Within the past few years a group was formed known as REFI-QDA with the sole objective of developing and adopting an industry standard format for migrating data between different applications. Originally this involved simply sharing codebooks. Now, the QDPX standard has been ratified which allows programs to share much of their project data including code system, media files, excerpts, code applications, transcript information. More information on the standard can be found at: https://www.qdasoftware.org/

Dedoose has always done everything we can to make sure your data are accessible, exportable to common formats, transferable, and we’ve taken the extra step of doing what we can to help users migrate their data from other applications into Dedoose. In short, we know your data and all you do with them are yours and believe you should be able to do anything you wish with them. Fundamental to its design, Dedoose has always allowed full export of your data into a variety of formats and, so, we were happy to carry out the work to incorporate an open standard in doing so for moving data between applications. Starting with Version 8.3, Dedoose had begun to support importing and exporting QDPX files with a few important caveats. As you will find elsewhere, it is important to understand that given the unique nature of each program, the QDPX format will often NOT include all project data. This is certainly true with a Dedoose project and, as such, we strongly recommend only using this exchange format when necessary. Here are the Dedoose specific limitations at the time of this publication.

First, here is how we export a project to QDPX.

• Load the intended project.
• From the ‘Home’ tab click the ‘Export Data’ button and select ‘Export Project (QDAS)’.
• Enter an email address to send the file, do NOT enter a password.
• Within a few minutes you should receive an email with the link to download the file.

Exporting: When exporting data from Dedoose, the REFI-QDA standard does not include mechanisms to store weighted code data, descriptor sets, descriptor data, descriptor links, data sets, memo groups, and other unique Dedoose project data. Additionally, when exporting a Dedoose project to a QDPX format file, you will need to manually open the QDPX export (it’s simply a zip file with a different extension) and add your video, audio, and/or pdf file media into the ‘sources’ sub folder for import in other applications. The reason for this extra step is because in Dedoose these types of media are stored in a Dedoose specific format via a process which, currently, cannot be reversed. Finally, all exported documents will be converted to plain text.

Importing a QDPX file into Dedoose is fairly simple as well.

• First, go to the ‘Projects’ tab and create a new project.
• From the ‘Home’ tab click the ‘Import Data’ button and select ‘Import Project’
• Find and select the QDPX file on your local hard drive, do NOT enter a password.

Importing: When importing QDPX files into Dedoose from other programs Dedoose cannot import PDF files from a QDPX export and any audio or video media will first need to be uploaded into the receiving Dedoose project if these media files’ excerpts, code applications, and descriptor data are to be properly located and linked.

We understand that Dedoose is one choice of a variety of somewhat similar tools and, while we are proud of what we continue to develop and believe in the value of many Dedoose specific features, we appreciate that some may choose to use alternatives. In our support of this exchange format, we are doing what we can to allow users to move as easily as possible from one tool to another and it is certainly our hope that Dedoose will be seriously considered as the tool of choice when alternative solutions are being considered. In fact, when anyone comes for information on a ‘best choice,’ it is our recommendation that users try more than one tool to get a real life feel for what will most useful and valuable to their work.