The journal file is not used to control which cases the interviewers may use. Its only purpose is let you use this information to trace any problems that may occur during the administration of a survey. The main screen displays all of your interviewers' attempts to complete cases. Each line indicates the name of the interviewer, the case they are working on, and when they started and finished. The cases are listed beginning with the most recent cases.
Any cases listed in bold at the top of the screen are currently in progress.
Using them while your interviewers are still adding records to the data files could cause file sharing errors and the possible loss of data. If the CAT file has a file size of zero, then no cases are currently in use. You should not change the data files when any cases are being used. Trouble Shooting See chapter 10, QPL Reference Manual. Often you will want to delete the data file on the shared directory to prevent accidentally duplicating cases on your private analysis directory.