GUIDELINES FOR USING MICROCASE

MAIN MENU

OVERVIEW OF STATISTICAL THINKING
Levels of Measurement
Samples
Descriptive Statistics
Statistical Inference

MICROCASE
Getting Started
File Management
Data Management

MICROCASE
Basic Statistics Options
UnivariateStatistics
CrossTabulations
ttest/ANOVA
Mapping
Scatterplot
Correlation
Regression

AVAILABLE DATA SETS

STATISTICAL SOURCES ON LINE

These instructions should work from any computer on campus hooked to the student network, but they were worked out for the Palmer 20 lab, and the only sure thing (besides death, taxes, and system crashes the day an assignment is due) is that they should work there.  MicroCase works from a Windows platform.  Once you have gotten into and loaded MicroCase, you can use the HELP option in the Windows Toolbar at the top of your screen to find documentation for any of the MicroCase options.  If the Guidelines below or the HELP documentation do not answer your question, please contact Margaret Duncombe.

GETTING TO MICROCASE  (Until you are familiar with how to access and move around in MicroCase, you can should keep this page and MicroCase itself open to facilitate your moving back and forth.  Clicking on the __ button in the top right corner of this screen will minimize the screen.  To restore it, you click on the Explorer icon in the tool bar at the bottom of the page.)

1.  Turn on the computer and log on using your user id and password; make sure you=re logging on to the student domain;

2.  Click on START button (with flying windows) in lower left corner of screen;

3.  From the START menu, click on PROGRAMS;

4.  From the PROGRAMS menu, click on STATISTICS;

5.  From the STATISTICS menu, click on MICROCASE 4.6

Microcase takes a few seconds to load, but you will see a copyright and license screen, so that you know you=ve successfully found and are loading MicroCase.  Once MicroCase is open you will see the menu screen divided into two parts:

On the left is a blue box which contains four main menu options.  MicroCase opens by default in the FILE MANAGEMENT menu because you must create or open a data file before you can do anything else with the program.  When you are finished working with MicroCase be sure to click on the EXIT PROGRAM button.  (Showcase is a presentation software which is not discussed on these web pages.)

On the right is a white box with sub-menu options.  The options displayed in the example above are the sub-options for the File Management Menu.  (On other pages in this guide, the options on the Data Management menu and the Basic Statistics menu are discussed.  See the navigational menu on the left of this page for hot links.)

Most of the time you will want to open an already existing file, so the OPEN FILE option is discussed here.  The other menu options are discussed on the FILE MANAGEMENT page of this document.

1.  Click on OPEN FILE; you should see an Open window superimposed on the MicroCase screen.

2.  When you are at the DATA folder which is the default OPEN FILE window location, click on the ARCHIVES folder, and then click on OPEN; within the ARCHIVE folder are four sub-folders:  

Each of the sub-folders also has several sub-folders; you can explore what=s available by clicking on a folder or a name and then clicking OPEN to open it.  Click here for a list of all the data sets in the ARCHIVE.   If you want to move back up a level, click on the yellow folder symbol with the return arrow.

3.  All data files are indicated by a DOC or a MC icon and a A.mc4" ending.  When you have identified the data file you want to open, click on its name, which should then appear in the FILE NAME box; then click on the OPEN box next to the FILE NAME box.

4.  A new window entitled FILE SETTINGS will appear superimposed over the MicroCase screen.  This screen tells you the number of cases (geo-political units, people responding to the survey, or years for trend analysis) and the number of variables.  (Once you have started your analysis, if you want to review this information, there is a FILE SETTINGS option on the FILE MANAGEMENT menu.)  

      In the lower right corner of this window, there are six boxes that you can use to convert some responses to missing data.  After you=ve looked at one of the GSS raw data sets, for example, you might want to convert Adon=t know,@ Ano answer,@ Arefused,@ Acan=t choose,@ etc. to missing data.
      In the lower left corner of this window are two important options: VARIABLE LIST and FILE NOTES.

• VARIABLE LIST allows you to see the variables that are available in the data set; there is also a SEARCH function so that you can search for variables which contain selected key words.  (The VARIABLE LIST is available on almost every screenBdata analysis or data management.)

• FILE NOTES describe the creation of the data set and any sources from which it was derived.  It also provides the correct citation for listing the data set in a bibliography.  You can CLIP the FILE NOTES to the clipboard, minimize MicroCase (by clicking on the Adash@ button in the top upper right corner), open a word processor (either Word Perfect or Word) and paste the FILE NOTES into a text file.  (These FILE NOTES are available on almost every data analysis screenBclick on the blue notebook icon in the top toolbar.)

      When you are through reviewing information about the data set or defining missing data, click on OK in the upper right corner.  Note that the name of your data file is displayed in the taskbar next to the START button in the lower left of the screen as well as at the top of the screen.  If you are working with several data sets in one session, you can always check this location to determine which one is currently open.