Linking Nodes and Entities

There are several ways to link nodes:

Linking via Drag & Drop

Linking Nodes in Networks

Select a node. A white dot appears in the top left corner of the node. Click on the white dot with the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer to the node that you want to link.

Release the left mouse button on top of the node. If you link codes to codes or quotations to quotations, a list of relation opens. Select a relation.

The two nodes are now linked to each other. In case you linked two codes or two quotations to each other, the relation name is displayed above the line.

If none of the existing relations is suitable, select New Relation Type and create a new relation. The new relation will immediately be applied to the link.

Linking Two Nodes Using the Ribbon Icon

Linking via Ribbon

Select a node in a network and click on the Link button in the ribbon.

A black line appears. Move the end on top of another node and left-click.

If you link codes to codes or quotations to quotations, a list of relation opens. Select a relation.

You need to use the method for linking if you want to link more than two nodes at a time.

When you link two codes to each other, the Density counts goes up. For instance, if six source codes are linked to one target code, the density for the target code is 6; If the source codes have no other links, then their density count is 1. The density count for memos counts the connection to other memos and codes. If a memo is linked to two codes and one other memo, its density is 3.

Linking Three or More Nodes

Linking multiple nodes

Select all nodes that you want to link to one other node. See Basis Network Procedures > Selecting Nodes for further information on how to select multiple nodes.

In the ribbon, click on the Link button. A black line appears. Move the end on top of the node you want the other nodes to be linked with and left-click. If you link codes to codes or quotations to quotations, a list of relation opens. Select a relation. Only one relation for all links can be selected.

Move the mouse pointer to the line and left-click. The selected link label will be displayed boxed.

Right-click and open the context menu, or select the available options in the ribbon.

  • Open Network: opens a new network for the two nodes linked by this link.

  • Edit Comment: Use the comment field to explain why these two nodes are linked-

  • Flip Link: Use this option if you want to change the direction of a transitive or asymmetric link.

  • Cut Link: removes the link between the two nodes

  • Change Relation: Select a different relation from the list of available relations or create a new one and apply it.

Change Relation in ATLAS.ti networks

For second class links that do not have a name, only the cut link option is available.

Cutting Multiple Links

Select one or more nodes (= source) whose connections to another node (= target) you want to remove.

Click the Cut Links button in the ribbon and move the mouse pointer over the target node. If you do the target node is boxed, and the links to be cut are colored in orange. Click the left mouse button on the target node.

The links between nodes in a network are real connections between the entities. Therefore, creating and removing links should not be regarded as solely "cosmetic" operations. Links make permanent changes to the project.

Linking Codes to Codes, Quotations to Quotations, Memos to Memos in Managers and Browsers

Quotations, codes and memos can also be linked to each other in the Manager, the Project Explorer, or the respective entity browsers.

Select one or more source items in the list pane of the Manager, in the respective sub-branches of the Project Explorer, or in the entity browsers and drag them to the target item in the same pane.

Select a relation from the list of relations in case you link two codes or two quotations, or select New Relation Type and create a new relation.

Linking Entities of Different Types

When you code your data reading through a document, listening to audio data, viewing an image or video file, you are linking codes to quotations. This can also be done via drag & drop from the Project Explorer or any of the entity browsers to the list of codes or quotations in a manager.

This also applies to linking memos to codes, or memos to quotations.