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A standalone project consists of a single .nvp project file stored on your computer or on a network drive—only one user can open the project at any point in time.
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Yes, it is possible to collaborate in a standalone project. The simplest way for team members to collaborate on a standalone project, is to work with a single project file—however only one user can open and work with the project at any point in time.
Make sure all team members are using the same version of the NVivo 9 software, because projects in a later format (for example, NVivo 9.2) cannot be opened with an earlier version of NVivo. You can check which version of the software is installed on your computer. NVivo 9.2 is a free update to your NVivo 9.0 or 9.1 software—refer to Software updates for more information.
If more than one user wants to work on a project at the same time, you can establish a 'master' project, and then give a copy of the master project to each team member. The team members work in the copied projects while you work in the master project. At regular intervals, import your team members' work into the master project—refer to Import selected content into an open project for more information.
Each team member can have their own user profiles in the project, however, users are not 'authenticated', so team members must take care to use the correct user profile—refer to Manage users in a standalone project for more information.
If you are working in a team you should consider combining NVivo with NVivo Server—refer to About teamwork in a server project for more information.
When you first start NVivo, you are prompted to set up your user profile—refer to Create, view or change user profiles for more information.
When you work in a project, this user profile is used to create your project user profile. If team member access the project using their own user profile, you can monitor the work done by different team members.
If you change your user profile, the next time you work in your project, a new project user profile will be created. Work you do from this point onwards will be associated with the new project user profile. If you accidentally create two separate profiles in your project, you can merge the two user profiles, by removing one of the project user profiles and assigning all associated project content to the other user.
Even if team members share a single Windows user account and computer, each team member can have a separate user profile within NVivo, so that you can track their work.
Team members must take care to use the correct user profile when they are working in a standalone project, they can check the Status bar to see which user profile is currently in use.
When team members share a Windows account and computer, you can turn on the 'automatic prompt for user' option, so that team members are prompted to enter their user account whenever they launch NVivo. When one team member finishes working with the project, they should exit NVivo, so that the next user is forced to launch NVivo and will be prompted to enter their user profile.
Team members can switch user profiles when you are working in an open project. This can be useful, when team members share a computer and Windows account, and do not want to exit and relaunch NVivo in order to change user profiles.