Thematic content analysis is one of the most popular way of conducting qualitative research. I always think that qualitative researchers in the old days are all genius because it is really challenging to organise qualitative data, especially when the dataset is very large and complex. With the help of softwares like NVivo, the organisation and coding process a lot easier, but it's still hesitated by researchers like me, who can't afford buying the softwares or find the interfaces of these softwares too inconvenient or difficult to follow.

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Softwares like Nvivo are able to aid your data-entry and data-analysis, and they support a wide arrange of different qualitative approaches. However, if you are just working on a thematic content analysis, all you need are only an convenient way to transcribe your data and code the data into different themes. In this case, using these softwares on the market might not suit you well.

Therefore, I develop a Microsoft excel template called "ThematiCoder" that provides an alternative solution to thematic content analysis. ThematiCoder offers a convenient platform for transcribing qualitative data, and it is able to report the basic statistics required for thematic content analysis, such as the %, number, and coverage of quotes in each theme. In a single file, you can enter data for as many group interviews as you like, by simply creating new sheets.

ThematiCoder was initially designed for processing data of focus group interview (so it's ok to have more than one interviewee in the interview), but it also works well for an ordinary one-to-one interview. ThematiCoder shows you the statistics for each interview, and summarise them in a single sheet within the file. In addition, it is very easy to build the hierarchical relationships between the themes, and display the statistics of the higher-order/ lower order themes by inserting new rows and basic excel functions in the summary sheet. It is also quite easy to showcase all the quotes independently by each theme.

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a. Download the excel file

    - For analysing qualitative data with English or other languages using combination of alphabats as the letters, please download the excel file here.

    -For analysing qualitative data with Chinese or other languages that are not using combination of alphabats as the letters, please download the excel file here.

b. Open the file in spreadsheet program, preferably Microsoft Excel.

Just open the file in MS-Excel or any similar spreadsheet programs like Numbers (iWork), Open Office, or even Google Drive. However, I built the template in MS-Excel for Mac 2011, so it should work perfectly well there, but it's functionality in other spreadsheet programs is uncertain. I intentionally save the template as .xls, so it's can be opened by all versions of MS-excel.

The citation looks funny because it's not a software. However, I would be appreciated if you let me know you are using it.

Chan, D. K. C. (2012). ThematiCoder 1.0 [Computer software]. Available from www.derwinchan.com.