) in the Drive field to select from the available options. When the drive is correctly specified, cohorts should appear in the Cohort field.
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CHRR NLS Investigator for Windows 95 |
NLS CD-ROM User’s Guide |
Specifying a Data File for Use
In order to begin to develop a search strategy a data set (or cohort) must be specified in the Cohort field. To specify a data set, its physical location must first be designated in the Drive field. Depending on which of the three options were selected in "Setting Up the NLS Software", select the drive where the data files (folders ending in "...pub") reside. The image below shows the default display for the Contents, Variables, and Text/Codebook windows. You may resize the windows according to your preferences or click on the Window option in the menu bar and choose a pre-specified command from its pop-up menu.
) in the Drive field to select from the available options. When the drive is correctly specified, cohorts should appear in the Cohort field.
After specifying a drive, the cohort (or data set) must be designated. If one and only one cohort resides on the chosen drive, that data set is automatically chosen.
) in the Cohort field to see the data sets that reside on the drive you've selected in the Drive field. Click on the data set you want to investigate.
Once a data set is specified a list of the indexes and documents that belong to the data set will appear in the Contents window as shown below in the figure "Contents Window Maximized". The two other windows, NLS Variable List and Text/Codebook, are used to receive data depending on choices made in the Contents window. The windows will be discussed in the following order Contents, NLS Variable List, and Text/Codebook.
The Contents window is the principal window for data retrieval and is used to navigate among documentation, indexes, and variable displays for a specified cohort. It controls the selection of, indexes, index terms, and a search strategy of selected terms. To work with the Contents window, it may be best to maximize it.
When the Contents window is maximized it is composed of three boxes from top to bottom:
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| Contents Window Maximized |
The Components of the data set (top box) allow the user to switch access to the principal indexes of the data set. The available indexes may vary from one data set to another. For example, the arcane index Record Type is being replaced by a more perceptible 'Area of Interest' index. To view the contents of an index, double-click on the index name and its contents will appear in the Index Terms box (middle box).
The available indexes in the currently selected data set are named:
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| Contents Window Maximized with Items Selected |
To locate a desired term in an index, scroll down to it in the middle box by using the scroll bar.
Or search for a term, by using the Search for field. Begin typing the name of a term and the list will scroll down to the first occurrence of that combination of letters. To do a Boolean, left-click on a term to highlight it and drag it down to the lower box to select it. Variables must be placed in the Item box (bottom box) in order to run a Boolean search on them. If the Boolean search is successful, the variables associated with the selected terms will be extracted for further examination and manipulation. The variables extracted, as the result of a search, will appear in the NLS Variable List window. (To switch to the NLS Variable List window, press the Variables button.)
To view all occurrences of a variable (Index Term), double-click on its name. Each occurrence (number of Entries) of the variable along with documentation will appear in the NLS Variable List window.
The figure "Contents Window Maximized with Items Selected" above shows three variables each selected from a different index. CHILD was selected from the Any Word in Context index, 1998 from the Year index, and 2ND PREGNANCY from the Keyword in Context index.
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| Operators-Commands |
A variable that appears in the lower Item box may be manipulated via the Operators-Commands pop-up menu. To view the Operators-Commands pop-up menu, right-click on the desired item name (variable) to highlight it and bring up the pop-up menu. The pop-up menu is comprised of the following three parts:
To change one of the operators in the Operator column of the Item box, right-click on the item name and the operators-commands menu will appear. To select a different operation (AND, OR, NOT), move the highlight bar to it and click. It will change in the Operator column.
To change the position of a variable in the Item column, right-click on it and the operators-commands menu will appear. To move the variable in the list, move the highlight bar to the choice (Move up or Move down) and click. The variable will move accordingly in the Item column.
Strategic Commands (e.g., 'execute a Boolean search')
To clear all variables in the Item box, right-click anywhere in the lower box and the operators-commands pop-up menu will appear. Move the highlight bar to Clear and click and all the variables in the Item box will disappear.
To delete a variable in the Item box, right-click on the item name to highlight it and bring up the operators-commands dialogue box. Move the highlight bar to Delete and click.
To run or apply the Boolean search strategy to the selected items, right-click anywhere in the lower box and the operators-commands pop-up menu will appear. Move the highlight bar to Apply and click. The search will be run and if the Boolean search is successful, the variables associated with the selected terms will be extracted and displayed in the NLS Variable List window for further examination and manipulation.
NLS Variable List Window
The NLS Variable List window displays the variables resulting from a successful search or those saved in previously tagged set when it is opened. Variables appearing in the window may be saved, tagged for saving or untagged, or examined in further detail.
When a variable is tagged a checkmark is placed in the checkbox in the left most column. When a variable is untagged, no checkmark appears.
To place a checkmark in the checkbox, click in the box next to the desired variable. To remove a checkmark, click in the box where the checkmark appears and it will disappear.
To tag all variables at the same time, right-click anywhere in the variables’ window and Tagging Pop-up Menu shown in the figure below will appear. Highlight the Tag All option or press <F5>.
In the NLS Variable List window, multiple variables may be selected for tagging or untagging. All variables may also be tagged or untagged at once. As shown above in the Tagging Pop-up Menufigure below, four other functions may be used to make multiple selections.
To tag or untag all variables in the list, right-click anywhere within the variables list box. Move the pointer to the Tag All or Untag All and click. Checkmarks will appear or disappear, appropriately. An alternate method is to simply press <F5> or <F6> when the variables list is the active window.
To tag multiple but not all variables, the variables must be selected. Variables are selected when they are highlighted.
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To save tagged variables, click on File in the menu bar, move the highlight bar to Save Tagset… and click. The standard Windows dialogue box will appear asking you to name the file and specify the location of the file to save. The extension YSR will be attached to the file. To see a list of file name extensions, see Appendix 2,
File Names.To view a single variable in detail, double-click on it in the NLS Variable List window and the code block will appear in the Text/Codebook window. Or, highlight the variable in the Variable List by right-clicking on it. The Tagging Pop-up Menu shown in the above figure will appear. Move the highlight bar to Codebook and click to see the codebook description of the variable. An alternate method is that when a variable is highlighted, pressing <F2> will also bring up the codebook display.
Text/Codebook Window
The codebook display of a variable appears in the Text/Codebook window shown in the figure below. Notice how closely the codebook documentation resembles the question in the Survey. This is because the OSU CHRR CAPI for Questionnaire Design System is a self-documenting system in which each question-response pair becomes a meta-datum documenting itself.
Information that identifies the variable is found at the top of the codebook display: Variable number, Variable label, Question number, Year used, Record type (or Area of Interest), and Variable name.
Variables related to the current one are mentioned as 'see' references in the middle of the of the display: e.g., SEE R(26048.) .
The frequencies of the responses selected, including Refusals and Don't Knows, and Valid/Invalid Skips complete the codebook description of the variable. This information is acquired as the result of Post-processing performed on the variable.
Detailed information from the codebook can be used to determine if the variable is one to keep in the extract specification file or if it should be discarded.
To go back to the NLS Variable List window, press the Variable button on the 'Navigation' bar. To go to the Contents window, press the Contents button.
After completing a search and creating an extract specification file, the next step is to setup and run the extract in Chapter 4 - Performing an Extract.
Go to Chapter 4 - Performing an Extract
Go to Table of Contents
