Stop and Go Lists

Words in stop lists are words which are filtered out when processing text. Stop words are short function words that occur very often and which do not convey any particular meaning. Examples are 'the', 'a', 'you', 'is', 'at', 'on' and 'which'. ATLAS.ti offers predefined stop lists in English, French, German and Spanish. These stop lists are based on the information provided by Ranks NL. This website offers stop lists in over 40 languages. You can use it as a basis to create further stop lists.

Go List: If you set a word list as Go List, then only the words that are in the list are counted.

Adding Words to a Stop List

The first step is to select a stop list: Select the option Exclude words from stop list and select a list from the drop-down menu. If you need a stop list in a different language than English, French, German or Spanish, click on Manage Lists and create a new stop list (see below for further information).

Right-click on a word in the word list or word cloud and select Add to stop list.

Removing Words from a Go List

Select a Go List. If you have no Go List yet, you need to create one first (see below for further information).

Right-click on a word in a word list or word cloud, and select Remove from Go List.

Creating a New Stop or Go List

Click on Manage Lists.

In the next window, select Add List.

Enter a name for the list and select as list type: Stop List or Go List. Enter an optional comment to describe the purpose of the list.

To add words to the newly created list, click on the Add Words a few times. Every time you click, a new field is added where you can enter a word.

RegEx: You can enter regular expressions, if you want to enter specific terms to the list. If so, you need to tick the Regex box. Optionally you can write a comment that explains the regular expression.

Options in the Stop and Go List Manager

Importing a List: Use this option if you have previously exported a list from another project, or received a list from another user. See below for further information on how to prepare your own list in Excel.

Removing a List: If you no longer need a list, you can remove it from the project.

Duplicating a List: Being able to duplicate a list can be useful, if you want to create different versions for different purposes.

Exporting a List: Exporting a stop or go list allows you to share it with other users, or to use it in another project.

Creating a User-Defined Stop or Go List in Excel

Importing a user defined list works as follows:

Export an existing list and open it in Excel. It serves as a template.

In Excel, change the name of the list, but leave all the header information as is.

Now delete all words and replace them with new words, one word per row.

Save the list under a new name and import it.

You can turn a stop list into a go list (or vice versa) by changing the List Type.