It is possible to undertake the mechanical process using computing software which can save you a lot of time, although it may stop you becoming really familiar with the data. There are many dedicated qualitative analysis programs of various kinds available to social researchers that can be used for a variety of different tasks. For example, software could locate particular words or phrases; make lists of words and put them into alphabetical order; insert key words or comments; count occurrences of words or phrases or attach numeric codes. Some software will retrieve text, some will analyse text and some will help to build theory. Although a computer can undertake these mechanical processes, it cannot think about, judge or interpret qualitative data