A Few More Tips

I've gotten a few questions about how to use it, so here goes:

The new CIA world factbook for 2006 is out and available (in zip file)at
http://www2.cia.gov/factbook2006.zip

You can obtain 2002-2005 versions simply by using www2.cia.gov/factbook(yearyouwant).zip

When you do a search from the index of any of the downloaded factbooks, it automatically takes you (via the internet) to the 2006 data. If what you are looking for is field data (e.g. population by country, or GDP by country), simply look at the four digit field ID, go to wherever your copy is stored locally, go into the fields folder, and open the file with the matching ID number. Remember to read notations in the fields, especially with regard to your 2006 numbers, be sure to use the GDP measured in PPP if you are comparing with previous years measured in PPP unless you've done the legwork and are converting everything into OER. Also, be careful when copy-pasting entire fields, countries come and go, and sometimes change names. I don't know if this applies to anyone here, but also keep an eye out (depending on how far back your data goes) with regard to the population and economy of Hong Kong and Taiwan with relation to their inclusion in statistics for China.