Theme Management

GOOD TO KNOW  Each theme chip is coloured from its own name, so a given theme keeps the same colour everywhere it appears in NSCAT. The colour carries no meaning of its own — it is there to make themes recognizable at a glance.

HEADS UP  NSCAT does not currently enforce this format. The name field accepts any non-empty text, so a mistyped or free-form theme name will save without complaint. The consistency has to come from you — agree the convention with your team and apply it deliberately.

PRO TIP  Build your theme list directly from the ISF. Open Manage ISF alongside this page, work down the Attributes, and create one theme per Attribute you intend to analyse. You end up with complete coverage and names that match the framework exactly.

GOOD TO KNOW  Theme names are stored as plain text and are not linked to the ISF. Renaming an Attribute in Manage ISF does not update the themes that reference it. After any ISF rename, come back here and rename the affected themes to match — see The ISF.

PRO TIP  Because you can enter many at once, set your whole theme list up in a single sitting rather than adding them one at a time as activities need them. Analysts tagging findings mid-assessment will invent their own labels if the theme they want does not exist.

HEADS UP  Adding is capped at 20 themes per operation. Beyond that the field reports a maximum and refuses to save. For a longer list, add them in batches.

GOOD TO KNOW  Nothing stops you creating two themes with near-identical names — Standards - Accountability and Standards – Accountability with a different dash will both save as separate themes. Check the existing list with Search before adding.

PRO TIP  Renaming is the right tool for fixing a typo or aligning a theme with a renamed ISF Attribute. It preserves every existing tag — nothing is re-tagged and no analysis is lost.

HEADS UP  There is no history on a theme name. A report produced last quarter and reopened today shows the new name. If your organization needs the old wording preserved on past output, export those reports before renaming.

GOOD TO KNOW  Consolidate requires at least two themes selected — the button stays disabled with one. Merging one theme into a new name is a rename, which is what the Rename dialog is for.

HEADS UP  Consolidation cannot be undone. Once three themes are merged into one, NSCAT no longer records which of the three any given finding was originally tagged with — the distinction is gone from your data, not just from the list. If the separate counts might matter later, export the affected reports first.

PRO TIP  Consolidate before producing a report, not after. Merging themes changes the counts every theme-based chart is built from, so a report circulated before a consolidation will not reconcile with the same report run afterwards.

HEADS UP  Deletion is irreversible, and it is the wrong tool for a theme that has already been used. Removing a theme that findings are tagged with discards the categorization on those findings — the notes and observations survive, but their theme is gone and the analysis that depended on it no longer adds up.

PRO TIP  Reserve Delete for themes created by mistake and never applied — a typo, a duplicate, a test entry. For a theme that has been used but is no longer wanted, Consolidate it into the theme that supersedes it. That preserves the findings' categorization instead of discarding it.

GOOD TO KNOW  Deletion is capped at 20 themes per operation, the same limit as adding.

PRO TIP  The general rule: Rename to correct wording, Consolidate to reduce the list, Delete only for themes with no history behind them. Rename and Consolidate both preserve your data; Delete does not.