Advanced open-end recoding

Protobi provides two ways to code text open-ends: Simple Recode Tool and Advanced Recode Tool (ART).

ART is designed for larger or more involved open-end coding tasks — especially when you have many responses to review, an established codeframe to manage, or need to work with groups of responses efficiently. It brings the responses, assigned codes, and full code set into one workspace, with tools for searching, bulk selection, code management, AI-assisted coding, review, import/export, and more.

For quick, straightforward recoding, Simple Recode may be all you need. Choose Advanced Recode Tool (ART) when the coding itself becomes a workflow: you want to search for patterns across responses, apply or remove codes in bulk, organize codes into Nets, use Autocode, review coding against an AI reference, or manage a larger codeframe.

The workspace is organized into five main areas:

• Responses — the raw response text
• Codes — codes already assigned to each response, shown next to it.
• Code set — the full codeframe for the element
• Search bar — filters responses by keywords or patterns
• Toolbar — tools for selecting, coding, reviewing, importing, exporting, and saving your work

Please note

Advanced Recode Tool(ART) is separate from the project view. Before launching it, make sure any changes in the project view have been saved.

While working in ART, press Save before leaving the page. Unsaved coding changes are lost if you navigate away, reload the page, or return to the project without saving.

After you're done recoding, press Save. When you return to the project view, reload the browser to see your changes.

How to access

To get to an element's ART page, press on the header of the element you want to recode. It will turn blue to indicate it's selected. Then, from the "Advanced" button on the toolbar, choose "Recode (advanced)."

Responses/Codes

View responses on the left. Codes already assigned to a response appear immediately to its right in the "Codes" column. The full list of all available codes for this element appears separately, in the "Code set" panel further to the right.

• Press on a response to select it — it highlights in yellow. Press it again to deselect it.
• Press Esc on your keyboard as another way to deselect all responses.
• Copy icon next to a selected response: copies its text.
• "+" next to a response: opens the "Add code to selected responses" dialog. Check an existing code or enter a new code number and label, then press Ok.
• Press a code on a response: limits the view to only responses that have that code. Press "Non-answer" or "Other" to see responses tagged as such.
• Press "x" on a code: removes that code from the response.

Code set

Use the Code set panel on the right to manage every code in the element's codeframe — each one shows a count of how many responses carry it. Related codes can be grouped under Nets — dark header rows like "Device Features" or "Value & Innovation" — for higher-level reporting.

• Press a code: limits the view to only responses tagged with that code.
• Press the pencil icon on a code: opens the "Edit tag" dialog to rename it, edit its number or details, Unapply it from all responses (keeping it in the codeframe), or Dissolve it (delete permanently).

• Drag a code onto a response: another way to tag it.
• With a response selected, codes in the Code set panel show + (not yet applied — press to add) or - (already applied — press to remove).
• Add a new code: use "Add new code..." at the top, or the "+" row at the bottom — Protobi suggests a code number, enter a label to identify it.
• Add net: press "Add net..." to create a Net that groups related codes together. Press the chevron to expand/collapse a Net.
  • Pencil icon on a Net: rename it.
  • "x" on a Net: delete the Net (codes inside it are ungrouped, not deleted).
  • Drag a code onto a Net to move it into that group.
• Numerify codes: if your codes are strings instead of numeric, use this option to convert all tags to number:label pairs.

Clear or dissolve codes

At the bottom of the Code set are options for resetting some or all of the coding:

• Clear assignments but keep codes... removes the codes currently assigned to responses but leaves the codeframe available so you can use it again.
• Dissolve all codes... removes the codes from the responses and deletes them from the codeframe. Protobi asks you to confirm before continuing.

• If dissolving the codes leaves a Net with no codes inside it, the empty Net is removed as well.

Use Clear assignments but keep codes when you want to recode the responses using the same codeframe. Use Dissolve all codes when you want to discard the existing codeframe and start over.

Search bar

Use the search bar to limit the view to responses that contain a keyword — it matches partial words too. For example, search 'difficul' to surface responses containing "difficult," "difficulty," or any other word containing that string. Matches are highlighted in green within the response text.

Search also supports Regular Expressions, from simple to advanced. See the RegEx cheat sheet.

You can also double-click a word in any response to automatically add it to the search bar.

Toolbar

Save (S)

Press or use keyboard shortcut S to save your work. After you're done recoding in Recode (advanced), press this button. When you return to the project view, reload the browser to see your changes.

Clear (Esc)

Clears the current search or filter. You can click Clear or press Esc to return to the full response list.

Select all (E)

Press to select all responses in the view pane. This lets you add codes to many responses at once.

Below, all responses that mention "difficult" are selected. Press Select all again to deselect all.

Add code (T)

Press to add a code to selected responses.

This button is an alternative to pressing the "+" sign next to responses. Press it to bring up the "Add code to selected responses" dialog. You can choose an existing code or create a new one. Press Ok.

Remove (del)

Removes the assigned codes from the selected responses without deleting those codes from the Code set.

Labels (F)

Click Labels to toggle the displayed codes between their labels and their underlying code values.

Language

Press the Language button to switch the display language or launch Google Translate.

• Original (default) and other listed languages: switch the display to a previously-added translation.
• Google Translate: opens a dialog to translate display text into a new language without changing the underlying raw responses or recode keys.
  • What to translate: choose Response text, Code and response labels, or Question title.
  • Target language: pick the language to translate into.
  • Switch to this language when translation finishes: check to display the new translation immediately.
  • Remove the selected translation instead: check to delete an existing translation rather than add one.
  • Press Ok to run the translation.

Weight

Press to apply a survey weight field, so response counts reflect that weight instead of counting each response as 1.

• Toggle weights off: turns weighting off and reverts to counting each response as 1.
• Select weight field: choose a weight field from your dataset (e.g. weight1, weight2) to apply.

Once weighting is active, code counts and response frequencies reflect the selected weight. Responses with a weighted frequency of 0 are hidden from the list.

Note: the tooltip references a "w" keyboard shortcut, but this shortcut isn't currently active.

Autocode

Opens the "Autocode data" dialog, where Protobi AI can create, apply, describe, and evaluate categorizations of your open-end responses.

• Create: builds categories without assigning them.
• Create + Apply: builds categories and assigns them to responses (enhanced).
• Detail level: Broad, Detailed, or Granular.
• Options: include "Other" and/or "Non-answer" codes, or group codes into higher-level Nets.
• Additional instructions: optional hint for the AI.
• Clear assignments... / Clear all...: remove existing codes before running.

Press Ok to run.

Summary

Press to open an AI-generated summary of the element's coding — a short narrative on the key themes, followed by Key Ideas and Frequency: each code with its mention count and a one-line description.

Export

Press to download the coded values as JSON (.json) or Excel (.xlsx).

Below is an example exported Excel file:

• value: the raw response text
• reformat: the code number(s) assigned to that response
• reformatOk: QC status per assigned code (e.g. true if confirmed, null if not yet reviewed)
• reformatSeen: marks whether the response has been reviewed
• reformatRef: the reference code(s) for that response, from an independent AI evaluation

Import

Press to bring in coded data from a file.

• Protobi JSON...: import a previously exported Protobi JSON file.
• Protobi Excel...: import a previously exported Protobi Excel file.
• Caplena codeframe...: import a codeframe from Caplena.
• Ascribe codeframe...: import a codeframe from Ascribe.
• Other/custom format...: import a codeframe from another or custom format.

Review

Click Review to compare the current coding with an independent AI reference solution and identify coding differences for QC.

This is the same comparison view described in Evaluate your coding — see that section for how to read the +/- markers, thumbs up/down, and Code set deltas.

Example Review view comparing current coding with the AI reference solution.