Overview
The Income and Poverty CD-ROM provides statistical information concerning household income and poverty in the United States. The data are organized into many categories such as age, sex, and race, and are cross-tabulated with subjects such as marital status, number of children, and educational attainment. Historical data as early as 1947 is available on persons and families, household data is available as early as 1967, and data on poverty and health insurance is provided for persons from 1987 to date.

The March 1997 Annual Demographic File is also available on this disk. The file provides monthly labor force data, and supplemental data on work experience, income, non-cash benefits, and migration as well as comprehensive coverage of information on the employment status, occupation, and industry of persons 15 years or older.

The documents on the Income and Poverty CD-ROM are available in two formats. A majority of the documents are in HTML format and are viewed using the Navroad™ offline browser which runs off the CD-ROM. The three Current Population Reports are available as .pdf files and are viewed using the Adobe Acrobat™ software. This software is on the computer and will automatically activate when a .pdf file is selected for viewing. This disk also contains Cross Tab software that allows the user to summarize data in the March 1997 Current Population Survey file. The various files can be accessed by selecting the desired menu option.

Searching HTML files
The HTML files on this CD-ROM can be searched by choosing the "Income and Poverty" option from the workstation main menu. Once selected, the user will be directed to the CD-ROM home page, which is displayed using the Navroad™ software. The Navroad™ browser allows access to documents by providing hypertext links. A hypertext link is a highlighted portion of text which connects the user to another page. Clicking on the link will connect the user to that page.

The Navroad™ toolbar enhances the browsing capabilities of the user. The toolbar has several buttons, or links, which facilitate movement between the various pages. The "Back" and "Forward" buttons allow the user to toggle between previously viewed sites. The "Home" button returns the user to the home page or the starting point of the CD-ROM.

To search for key words or terms within a document, select "Find Keyword within document" from the SEARCH option on the upper menu bar. A search dialog box will appear. In the space provided, enter the word to be searched and select "Find Next." The search engine will find the next occurrence of that word within the document. Continue selecting "Find Next" in order to scroll through all of the occurrences of the word within the document.

MATCH CASE
The MATCH CASE option allows the user to specify upper or lower case of a letter in a word being searched, e.g., "Bill" would match only those instances of Bill which began with the upper case "B."

Printing
In order to print, select the PRINT button from the toolbar. The print range setting will appear and indicate that "All" pages will be printed. In order to print specific pages, select "Pages" and, in the box provided, indicate the pages to be printed. Select OK to print.

Downloading
In order to download a file, select "Save As" from the FILE menu. Insert a disk and select the a:\ drive. Use the filename given or type in a new file name (may be up to 8 characters long) and select the OK button to download. Since the document files save in HTML format, they can only be viewed with a web browser (i.e., Netscape™, Internet Explorer™, etc.).

Searching Adobe Acrobat™ files
The "Current Population Reports" on this CD-ROM are listed by their file names on the main workstation menu. Three reports are:

Money Income in the United States: 1996 (P60-197)
Poverty in the United States: 1996 (P60-198)
Health Insurance Coverage: 1996 (P60-199)

After selecting the desired file, the full-text of the document will display. Read through the full-text or search for specific terms within the document by choosing the icon that displays a pair of binoculars from the toolbar. A search box will display. Enter the term in the search box and click "Find." The CD-ROM will locate the first occurrence of the term in the text. In order to find the next occurrence of the term, click the binoculars icon. The term should already be entered in the search box. Select "Find Again."

Printing
Select "Print" from the FILE option on the upper menu bar. Follow the instructions on printing HTML files.

Downloading
Consult the "User Guide to Adobe Acrobat™" for downloading instructions.

11/05/98; last reviewed 02/06/2005