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The text search language and stop word lists are managed via project properties. Project properties' settings apply to every user who accesses the project.
In server projects, all project users can view project properties (including the text search language and stop words list), but only Project Owners can make changes—refer to About teamwork in a server project for more information.
In this topic
NVivo provides the following text search languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Each text search language has an associated dictionary which allows you to find words with the same stem or similar meanings when you run Text Search and Word Frequency queries.
Each text search language also has an associated 'stop word' list. The words in the stop word list are filtered out (removed) when you:
Run a Word Frequency or Text Search query
Generate a cluster analysis diagram comparing words in sources or nodes
Before you run Word Frequency and Text Search queries, make sure that the text search language is set to match the language of your source materials—refer to Set the text search language for detailed instructions. If the language of your source materials is not available as a text search language, you should set the text search language to 'None'.
NOTE When the text search language is set to 'None', you cannot look for similar words when you run a Text Search query or Word Frequency query.
NVivo provides default stop words for English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish—the default stop words are less significant words like conjunctions or prepositions, that may not be meaningful to your analysis. You can view the stop words associated with each language, and you can customize the stop words by adding or removing words from the stop word list.
NVivo does not provide default stop words for Chinese and Japanese, but you can add your own stop words for these languages.
The text search language setting in your project, determines which list of stop words is in use—for example, the English stop words list, or the Spanish stop words list. If the language of your source materials is not available in the Text search language list, you should select 'None'. By default, the stop word list for the language 'None' is empty—you can add your own words to create a stop word list to suit the language of your sources.
Click the File tab, point to Info, and then click Project Properties.
The Project Properties dialog box opens.
On the General tab, select the language used in your sources from the Text search language list.
Click OK.
NOTE
If the language used in your sources is not available in the Text search language list, select the language 'None'. By default, the stop word list for the language 'None' is empty—you can add your own words to create a stop word list to suit the language of your sources.
You can also set the default text search language that will apply to any future projects you create, refer to Set application options (General tab options) for more information.
Click the File tab, point to Info, and then click Project Properties.
The Project Properties dialog box opens.
On the General tab, click the Stop Words button. The Stop Words dialog box opens.
(Optional) Edit the list of stop words. You can add or remove words from the list. Each word must be separated by a space.
Click OK. to close the Stop Words dialog box.
Click OK.
NOTE
You can also add stop words by selecting words displayed in the results of a Word Frequency query. Select the word you want to exclude from the query results, then click Add to Stop Words List, in the Stop Words group on the Analyze tab.
If you want to change the stop words for more than one language, make sure you click Apply on the Project Properties dialog after changing the stop words for a language (before you select the next language).
In a server project, you cannot add or remove stop words when another user has a source (internal, external or memo) open in edit mode.
CAUTION If you restore the default stop word list for a text search language, any words that you have added to the stop word list are removed.
Click the File tab, point to Info, and then click Project Properties.
The Project Properties dialog box opens.
On the General tab, click the Stop Words button. The Stop Words dialog box opens.
Click Reset.
Click OK.