ATLAS.ti offers numerous functionalities that are either completely unique or clearly stand out from the rest of all QDA software packages out there. Here are just a few.

Meaningful Coding Hierarchies

The ATLAS.ti Object Explorer is a clickable tool that lists all work and connections between documents and their quotes. It shows connections of every code with every other code and provides sophisticated views of the coding scheme ( including all the interconnections). Of course, hierachical views of the coding scheme are also possible.

Grouping

ATLAS.ti lets you group codes without changing the coding scheme via its simple-to-use code families (shortcuts to codes)

Transitive Relationships

A unique and extremely powerful feature of ATLAS.ti is its capability of letting you define functional relationships, embodied in transitive (or hierarchical) links, such as 'is a', 'part of; 'causes' etc. Its powerful Query Tool lets you retrieve data based on transitivity.

Flexible Searching / Retrieving / Filtering

ATLASti makes it quick and easy to focus attention on parts of the dataset without even opening its dedicated search tools. Double clicking on code and/or document families filters your work in various ways, providing great insight into the dataset without . Codes can be sorted in multiple ways in ATLAS.ti; this adds great flexibility to the ways information about progress and frequency can be produced.

ATLAS.ti sports powerful search & retrieve functions with Boolean, semantic, and proximity-based operators. Searches always locate coded quotations in context which keeps you very close to the source data at all times.

Comprehensive Annotations

ATLAS.ti gives you numerous different ways to fully annotate your material. Attach extensive comments (even containing multimedia and embeded objects!) to any program object, i.e. quotations, documents, codes or networks. Or create standalone memos that become automous objects and are centrally listed, accessible and searchable.

Powerful Hyperlinking

Hyperlinking allows for precise point-to-point jumping around the dataset at text level. ATLAS.ti enables this very effectively for both text and multimedia, e.g. audiovisual data. In text the hyperlinks flagged in the margin view are easily navigated by clicking.

From its first release over a decade and a half ago, ATLAS.ti has been hailed by users for the way it has been designed with their concrete needs and the way they work in mind. Here are a few highlights:

Interface

Any combination of functions can be open together, which allows equally for extremely comfortable and efficient work. A major independent study specifically praised ATLAS.ti for its "slick interactivity between different objects and tasks" which contributes to the high degree of "fluidity with which you can flick between views and functions." (Lewins/Silver, p.) Unlike other programs, ATLAS.ti employs line wrapping of text when the window size is reduced.

Interactive Margin

ATLAS.ti introduced the classic margin view as early as 1996.

It is ATLAS.ti's perhaps most central work view, and it facilitates work by providing an extremely intuitive environment that emulates a traditional paper-and-pencil feel. Your codes are conveniently in view at all times, even appearing simultaneously as you code.

Its ability to let you choose between viewing codes, memos or hyperlinks, or combinations of them is unique to ATLAS.ti and makes it the most intuitive and most flexible QDA tool out there.

Navigation, Units of Context

ATLAS.ti displays the widest variety of units of context while at the same giving you the most precise text segments at the lower levels (word, sentence, paragraph). Clear and concise points of reference (such as line and paragraph numbers) always make moving around--even large documents--easy.

Leader of The Pack

ATLAS.ti's multimedia capabilities are and have always been second to none (remember that ATLAS.ti introduced multimedia analysis features as early 1996!)

Create quotations directly from audio and video files, work with or without transcriptions. Link audio to text and videos to photos. Treat videos clips as you would text files, draw connections between any kind of data and content.

ATLAS.ti is not just a text analysis tool, it is truly an entire "text audio video image & more analysis" workbench.

Only ATLAS.ti lets you work just as you need to:

• create quotations in any type of audio / video / image file just like in textual documents
• annotate multimedia quotations
• hyperlink between multimedia quotations and text files (and vice versa, of course...)
• assign multimedia files like textual files as standalone documents

ATLAS.ti is fully teamwork-oriented and puts special emphasis on supporting group work.

The One and The Many

Its project merging capability is superior to that of any other QDA software because ATLAS.ti uses a stronger and more rigorously designed authorship model than anyone else.

Each object is clearly assigned to an author, allowing for flexible merging, filtering, and multiplication of projects. And ATLAS.ti's strong authorship rights model also supports a concise security model.

Merging a project from a multitude of sources--local or remote!--is just as you would expect: straightforward, logical, and simple.

Sharing, Moving, Merging

Various tools and functions make collaborative work a breeze--all the more when you consider that collaboration in most cases means several individuals primarily working separately on independent aspects of a problem. The crucial point is the software's ability to exchange work between users and to merge contributions into a larger context.

ATLAS.ti has highly developed, powerful functions to perform all of these tasks reliably. Its Merge tools and its Copy Bundle function, along with its support for data access on remote drives and even through VPN, help you to master all aspects of collaborative project management and flexibly support the way your research team likes to work.

ATLAS.ti is Not an Island

ATLAS.ti understands the necessity to sometimes re-use research results for processing and publication in other applications. It therefore sports the widest range of export and reporting facilities of any QDA package.

SPSS, Excel, and HTML are standard export formats for your projects. But they by no means exhaust the possibilities for integration with your IT demands.

Through its native XML output and and assisted by an extensive number of XSLT-filters that come included in the package, ATLAS.ti can export your complete data to virtually ANY application.

Dozens of High-Class Export and Reporting Filters Prepackaged

By supporting the open standard XML, ATLAS.ti is the first QDA tool to create a platform for the universal exchange, storage, and processing of QDA data.

Formats that can be supported by implementing this standard are as manifold as their intended purposes: Elegant reporting on- and offline, professional pre-print, conversion into the most diverse application formats, and many more.

ATLAS.ti comes with several dozens filters for reporting, exchanging data between users, and export to application formats, all of which can be modified and adapted by users to suit their specific purposes. Custom programming services are also available.

Getting Started

No doubt, ATLAS.ti is a sophisticated and complex piece of software. However, despite its many formidable capabilities, independent testers have praised it to be "very interactive and flexible" (Lewins/Silver, p.) as well as easy to get started with.

Nearly all activities that you will need to perform in ATLAS.ti are based on drag and drop: Linking, coding, and merging, use of the data managers and last but not least its fully interactive margin area are extremely user-friendly and work just the way you would expect it. There is simply no more intuitive and no more efficient way of working than the one you're already used to from countless Windows applications.

A great manual and a live help system, easy-to-follow quick start instructions and especially a growing library of online video tutorials help you get started without too much trouble.

Our much-praised online support is included in the price of every license. And if you still feel you need more or more specific guidance, numerous independent trainers offer dedicated workshops all over the world.

Support

These sources of support are available to you at all times:

• Comprehensive Program Manual
• Interactive Program Help
• Quick Tour
• FAQ
• ATLAS.ti Forum
• Mailing List
• Online Support Center

Don't forget: Full online support without thematic limitation is already included in the price of every license. There is NO hidden cost for "software maintenance," support packages, limited types of questions you can ask, etc.

Latest Developments Included for Free

ATLAS.ti is known for its long upgrade cycles (we release major versions only every few years), but also for its active update policy that always gives you that latest available developments--for free!

We release numerous free updates and minor version upgrades each year, almost all of which are not mere "bug-fixes" but add significant new functionality.

(For example, an entire set of new powerful new XML filters and a new, even more flexible XML output format was released for free in 2007 as part of regular update 5.2.18.)

Typically, we give you somewhere between 10 to 20 "mini-upgrades" during the life-cycle of a major version. What others tout as new versions (and charge users for!), we consider included in the initial purchase price. Your software keeps "growing" and adapting to new developments for years to come--all free of charge to you.

When we do release major versions, they present significant steps forward and introduce powerful, innovative, and elegant new paradigms not available anywhere else. Simply German engineering at its best.

Nowhere else do you get so much software for your money!