Our Knowledge Base website gives subscribers access to the analysis and forecasts for our subscription services on the web and incorporates powerful search facilities. Hard-copy reference versions of the full reports continue to be available to subscribers as required. We welcome feedback from users on tailoring this enhanced service.

The Knowledge Base offers subscribers a number of advantages over the hard-copy versions. Subscribers are able to target more precisely the information that they need from our reports and databases. Cross-cutting 'hypertext' references and links to other relevant sites are integral parts of Knowledge Base, with report text presented in concentrated 'articles' and with keywords linking between articles, giving enhanced context and relevance to users.

Users can search for topics of interest in Knowledge Base website in a number of ways. For example they can select keywords from our pre-defined list, to which articles have been classified by our authors and editors. The results of the search will then appear as a list of headline titles of those articles relevant to the keywords entered by the user. Each headline is designed to indicate the content of its article enough to allow users to decide whether they want to proceed to view the full text of the article or not. Charts, tables and text are dynamically linked and clearly time-referenced, and can be readily downloaded into a subscriber's own documents and spreadsheets or printed in-house as required.

Accessing the Knowledge Base

To access the new website, you should select Knowledge Base from the bars on the left-hand side of the CE homepage screen, or directly use the address http://www.camecon.biz/cgi-bin/EPW_CGI. You will then be presented with a log-in page, on which you should enter a user name and password. If you do not have these codes, please contact David Taylor on dt@camecon.com. Even if you are not a subscriber, you will be able to log in by typing the user name 'Guest' (no password is then required): you will not have access to the articles or data, but you will be able to see the headlines. Subscribers to just one service will have guest status with the other services. Once you have logged in, you arrive at the Search by Keyword page.

On all pages, there are link tabs at the top of the frame to take you to the following:

• Home: CE's main website page
• Contents: CE's service reports accessed through the list of contents in each case
• Search: the Search by Keyword page
• Log-Out: the Knowledge Base log-In page

Search by Keyword page

Here you are presented with a number of categories (Sectors, Macroeconomic, Regions, Driver Themes, Energy, Article Type) which represent ways of searching for relevant articles. The category titles are links that will expand when clicked to provide the user with pre-defined lists of keyword topics created by CE. You can select as many keyword topics across as many categories of interest as you wish. The main categories are:

• CE's classifications (eg industry, region, euro, city)
• Official economic classifications (eg SIC, NUTS)
• General macroeconomic indicators (eg inflation, government expenditure, trade)
• Key 'driver' themes (cross-cutting themes such as globalisation, inward investment and regulation)
• Article type (eg historical context, recent developments, forecast)

We have classified each article to make it easier for you to find the information you need. The results of the search will show the headlines of those articles relevant to the keywords you have entered.

The page also has a link to a 'Free-Text Search' for an unstructured search based on any string entered. The outcome of all searches is presented on the Results page.

Search Results page

The search engine creates a list of all the articles that match your search criteria. The engine ranks articles according to the relevance of the keywords selected. The headlines will be listed in the left-hand window, beginning with the article with the highest ranking of relevance (%). However, you will be able to go to the next step and read articles only if they have an open-door icon in the 'Access Rights' column in the left hand frame, and it must be remembered that an article will show this icon only if you subscribe to that service. If an article contains a chart or a data table, or both, then an icon is displayed next to the headline. Blue arrows at the very bottom of the list of results indicate if there is more than one page of results. If you access an article, you will find the screen layout is as follows:

• Top frame showing CE's logo and access to the four primary screen links
• Vertical left hand frame showing the links to articles that match the search criteria
• Rest of window is divided up into two frames (top for text and bottom for tables/charts)
• All windows can be re-sized by the user as required
• Tables/charts referred to in the text are accessible as links
  

Free-Text Search page

The Free-Text Search facility allows searches based simply on the presence of the requested text in articles. Enter your topic(s) of interest in the box provided, and make the following selections:

Query Type
Choose 'and' to search for articles containing all the words in the search box.
Choose 'or' to search for articles containing any of the words in the search box.

Stemming
If the 'stemming' box is checked, the free-text searches are performed on the stem + common endings (so that line or lines retrieves line, lines, line's, lines', lining, lined).

Sort by Article Name
Articles returned by the search are sorted by relevance, so that the articles most relevant to the words in the search box are listed at the top of the list of results. In free-text searches, there is a 'Sort by Article Name' option, so that articles returned by the search can be sorted alphabetically.

Contents page

This shows the separate services of CE with logos and names used as links to take you to a list of contents of each corresponding report organised by Part, Chapter and Section. Only the Section titles are links. When you click on a Section title, you are taken to the screen with three frames (plus the upper frame), with the headlines of articles in the chosen section listed in the left-hand frame. This page also provides a link to the page where downloadable report files are stored.

Viewing an article

At the top left of each article's text, there is the date that the article was last revised. At the top right, there is a link to a printer-friendly version of the page. If there is more than one table or chart in an article, links will be available within the text to display them in the bottom window. There may also be links to other articles in the Knowledge Base and links to websites.

Tables
Almost all of the tables displayed are drawn dynamically from data stored in a databank. When a forecast is updated, these tables are brought up to date automatically. By clicking on the 'Download' button below the table, you can download the table's data in CSV format.

Downloading report and data files
The Contents page for each report also includes a link to the report's downloadable commentary and data files.

Bookmarks
You can bookmark the log-in page (add it to your Favourites list). You cannot bookmark other pages in the Knowledge Base because they are not static web pages.

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