FAQs

How to use the site

How do I modify the spreadsheets on this site to meet my needs?

All the Excel workbooks are write protected to make it harder to corrupt them accidentally, but they are not secured with passwords. You are therefore free to modify them in any way that you wish. We do not have the resources to support further development of the workbooks and so any enhancements you make to them are "at your own risk". Please observe the conditions of the project's CC licence.

Is the site compatible across all browser platforms?

We would dearly like to say, "Yes, it is". Unfortunately, in the world of HTML coding not everything is that simple. The formulae on the site are marked up using MathML, the standard language for doing so. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer (from Microsoft) has chosen to not play ball entirely fairly with industry standards of coding. As a result, there are some fundamental, problems with the rendering of the site on IE (all versions).

Instead, we recommend (in order):

Mozilla Firefox or

I've spotted a mistake! How do I get it corrected?

At the top of each article, just underneath the heading, the name of the principal author of that section appears. If you click on that name, you will be able to send a personal email to him/her directly from the website.

If you want to debate the rectitude or implementation of the methods described, you may post a comment on any page - although you will have to be logged in with a validated email address.

About the project

How do I cite and reference this material?

The consortium responsible for the material has reserved the right to be identified as the authors of all the material. All pages on the website containing technical material have a "suggested citation" link. Clicking on this opens a pop-up with the suggested citation of the page, complete with URL and access date. The contents of the pop-up can be highlighted with a mouse and copied and pasted. Please use it!

If you need to refer to the entire body of work, please cite the website as

Who are the team behind this website?

A consortium of demographers at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Actuarial Research, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Department of Population Studies, and independent consultants based at Harvard University prepared the bid that was awarded the tender by the IUSSP and UNFPA in early 2010. The same team has overseen the preparation and production of the material on this website. The project team are

Centre for Actuarial Research (CARe), University of Cape Town

A/Prof Tom Moultrie (co-Principal Investigator)