This guide is intended to introduce you to the Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server interface by carrying out a simple and hopefully typical research task using the International Energy Agency's Coal Information database.

Visualise and download hard coal production figures for China, United States, United Kingdom, India and Africa from 1970 onwards.

It is divided into three stages:

1. Finding and selecting the data
2. Visualising the data
3. Downloading the data

Approx. time to complete: 20 minutes.

An A4 worksheet version of this task can be printed in pdf format.

For help, please contact the ESDS International team.

Stage i) Finding and selecting the data

Choose IEA data from the 'Direct Links to data' drop down list on the ESDS International website, or via the following url - http://esds.mcc.ac.uk/wds_iea to access the International Energy Agency data.

Input UK HE/FE institutional username and password in the login window. If you do not have a UK HE/FE institutional id, please visit the login help pages within the Access and Preservation section of ESDS.

If you have not already registered with the ESDS you will then be automatically redirected to complete an online registration after which you will need to agree to the International Energy Agency special conditions prior to being able to access the data using only your UK HE/FE institutional username and password.

On entering the Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server site for the International Energy Agency you should see a folder for each of the IEA datasets ESDS International hosts.

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Expand 'Coal Information' folder to display a list of reports and a 'Documentation' folder (which contains further information on this database). Choose table titled 'World Coal Supply and Consumption'. The following populated data table should appear.

At the top of the screen you will see three tabs:

• Reports: returns to list of IEA folders and tables.
• Table: displays the tabular view of the selected data (current view)
• Chart: displays the diagrammatic view of the selected data

Click on the small blue 'i' icon next to a table or dimension item to find out more information.

Click on the 'Select Items to View' icon on the toolbar then choose 'Flow' to refine your search by selecting items from the 'Flow' dimension.

On the left hand side of the screen you will see the available dimensions under 'Columns', 'Rows' and 'Other' headings. The current dimension is highlighted, for example in the screen shot above the 'Flow' dimension is highlighted and a list of items available for selection within that dimension are shown on the right hand side of the page. The dimensions in IEA World Coal Statistics table are as follows:

Columns: Time Period
Rows: Flow
Others: Country and Product

Note: Mtoe = Million tonnes of oil equivalent, Mtep = Million tonnes of petrol equivalent

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Click on the 'Flow' dimension and use the 'Clear all' tool to remove any existing selections and place a tick next to 'Production' to select this item.

Move onto next dimension 'PRODUCT' using the 'Select items to view' icon from the toolbar.

Note: You can also switch dimensions by clicking on the dimension name - both options are illustrated in the screen shot below.

Use the 'Clear all' button to remove any existing selections and select 'Hard Coal'.

Move onto next dimension 'COUNTRY' using the 'Select items to view' icon.

Scroll through the countries to select China, United States, United Kingdom, India and Africa. Alternatively you can use the search option.

For a full list of countries available in the IEA datasets, please see our comprehensive dataset user guide.

Move onto next dimension 'TIME' using the 'Select items to view' icon.

Use the 'Clear all' tool to remove the existing 'Time' selections, then check the 'Select Range' check box. Place a tick next to '1980' and '2005 estimated', this will select all years between this range inclusive.

Note: There is a new profile function in Beyond 20/20. Profiles enable you to save your selections from each dimension (for example, country or series) of the database. When you return to the database you can re-activate your previously saved profiles. Selections in each dimension are saved individually so you can save selections in as many or few dimensions are you want.

For example, say you wish to select data for a number of countries. Once you have selected your countries you can then save this selection as a named profile by clicking on the profile icon then choosing 'Save current selections as a profile' option: Beyond 20/20 will then remember the countries you have selected and store this selection as a named profile for you to use in future sessions. The procedure can be repeated for any other dimension of the database.

Each time you log on, Beyond 20/20 will recognize who you are and can retrieve your previously saved selections for that database. This means that the next time you wish to run the same query you can click on the profile icon then select 'Activate profile' to reopen your saved selections. The profiles will be saved until you choose to delete them.

You have now completed the Finding and Selecting data stage and can move on to visualising your data.

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Stage ii) Visualising the data

There are two ways of visualising data in Beyond 20/20 WDS - in chart or table format.

View the report in table format by using the 'Show Table' button at the top of the screen.

To display all the data in one table you must re-arrange the format of the table by dragging and dropping the dimension headings. To do this, hover your mouse over, for example, the 'COUNTRY' dimension heading until your cursor changes into a four pointed arrow. Left click and drag the heading under the 'TIME' dimension - drop when in desired position.

Reposition all heading dimensions so that they display as above, or use the 'Set Dimension Order' icon to move the dimensions as shown in the screen shot below.

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View the report in chart format by clicking on the 'Chart' tab at the top of the screen.

In the example screen shot below, the chart shows the selected IEA World Coal Statistics data in chart format.

Use the 'Chart Types' icon to change chart type and the 'View printable version' icon to print the chart.

To save the chart image, use Alt + Print Screen and paste into a paint program as right clicking to 'Save picture as' only saves the chart itself and not the chart key or heading.

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Stage iii) Downloading the data

Return to the 'Table' tab to download the data to your pc. Manipulate the table into desired format using the dimension headers as the table layout and contents are downloaded exactly as they appear on screen.

Use the 'Download' icon and select your desired download format.

The rest of the process is the same as downloading any file from the web.

Once you have downloaded the data, you can see information on how to cite the data towards the top of the file.

Congratulations you have successfully completed the International Energy Agency worked example - now you are ready to do some serious work with your downloaded data!

Please see the IEA dataset user guide on the ESDS International site for further information on the contents of the database.

If you would like to move to another database you can select the 'Quick links to macro data' drop down box at the top of the page then select the database you require.

Note: All Beyond 20/20 images used on this page are Copyright © Beyond 20/20 Inc. All rights reserved.

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