000.

  1. With the Language Translation tool open, click the Buy button. Symphony's Order form will open.
  2. Choose how many 10,000 character blocks of characters you want to purchase.
  3. Complete your order by choosing a payment method. After you return, the purchase will be reflected in your balance.

Tag Groups and Tags

Tags are custom attributes you create for content. They can be associated with codes, comments, respondents, or any combination of these, and can serve a wide variety of purposes.

Tags always exist in Tag Groups. Tag Groups are merely containers that identify one or more tags as having something in common. Gender as a tag group for example would have Male and Female as tags. A tag group called Sentiment might have several tags, each one representing a different measure.

In addition to containing Tags, Tag Groups can contain other Tag Groups, so it is possible to define any level of complexity you need.

Tags are available in all views via a "Tags Widget", which floats above the view. When you click on a content item in a view, it becomes the "focus" of the Tag Widget, resulting in the attached tags to be highlighted. Tags can be attached to and detached from the focused item by clicking the radio button or checkbox next to the tag.

Open Tag Widget

To open the Tags Widget, click the Tags () button at the bottom of the page. Hide it by clicking a second time.

Create a Tag Group

  1. With the Tags Widget open, click the New Tag Group on the toolbar at the top of the widget. The Tag Group properties form will open.
  2. Give the tag group a name. This should be something that captures the meaning of the tags that will be inside the group. Examples: Gender and Location.
  3. Set the maximum tags from this group that can be attached to any single entity. For demographics such as Gender, it is usually 1. If you don't want a restriction, leave the setting at zero.
  4. Check the Lock on Set box if you want to prevent tags that are attached to entities from being unattached. This would be suitable primary in situations where there would be no reason to change it, such as a rating item from a survey. If you are not sure, leave the box unchecked.
  5. Choose the type of data that the tags will represent. For most purposes this would be Text. But in special situations where the tags will be Dates or Number, it is best to set accordingly should you need to have query output sorted on the tags.
  6. For Allowed Content, check the boxes next to the types of entities you want to allow tags in this group to be attached to. You much choose at least one type but can choose any combination. What should be checked is dependent on the purpose of the group. If it is a demographic, Respondent should be the only box checked. If the tag group is part of a competency model, Codes and/or Comments would make sense.
  7. Click OK to save the tag group and close the form, or click OK/More to save the tag group and begin defining another.

Modify a Tag Group

After Tag Groups have been created, you can change their attributes through the Tag Group Properties form.

  1. Open the Tags Widget by clicking its icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Double-click the Tag Group you want to modify. Its properties form will come up. You can modify any of the original settings. Bear in mind however, changes to most of the settings can result in conflicts with existing tags and tagged entities so you should resolve them first. Generally speaking, Symphony will apply new constraints only to new tags and tagged entities.
  3. When you are finished, either click the OK button to save the changes and exit the form, or click on another entity such as another tag group or tag to bring up its properties form.

Delete a Tag Group

If you no longer need a particular tag group or if you want to get a fresh start with it, you can delete it. Deleting a tag group also deletes all the tags and tag groups inside of it, as well as all tag attachments to entities, so be sure this is what you want.

To delete a tag group:

  1. Open the Tags Widget by clicking its icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Click the tag group you want to delete.
  3. Click the Delete button on the toolbar Tags Widget toolbar.
  4. Confirm that you want to delete the tag group.

Move a Tag Group

By default, tag groups appear in the Tags Widget in the order they are created. The order of the tag groups matters in two cases:

  • You may want the tag groups you most frequently view or access to be near the top of the list.
  • If you display multiple tags as comment decorators in Report View or in a Feedback Report, they are displayed in the order they appear in the Tag Widget.
  1. Open the Tags Widget.
  2. Click the tag group you want to move.
  3. Click the up or down arrow on the toolbar in the direction you want to move the tag group.

Create a Tag

To create a tag:

  1. With the Tags Widget open, click the tag group to which you want to add a tag, then click the New Tag button on toolbar near the top of the Tag Widget. The Tag properties form will open.
  2. Give the tag a name. For example, if your tag group is a demographic called Gender, the name of the tag could be Male. The name MUST be compatible with the Data Type you assigned to the group.
  3. Optionally give the tag a Value. The Value is available for producing summations across tags and tag groups. For example, if you define a competency model, this could be the relative value of a particular competency. Or if you are defining ratings (e.g. Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, etc.) this could be the numeric value on your ratings scale.
  4. Click OK to save the tag and close the form, or click OK/More to save the tag and begin defining another.

Tag Content

To tag content:

  1. Click the Tags Widget in the lower-right corner to open the Tags Widget.
  2. Open a view (e.g. People or Coding) that contains the content you want to tag.
  3. Click an item (respondent, code, or comment) that you want to tag.
  4. Click the radio button next to the desired tag.

Modify a Tag

  1. With the Tags Widget open, double-click the tag you want to modify. Tag properties form will open.
  2. Modify the tag Name or Value as desired, then click the OK button to save and close the form, or click on another entity to save and bring up its properties form.

Delete a Tag

To delete a tag:

  1. With the Tags Widget open, click the Tag you want to delete.
  2. Click the Delete button on the toolbar near the top of the Tags Widget. Deleting a tag deletes all the attachments to entities for this tag, so be sure this is what you want to do.

Move a Tag Up or Down

You can move a tag up or down amongst its peers, or you can move a tag to another tag group.

To move a tag up or down:

  1. In the Tags Widget, click the tag you want to move so it is highlighted.
  2. Click the Up or Down arrow on the tool bar above the list.

Move a Tag to Another Group

You may want to move a tag from one group to another for a variety of reasons. For example, it is possible to define a tag in one group when you intended to define it in another. When you move a tag to another group, all attachments to the tag remain in place, so be sure the move is consistent with the constraints that have been defined for the destination tag group.

To move a tag to another group:

  1. With the Tags Widget open, click the Tag you want to move.
  2. While holding the left mouse button down, drag the tag onto the desired tag group. The tag will be moved.

Combine tags

You will want to combine tags when you have two or more that have the same meaning. For example, let's say your data comes from a survey where respondents typed their Tenure into a free-style field and some entered "more than three years" while other entered "3 yrs". In such a case you will want the tag group to consist of tags that are a normalization of the values provided by the respondents.

When you combine tags, all content tagged by the consumed tag is tagged by the consuming tag unless it is already tagged by it.

To combine tags:

  1. With the Tags Widget open, click the tag you want to get rid of (the one to be consumed).
  2. While holding your keyboard's Alt key down, drag the tag with your mouse and drop it on the tag you want to keep (the consuming tag). The dragged tag will be deleted and all its entity attachments will be moved.

Detach a Tag From an Entity

If you attach a tag to an entity by accident, or if for some other reason you no longer want to have a tag attached to it, you can detach it as follows:

  1. If the Tags List isn't already open, click its icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Locate the entity (code, comment or respondent) of interest and click it so it is highlighted. The attached tags in the tags list will become highlighted.
  3. Locate the tag you want to detach and click the checkbox/radio button to its left.

Chat Widget

Symphony's Chat Widget provides chat capabilities between you and other team members that have the same project open as you. You can optionally invite Symphony Support to join your chat.

The Chat Widget displays a list of all team members currently connected to the project you have open. When a team member makes an update to the project, their name briefly changes color and an icon indicates the view they were in when they made the change. When anyone sends a chat message, all members in the list receive it. If a connected team member doesn't have the chat open, a notice is displayed for them to let them know that chat is available.

How to Open the Chat Widget

To open/close the Chat Widget

  • Either click the Menu button then choose Open Chat Widget, or click the chat icon in the lower-right corner of Symphony.
  • To close the chat window, either click it's close button or click the chat icon in the lower-right corner. (Toggles the chat window.)

Send Message

To send a chat message, click the area to the left of the Send button then type your message. When you are ready to send it, either click the Send button or press the Enter key.

Invite/Dismiss Cecil

Cecil is our help bot. It is familiar with Symphony's help file so it is able to display topics or links to topics based on chat messages that you send.

To invite Cecil to chat, click his icon on the Chat Widget toolbar. Clicking again sends Cecil away.

Minimize Chat Window

When you minimize the chat window, it is removed from the screen but remains active. So if a team member sends a chat message, the window opens back up. This is in contrast with closing the window, where receipt of a chat message only displays a notice.

To minimize the chat window, click the minimize button on the chat window caption.

Down-vote response from Cecil

When Cecil returns a list of topics in response to your chat question, it includes a thumbs-down link. When you click this link, it lets Cecil know that the results it returned didn't answer your question. Cecil performs a deeper search to see whether there is anything else it can give you that might help.

Go to Topic

When you view a topic that Cecil has returned, you have available a link that takes you to the same section in Symphony's help file. When you click this link, Symphony's help file is opened in another browser instance and you are placed at the relevant topic.

If Symphony's help file appears not to open, check your other browser instances. Depending on your browser and if it was alreay open, it might not come to the front automatically.

Email Chat Transcript

To have a chat transcript sent to your email account, click the icon on the Chat Widget's toolbar.


Artificial Intelligence

IMPORTANT: Many of Symphony's AI-related features rely in part on external providers. As such, the features are disabled for each project until you enable them. To ensure safe use of confidential data, we strongly advise that you use Symphony's Maskifier widget on projects before you enable AI features.

This section covers various AI-related features available in Symphony.

Enabling AI

Before you can use Symphony's AI features, you must enable them. This involves two actions.

  1. First, you must opt in to Symphony's AI features by choosing the Enable AI option on the Preferences form (choose Menu/Preferences).
  2. Next, for each project, you must check the Enable AI checkbox on each project for which you want to use AI. Symphony relies in part on external providers for some AI functionality. For this reason, you should consider using Symphony's Maskifier feature on individual projects befor enabling AI features.

Maskifier

Technically, Symphony's Maskifier performs no AI function directly, but it figures prominently in some of Symphony's AI features to provide safe and anonymous artificial intelligence. As such, it is important to be familiar with it before using Symphony's AI features.

The Maskifier enables you to hide entities such as names of people, companies, products, and so forth in your data prior to sending data to external resources (that is, outside Active Java's servers) that supplement or enhance Symphony's AI features. This is done automatically, so once you designate words for masking, you can forget about it.

The Maskifer also extends to report, in that you can have words redacted. This behavior is optional and is available for Feedback reports. You can also set it for individual queries on the Queries page.

Each word designated for masking is applied across all your projects, not just your current project.

  • Outputting maskified data to a report or query is optional. That is, for any given report or query, you can specify whether you want the original text or the maskified text to be output. When masked data is output to reports or queries, it is displayed in a redacted format.
  • On the other hand, when Symphony sends data to an external service, it automatically maskifies the data. When the results are returned, Symphony reverses the process, replacing the mask substitutions to the words they map to.
The Maskifier treats words with case-sensitivity. This enables you to distinguish between entities vs. adjectives or verbs with the same spelling. An unintended benefit is that you can quickly see whether there are words that should always be capitalized but are not.

The Maskifier is a Widget located on the Widget's toolbar in the bottom-right of Symphony. Its icon is theater mask. Clicking the mask toggles the widget open and closed.

The best place to work with the Maskifier is in either Review or Coding view. Both these views enable you to mask words in your coding structure and in comments. Soon, masking capabilities will be extended to People view.

Show/Hide the Maskifier

The following instructions assume you are in Review or Coding view.

To reveal the Maskifier, click its icon in the lower-right corner of Symphony. Click the icon again or the widget's close button to close it.

The Maskifier provides two ways of working with masked words. They are accessed by the "Project" and "Global" buttons located at the top of the widget. Changes made with the Project button active are alway reflected in the Global list of masked words. Changes make with the Global button active are reflected in the Project list only if the word exists in the current project.

Maskifier Project Button

When the Project button is active:

  • An alphabetical listing of your project's vocabulary is displayed.
  • Each word has a checkbox next to it, indicating whether it is masked.
  • Checking or unchecking the checkbox next to a word adds or removes it as a masked word.
  • Clicking on a word in a code or a comment moves you to that word in the widget.
  • If you want to look for a specific word, start typing it in the Filter field on the Maskifier's toolbar.

When the Global button is active:

  • An alphabetical listing of all masked words is displayed.
  • Add new words by typing them into the New Word field followed by the Enter key or clicking the Add button.
  • Check the "X" to the right of a word to remove it.
  • Adding or removing words are immediately reflected in your current project.
  • Clicking on a word in a code or comment activates the Project button so that the Project vocabulary is now displayed.
In addition to being used automatically by new projects, the Global Masked Words list can be used to set up new words in advance of importing data to a project, so that features such as OpenAI embeddings can be used from the outset. If you want to go through your entire project looking for words to mask, try doing this in the Review page. The continuous flow of complete data from top to bottom makes sure you will see everything, and can give you a better sense of whether sufficient protection of identity is achieved.

Clustering

Clustering is a powerful technique employed in the Symphony software for organizing and categorizing textual data, such as comments, into meaningful groups called clusters. This process involves grouping similar comments together based on their inherent characteristics, enabling users to gain valuable insights and extract patterns from large volumes of unstructured text. Symphony employs advanced algorithms to automatically identify common themes, topics, or sentiments within the comments, effectively assigning them to appropriate clusters. These clusters serve as labels, referred to as codes, and allow users to navigate, analyze, and manage the comments efficiently. By leveraging clustering in Symphony, users can uncover hidden patterns, identify emerging trends, and make informed decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of their textual data.

Symphony incorporates the K-means+ algorithm for clustering with silhouette score optimization of cosine similarities. The net result is an efficient and fairly accurate method for organizing and categorizing comments in the software. Normally, the "K" in K-means is a user-defined parameter for specifying how many clusters the software should create. With Symphony, this is an optional setting. By default, Symphony samples your data, and tries various scenarios of clustering in search of the ideal number of clusters and the best "centroids" -- comments that represent the centers of clusters. Symphony also produces code labels from the contained comments. You as the analyst then take charge of making final coding decisions and interpretation of the results. Essentially, your coding efforts begin after an initial coding pass has been performed.

Here are some useful details to understand with Symphony's clustering:

  • You choose a code in your coding structure as an "anchor" for where clustering should begin. This determines the scope of comments to include in the analysis. This also results in the codes in that scope to be replaced by the new clusters.
  • If you choose the Root of your coding structure as the anchor, the result will be a completely new coding structure
  • If you choose the Unassigned code as the anchor, the resulting codes will be placed directly beneath the Root of the coding structure.
  • If you choose anything other than the Root or the Unassigned code, only the codes below the anchor will be replaced.
Note that once you've performed a cluster analysis, you can repeat the same one as many times as you like; due to randomization of samples and initial centroids, each result will be somewhat different.

To create clusters:

Using the AI widget:

  1. Click the AI Widget button on Symphony's widgets bar in the lower-right corner of Symphony. This will open the AI Widget. Clicking the button a second time closes the widget.
  2. Open Coding view and click the topmost code where the comments you want to cluster reside.
  3. In the Clustering section of the AI widget, choose how many clusters you want to create or choose "Let Symphony decide".
  4. Click the Start Clustering button. As the name suggests, this begins the clustering. You'll see messages appear on the screen informing you of Symphony's progress as it explores different configurations of clusters. When it finishes, you'll observe new changes to your coding structure, and the comments will be located in new codes according to their similarities.

Using the Code Context menu:

  1. Open Coding or Review view.
  2. Right-click the code from where you want to begin clustering, then from the context menu choose "Cluster from here".
If your data is already presorted to high-level categories such as it might be after importing structured interview guides, set the anchor to a high-level code or one of the questions if you imported them. Clustering at this level will result in higher quality fine grained organization of your comments.

Sentiment

Symphony's Sentiment feature helps you gain deeper insights into the opinions and attitudes expressed in a set of comments. By analyzing the language used in each comment, the feature determines whether the comment is positive, negative, mixed, or neutral. The sentiment is displayed with color-coded hearts, making it easy to understand the overall sentiment of each comment. Knowing the sentiment of each comment can be especially helpful when evaluating the quality of your code. For example, if your code reflects a negative sentiment, most of the comments inside that code should also have a negative sentiment. You may want to inspect the ones that have a positive sentiment to see if they conflict with the intended tone.

The Sentiment column is an optional display in People and Coding view. You can include it in the display by adding the column using the column picker cog above the list where you want to include it.

Note that Sentiment is not calculated automatically. To calculate it or to update it after making significant changes to the underlying comments:

  • In People or Coding view, right-click on a code or comment, then choose "Get Sentiment of Comments". Alternatively, open the AI Widget, select a range of codes or comments, then click the Get Sentiment button.

If you right-click a code, the sentiment is calculated for each comment in the code and it's subcodes. You can also select a range of comments and have them calculated at the same time.

You can also manually set sentiment:

  1. In Coding view, select a range of codes or comments in the right panel and right-click over the selection.
  2. From the context menu, choose the sentiment you want to apply. All comments in the selection will be updated.

Note that once comments are moved, the overall fit of other comments might be effected. This is because Symphony maintains statistics in real-time, recalculating where each comment fits best everytime one is moved.

Autocoder

Symphony's Autocoder automates the process of assigning codes to comments. After establishing a robust coding structure, leverage this feature to efficiently categorize newly imported content. Symphony tries to narrow the scope of codes to match each comment based on where it is currently located in the coding structure.

The comment is located in: Symphony will consider these codes:
The "Unassigned" code or one if its subcodes The deepest codes in each branch of the coding structure
A code that has subcodes The subcodes of the code
A code that does not have subcodes The peers of the code

In effect, Symphony narrows the scope -- if it can -- of codes that are contextually more appropriate. The assumption is that the comment is inside its current code for some reason; for example, it was imported as an answer to a question and the question is a code in your coding structure.

Scope of Comments Autocoded

To initiate the Autocoder, you need to specify a scope of comments to be autocoded. The scope is based on what you currently have selected, and can be summed up as follows:

Selection: Comments Autocoded:
One or more comments The selected comment(s) will be autocoded
One or more codes The comments directly inside the selected code(s) will be autocoded; comments in subcodes of the selection will not be included.
One or more respondents in People view The comments belonging to the selected person/people will be autocoded, regardless of where they are located in the coding structure.

So, to summarize, a scope of comments is specified, and the candidate codes each comment can be autocoded to are the ones in the vicinity of the comment, unless the comment is in Unassigned, in which case all thematic codes are candidates.

While it is not required, it is usually beneficial to have at least a few comments inside each code before you use the autocoder. If you don't have comments coded, try the "Seed" option in the Autocode section of the AI widget (located in the lower-right corner of Symphony). Symphony automatically seeds two comments to each code, but if you seed this way, you can check to see whether you agree with the choices.

To use the Autocoder in People view:

Use this scenario when you have imported new data for specific respondents

  1. Open People view
  2. Select one or more Respondents, then right-click and choose "Autocode selected respondent(s) comments"

To use the Autocoder in Coding view:

  1. Open Coding view
  2. Select one or more codes, then right-click and choose "Autocode comments inside selected code(s)"

Note that once comments are moved, the overall fit of other comments might be effected. This is because Symphony maintains statistics in real-time, recalculating where each comment fits best everytime one is moved.

Since comments are moved based on Symphony's analysis, understanding the changes might be challenging. To aid comprehension, Symphony indicates moved comments and their new codes with a small red circle next to the respective icons. These indicators remain visible until you modify/move an affected comment or run the autocoder again.

This feature is also available via the AI Assistant located in Symphony's widgets bar in the lower-right corner.

Flagged Comment Reassignment Analysis

Given a comment that Symphony believes fits better in another code, this feature gives you an explanation as to why it fits better and provides a quick way to move it to the better code. When activated, this feature gives you:

  • A summary of the meaning of the comments inside the current code (excluding the targeted comment)
  • A summary of the meaning of the comments inside the proposed code
  • An explanation as to why the comment fits better with the proposed code
  • A table that shows the impact to the average silhouette score of the comments inside the two codes

So between the comment's similarity score, average silhouette score, and the narrative, you have a variety of ways for assessing whether to move the comment or leave it where it is.

Note that the results of each of these methodologies can point in different directions from what is expected. This is due in part to the fact that while the comment fits best in one code based on its Similarity to the underlying comments, it might actually cause the overall quality of either or both codes to degrade when moved.

This feature is available only in Coding view with the Similarity column displaying.

To perform this analysis, follow these steps:

  1. With Coding view open, ensure that the Similarity column is displaying. (To add or remove columns, click the cog in the upper-right corner).
  2. Locate a comment where the Similarity score is red. This tells you that there is another code in which Symphony believes it fits better.
  3. Move your mouse over the Similarity score. A message will pop up showing the proposed code and the comment's similarity to the comments inside the code.
  4. In the pop-up message, click the Detailed Analysis button. The comparison of the two codes will be prepared and the results displayed in another window.
  5. If the narrative analysis confirms that the comment would fit better in the proposed code, a button will be provided for moving the comment. If you agree witht they analysis, click the button and the comment will be moved. Otherwise close the window.

Code Suggestion Component

Symphony's Code Suggestion Component assists you with coding by creating a shortlist of codes from your coding structure that a comment might belong to. Symphony does this by analyzing the text of your codes, as well as the text of the comments in each code, and determines which ones best match the text of the comment. The effect of the comment being analyzed is removed so that it doesn't bias the results toward the way it is currently coded.

The Code Suggestion Component is available as an optional feature in most places where a coding structure is displayed. It contains the following visual attributes:

  • The code text of the top five suggestions
  • A radio button for quick coding of the comment. If a comment is already coded to a suggestion, the corresponding radio button is highlighted.
  • A score with each code that shows how well the comment fits. Higher scores mean better fits. A score of 100 means it fits perfectly.

To use the component, follow these steps:

  1. To bring the Code Suggestion Component into view, click the lightbulb on the toolbar above a coding structure (e.g., in People view or Coding view).
  2. Click on a comment. Suggested codes from your coding structure will appear in the component.
  3. To code the comment to one of the suggestions, either click the radio button next to the code or drag the comment onto the code.
  4. To hide the Code Suggestion Component, click the lightbulb a second time or click the component's close button.
The current coding of the comment will always be included in the suggestions regardless of how it scores. The Code Suggestion Component can be used as a way of reviewing coding after you're done. Try opening the Review tab and scroll through comments with the component open.

Comment Suggestion Component

Symphony's Comment Suggestion Component assists you with coding by listing comments that Symphony's AI concludes fit best in a code you have highlighted. Symphony analyzes all the comments that are not coded to the code you have highlighted, and selects the ones that score highest for that code.

The Comment Suggestion Component is optionally available in most places where a coding structure is displayed. It contains the following visual attributes:

  • The comment text of all comments Symphony suggests fit best in the code
  • A radio button next to each comment for quick coding
  • A score with each comment that shows how well the comment fits in the code. Higher scores mean a better fit, with a score of 100 indicating a perfect fit.

To use the component, follow these steps:

  1. To bring the Comment Suggestion Component into view, click the org chart icon on the toolbar above a coding structure (e.g., in People view or Coding view).
  2. Click on a code. Comments that Symphony believes fit best in the code will appear in the component.
  3. To code a comment to the highlighted code, click the radio button next to the comment or drag the comment onto the code.
  4. To hide the Comment Suggestion Component, click its icon a second time or click the component's close button.
Open the Code Suggestion component and click on a comment in the Comment Suggestion Component. This will show you how the comment is currently coded, and how it's score compares between the current and suggested codes.

AI Code & Comment Rewrite Component

Symphony's AI Code & Comment Rewrite Component assists you with creating the text for codes and comments that best communicates the important ideas in your project. This feature works in conjunction with an API published by OpenAI.

In the case of Code Rewrites, Symphony analyzes several comments inside the code and comes up with representative text. If the code is in the top tier of your project, the text resembles a high-level category. If the code is further down your coding structure, the text resembles a thematic statement that captures the primary findings or directives implied by the underlying comments.

In the case of Comment Rewrites, Symphony attempts to make the text more concise, clear, and professional, while preserving the original meaning and intent. Typos and grammar are also checked.

This component can be found in the following places: next to the Content Editor in People and Coding views.

  • Next to the Content Editor in People and Coding views (the panel at the bottom of the view)
  • On the Code Properties form
  • On the Comment Properties form

Initially, the component is hidden from view and can be exposed by clicking the chevron to the right of the text to be replaced.

To rewrite a code:

On the Code Properties form:

  1. In People, Review, or Coding view, double-click a code or right-click a code and choose Properties
  2. If the AI-Rewrite component is not visible, expand it by clicking the indicator to the right of the code text
  3. On the toolbar at the top of the component, click the "Request Rewrite" button. A message will appear, then after a brief delay proposed text will appear below the toolbar.
  4. Edit the text if you desire, then click the "Use this text" button. The code text will be replaced.

In the Content Editor:

  1. In Coding view, locate the parent of the code you want to rewrite in the coding structure and click it. The Content List will fill with that code's contents.
  2. In the Content List, locate the code you want to rewrite and click it. Its text will appear in the Content Editor.
  3. If the Code & Comment Rewrite Component is not visible, click the indicator on the right margin of the Content Editor. The Content Editor will contract and the component will appear.
  4. On the toolbar at the top of the component, click the "Request Rewrite" button. A message will appear, then after a brief delay proposed text will appear below the toolbar.
  5. Edit the text if you desire, then click the "Use this text" button. The code text will be replaced.

To rewrite a comment

On the Comment Properties form:

  1. In People, Review, or Coding view, double-click a comment or right-click a comment and choose Properties
  2. If the AI-Rewrite component is not visible, expand it by clicking the indicator to the right of the comment text
  3. On the toolbar at the top of the component, click the "Request Rewrite" button. A message will appear, then after a brief delay proposed text will appear below the toolbar.
  4. Edit the text if you desire, then click the "Use this text" button. The comment text will be replaced.

In the Content Editor:

  1. If you are in People view, click the Respondent the comment belongs to, then navigate through the person's comment until you find the comment you want and click it. If you are in Coding view, click the code the comment is coded to, and navigate down the list until you find the comment, then click it. In either case, the comment text will appear in the Content Editor.
  2. If the Code & Comment Rewrite Component is not visible, click the indicator on the right margin of the Content Editor. The Content Editor will contract and the component will appear.
  3. On the toolbar at the top of the component, click the "Request Rewrite" button. A message will appear, then after a brief delay proposed text will appear below the toolbar.
  4. Edit the text if you desire, then click the "Use this text" button. The comment text will be replaced.
If you use the rewrite feature in the Code and Comment Properties forms, you can move quickly between codes and comments by clicking other codes and comments. This will cause any changes you made to be saved, and for the item you clicked on to be loaded into the Code or Comment Properties form.

AI Code Summary

This feature writes a summary of the comments in a code and its sub-codes. The result is saved to the target code's Notes field. You can use the summary in a few ways:

  • Define a report query in Symphony that outputs the summary along with -- or in lieu of -- the underlying comments.
  • Use it as a guide for the quality of your coding. If the summary doesn't reflect the underlying comments as you expect, consider whether off-topic comments are included and move them to another code.
  • Use it as a guide to writing the final label for the code.
  • Copy and paste it into other applications such as PowerPoint.

To generate a code summary:

  1. Open the People, Coding, or Review tab.
  2. Locate the code with the comments you want to summarize and bring up its Properties form by either double clicking the code or by right-clicking it and choosing Properties.
  3. In the Notes section of the form, click the AI - Write Summary button. After a few moments the summary will appear in your Notes.
  4. To keep the summary, either click the OK button or click on another code or comment to auto-save it. Click Cancel to discard it.
The combined comments analyzed is limited to 16,000 characters including punctuation. This is due to limitations on the AI's short-term memory. If the available comments exceeds this number, a random sample of comments is analyzed.

AI Chat

This feature is currently in beta.

This feature enables you to converse with the AI about your project and topics related to qualitative analysis. You choose some or all of your project as a scope, then the AI answers your inquiries into the project data.

  1. Specify a range of data you want in the scope of your inquiry. This can be one or more Respondents in People view, or it can be a range of codes or comments in Coding view. If you want the scope to be the complete project, either select all Respondents, or click the root node of the coding structure in Coding view.
  2. In the AI Widget, click the Chat button, followed by New Conversation.
  3. After a few moments, the AI will respond with some information about your project.
  4. Type a question or instruction into the message area and hit Enter to send a new message to the AI.
  5. Any time you want to change the scope or start a new conversation, ensure the scope of content is selected. Then, click the New Conversation button again.
  6. If you want to provide feedback, click the thumbs up or thumbs down button and optionally include a message in the form that opens.
  7. If the chat clearly becomes unresponsive, or if it returns unexpectedly and the New Conversation button is disabled, click the "Reset" button to return the chat to its start-up state.

There is no limit to the length of the conversation. However, once the AI's context window size has been exceeded, old messages will be removed to make room for new ones.

If the AI says it can't find information about something you know to exist, tell it to try again. If it still doesn't find it, click the New Conversation button to start over.

Miscellaneous

This section covers various topics that don't fit into main topics.

Optional Display Columns

Some lists in the Symphony interface include optional columns. Optional display columns are available when a list has a cog on its header row.

Here's a list of possible columns you can display:

Respondent
Displays the name of the respondent associated with each row
Demographic
Displays a demographic for each respondent. The column header displays the name of the actual demographic (e.g. Gender or Tenure)
Tag
Displays a Tag assigned to a code or comment. The column header displays the name of the actual Tag Group (e.g. Sentiment)
Similarity
This is a score that Symphony's AI generates. When it appears in a row for a Code, it represents the percent of comments in the code that Symphony agrees are coded the best they can be. Higher scores mean that Symphony agrees with your coding, while lower scores mean Symphony believes there may be codes that are better.
When the Similarity appears in a row for a Comment, it represents the extent to which the comment is the same as the other comments in the code, or the code text when there are no other comments. The number is green when Symphony agrees with the coding, and red when Symphony believes there is a better code for the comment.
Sentiment
This column displays a color-coded heart indicating the net sentiment of individual comments. The sentiment is not calculated automatically. You have to initiate it either by right-clicking a code or comment followed by Calculate Sentiment of Comments. Right-clicking a code or selecting a range of comments calculates the sentiment for all in scope.

Show/Hide an optional column:

  1. Click the cog on the list where you want to show/hide the column. A list of available columns will appear.
  2. Check/uncheck the columns you want to display.
Columns are displayed in the order you added them. So if you want to change the order, uncheck all columns then re-check them in the order you want them to appear.

Content Editor

Symphony's Content Editor provides a quick way to make edits to the text of codes and comments. It is located in People view and Coding view, at the bottom of the page, and it displays the text of the currently-highlighted code or comment. It provides an alternative to opening the code or comment Properties form.

In the Content Editor you can:

  • View the complete text of a code or comment
  • Make changes to the code or comment's text
  • Add highlight formatting
  • Split a comment into two comments

To edit the text of a code or comment:

  1. Click the code or comment in the list above the Content Editor. It's text will be displayed in the Content Editor.
  2. Modify the text to your liking.
  3. To format some text, select it with your mouse then click the button on the Content Editor's toolbar that provides the desired formatting. (The toolbar includes a Reset button as well, which clears all formatting.)
  4. To split a comment, select the desired text then drag it onto a code. The selected text will be removed and a new comment will be created inside the destination code.
  5. To save the changes, simply click on anything outside of the Content Editor to cause it to lose focus. The changes will be applied automatically.

Spawn Project

Symphony's Spawn Project feature lets you create a new project from the meta-data of another project. Meta-data consists of:

  • Codes
  • Tag Group and Tags
  • Tag assignments to codes
  • Queries
  • Charts
  • Team Members

Basically, the spawned project includes everything from your existing project except for Respondents and other data specific to them.

The Spawn Project feature is useful when you are starting a new project and you have an old project that is similar. To spawn a project:

  1. In your project list, click the existing project you want to use as a source.
  2. Either right-click the project and choose Spawn Project, or click the main menu button and choose Spawn Project.
  3. Give the new project a name.
  4. If you want the team members in the existing project (if there are others than you) to be notified that the new project is available, check the Notify Team Members box.
  5. Click OK. After the new project is created, it will appear in your project list and it will be opened for use automaticall.

Clone a Project

Symphony's Clone Project feature lets you make an identical copy of a project. Usually you would do this if:

  • You want to make a lot of changes to a project but you don't know whether you want to keep them. The clone gives you a means of reverting to the earlier version.
  • You want to manage different branches of a project, your coding structure evolving in each to satisfy different analysis objectives.

To clone a project, simply right-click its name in the Project List and Choose Clone Project. The clone will appear in your project list.

Note that if what you really want to do is create a backup, it is better to download the file (click Download Symphony File in the main menu).

Move Data Between Projects

This features enables you to move or copy content from one project to another. You might want to do this in situations such as:

  • You have content in one project but you want to use subsets of content for different analysis initiatives. (e.g. complex 360 interview data where each rater is also a target.)
  • You have multiple projects that you want to combine into one as part of a larger analysis. (e.g. an industry analysis of employee engagement surveys from different companies.)

To move and/or copy content between projects:

  • Open the project from which you want to move or copy (source project).
  • Switch to either the People or Coding tab. (Switch to the one where it is easiest for you to identify the scope of content you want to move/copy.)
  • Click the main menu button followed by Move Data Between Projects. The Transfer Content form will open.
  • Choose whether you want to move content out of the source project and into the destination, or whether you want to copy it.
  • In People or Coding view, select the content you want to move/copy, then drag it onto the name of the destination project. The move/copy will be executed and a results summary will be displayed.

When the move/copy is performed, Symphony ensures that all related data exists in the destination project. For example, if you copy comments, Symphony will create codes and respondents where equivalents don't already exist.

Import Feedback Report Edits

Let's say you generate a Feedback Report and while reading it you discover typos in some of the comments, or maybe you want to change the wording of some codes. If this is the last revision of the report that you'll be running and if you are finished with the project file, this is fine. If however you have more work to do, you will want the edits to be reflected in the project file so that the next time you run the report the edits will be carried over to it.

Symphony's Import Feedback Report Edits feature synchronizes report edits with Symphony content. Specifically, Symphony can apply text changes you make in a report to the corresponding codes and comments in your project file. Note that the imports are limited to text changes to existing items; new paragraphs are not added, and the order of codes and comments is not carried over.

To import report edits:

  1. Make the desired edits to your report, then close the file.
  2. From Symphony's main menu, choose "Feedback Report Edits" in the Import section.
  3. Navigate to and upload the Feedback Report you edited. A list of differences between the Symphony project and your report will load.
  4. Check the checkbox next to each paragraph you want imported, or check the "check all" button.
  5. Click the Import Changes button. The items that were updated will disappear from the list.

Search Widget

The Search Widget functions in People, Coding, and Review views, allowing you to find comments containing a specific word or phrase and optionally replace it.

Launch the Search Widget by doing any of the following:

  • Press Ctrl-F
  • Click the Search Widget icon at the bottom of the screen
  • Click Symphony's Menu button followed by Search

Ask Cecil

Cecil is our AI Bot. In addition to lurking behind the scenes passively driving features such as Symphony's Code Suggestion component, Cecil can also help you learn what you need to know about Symphony. In this capacity you always interact with Cecil primarily through Symphony's Chat widget.

At the bottom of Symphony's screen, there is a field where you can ask a question. Pressing the Enter key opens Symphony's Chat widget with Cecil in attendance, who then provides a response to your question. From there, you can follow links to topics that Cecil found or down-vote what Cecil provided. In the latter case, Cecil will provide you with other alternatives.

List Column Picker

Some lists allow you to customize which columns to display and in what order. Some of the available columns are built into Symphony, and some are driven by your data. For example, if you have demographics defined, they will be available as columns in the People tab.

Because the columns can be driven by your data, they are specific to each project. Therefore, your column settings are retained on a project-by-project basis. Each new project starts with the same default columns.

To choose which columns to display:

  1. With the desired list visible, click the Column Selection cog (). The list's column picker will open.'
  2. Check the box next to each column you want to appear.

The columns are added in the order they are chosen. So if you want to change the order, you can de-select then re-select columns until they are in the order you desire.

Flags

Flags provide you a way of "marking" specific codes or comments. The meaning of the flag can be whatever you want it to be. For example:

  • Flag a comment to have a team member access how you have it coded
  • Flag a comment for review to see whether you want to keep it in your analysis
  • Flag a code as a reminder to go back and review it, or to show that it has already been reviewed
  • Flag a code as a way of assigning a team member to perform an additional level of coding within it

Preferences

To view or change your global settings, click the menu button followed by Preferences.

  • Name Format: Click the button to toggle between "First Last" and "Last, First"
  • Decimal Places: Click the bottom to change between None, 1, 2, and 3.
  • Show Data Tips: Check to display tips (when available) pertaining to data when you mouse over it.
  • Show Control Tips: Check to display tips when mousing over field captions and buttons.
  • External AI Opt In/Out: Turns on/off Symphony's AI-related features that access other vendor's systems.

Glossary

This section defines various concepts and how they are implemented in Symphony.

Demographics

Demographics are custom attributes pertaining to respondents. Examples are Gender, Location, and Tenure. Each demographic has "demographic values" such as Male and Female for Gender.

The primary purpose of demographics in Symphony is to provide ways of grouping and/or filtering respondents to perform deep analysis or targeted reports. For example, with a Gender demographic you can compare the average comment sentiment for Males and Females. Or run a Feedback Report that contains comments belonging to respondents from a particular country.

Symphony implements demographics as "tag groups" and "tags". A demographic such as Gender would be a tag group, and Male and Female would be tags within the group. What differentiates a demographic from other tag groups is that you define the tag group to be used for respondents only.

Interview Guide

An interview guide is used for transcribing interview notes. In addition to representing the results of an interview with an interviewee/respondent, it is the means by which interviews are usually imported into Symphony. Here are formatting guidelines:

  • The document is a Microsoft Word file.
  • The document contains a text paragraph for each high level category (example categories: Strategy, Culture, and Infrastructure)
  • Each high-level category is followed by the exploratory questions for the category, each questions being in a paragraph by itself..
  • Each question is followed by at least one blank paragraph where the response to the question can be transcribed.
  • All text in the document uses styles that capture their semantic meaning. For example, all high-level categories should use one style, questions should use another, and responses to questions (comments) should use another. If the document contains other text not of interest to Symphony (e.g. instructions to the interviewer) it should use yet another style Symphony will use these styles as guidance on how to parse the contents of the document
  • If the document contains styles called Code Level 1, Code Level 2, and Comment, Symphony will assume that the underlying texts are high-level categories, second-level codes or questions, and interviewee responses (comments) respectively.
  • If the document does not contain those styles, Symphony will look for text using Heading 1, Heading 2, and Normal respectively.
  • By default, Symphony will assume that any text using the built-in style Heading 2 is a second-level code or question.
  • Each comment paragraph is imported and tracked as a separate comment.
  • Each copy of the interview guide must contain the responses to one interviewee. That is, you create a separate file for each one-on-one interview.

Tag/Tag Group

Tags and Tag Groups are used to "mark" content. Tags can be used in many ways:

  • Designate content items as part of a filter.
  • Demographics
  • Ratings
  • Elements of model

Troubleshooting

Having trouble? This section covers some of the more common issues.

I can't see my project in the Project List.

  1. If a team mate created the project, check with them to verify that they shared it with you. (If they use Symphony Desktop, they need to synchronize after adding you to the project.)
  2. Notify tech support

Things just don't look right, or things that used to work no longer do.

The most likely cause is there has been a Symphony update and your browser has cached versions of files. Try to get your browser to download the updated files by doing the following:

  1. Go to the Home page of Symphony, where the list of projects appears.
  2. Try forcing your browser to reload the page. On a PC you do this by pressing Ctrl + F5. On some computers you press Ctrl + Fn + F5. If you are using a Mac press Command + R.
  3. Check to see whether the issue is resolved. Continue to the next step if it is not.
  4. Ensure you are still on the Home page, then press the Menu button and choose the Refresh option toward the bottom of the menu.
  5. If the issue is still not resolved, close and reopen your browser.
  6. If the issue is still not resolved, check with technical support. They will see whether an update could be the cause, or whether there is some other cause.

Browsers are all different when it comes to caching files. Chrome is very aggressive with caching, and is known to be stubborn about refreshing files that it has updated recently.

The more time that goes by, the more likely your browser will be willing to refresh updated files.


Process Guides

This section provides a high-level outline for various types of projects. Consider each process step to be a major task that needs to be performed; the specifics should be aligned with the way your organization works and with the goal of your project.

Interview-based Team Assessment

This type of project usually seeks to answer questions pertaining to relatively small groups of people that have a shared knowledge or interest that brings them together. Sample are:

  • Board Members
  • Division or Product Line heads
  • Function heads (e.g. Accounting, Production, Marketing, HR)

Each task does not necessarily need to be finished before continuing on to the next. Symphony fully supports an iterative approach to project completion. For example, you can add more demographics at any time.

TaskDetails
Create a new project. For this type of project all you need is to give it a name at Start a new project. Leave the Multi-coding box unchecked. When you have comments that contain more than one theme, you should use the Split Comment feature. Coding the same comment to more than one code makes your verbatim reports confusing.
Add information about the team members being assessed. As a minimum, this is the name of each interviewee and an optional title. It is often useful to include at least one demographic that might provide deeper insights into how or why interviewees are grouped around themes.
  • If you have a spread sheet with this information, import it using the Import Excel Spreadsheet feature.
  • If you are manually entering this information:
    • define demographics as Tags in Tag Groups
    • create new Respondents in People view
    • assign demographic values (Tags) to each Respondent
Add Comments from Interviews Use one of these methods to get comments into Symphony:
  • Manually type them into Symphony using the Comment Properties form available in People view.
  • Transcribe each interview to a copy of your interview guide then import it using the Import Word Transcript feature. In so doing, you can leverage the structure of your interview guide to create initial category codes and have the comments placed inside them. For example, if all your "Strategy" questions are grouped together in the interview guide, the related comments can be automatically inserted into a "Strategy" code created by Symphony.
  • If you have comments in an unformatted document, copy them to your computer's clipboard, then right-click paste them onto a respondent. A new comment will be created for each paragraph.
  • If you use a professional transcription service that produces a Word document, import the transcripts using Symphony's Upload Word Transcript feature. Here you map speakers to team members and interviewees and choose which text from the transcript you want to import.
Code the Comments How you go about this is a function of how you approach qualitative analysis in general, and is also dependent on the amount and composition of data you have. Here's what Symphony has to assist you:
  • Coding view is optimized for a theme-centric analysis, where you focus on comments contained inside a specific code.
  • People view is optimized for an interviewee-centric analysis, where you focus on comments from a specific Respondent, regardless of theme.
  • You can get ideas for potential themes by producing Word Clouds. Unlike most word clouds that function more as digital art, Symphony's word clouds help point you in the direction of potential themes.
  • When you think you have a significant number of codes identified, open Symphony's Code Suggestion component anywhere your coding structure is visible. The Code Suggestion component performs an analysis on each comment you click on and in real-time gives you a short list of codes that Symphony thinks it fits in.
  • Also after you have a significant number of codes identified, try using Symphony's Comment Suggestion component. This is the inverse of the Code Suggestion component, in that you click on a code and Symphony tells you which comments it thinks should be moved into it.
Perform post-coding analysis This is when you develop your narrative around your findings and is where your talent as an analyst prevails. To support you in your analysis, Symphony provides the following:
  • Symphony's Review tab displays your codes and comments laid out the way they would flow in a report. Here you can get a sense of the story the data tells by navigating through it in the order it will appear in reports. This is an ideal time to recode comments that don't fit well where they are, and to move the most representative comments up among their peers. The Code Suggestion component is a great companion here.
  • Symphony's Queries tab enables you to define queries against your data. A Sandbox queries is provided for the purpose of doing ad hoc queries.
  • A graphical representation of your query results is available on the Charts tab.
Create Feedback Report

Guidance on how to create a template is available here. It is a best practice to create a general template that you can make a copy of and modify for each project.

Run your report in the Feedback Report tab and distribute it for review.

Reviewers' edits to codes and comments in the report can be imported back into Symphony using the Feedback Edits import option.