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║ ███ ▄ ███ ║  CHAPTER 1
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║ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ║  INTRODUCTION TO FREESTAT
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  The WALMYR FREESTAT program really is a free program.  It is a
complete program with no built in snags or limitations.  We have
made it available for use by those who want and need the simple
but easily used procedures contained in the FREESTAT package.  We
also hope that it will be useful to educators and their students.
So ... please feel free to distribute the program to your
students, colleagues and friends.  The only requirements are that
you may not change the program or any of its documentation and
you may not sell it or charge fees for its use.  You may charge a
fee for copying and distributing the software.

                      THE FREESTAT PROGRAM

  The FREESTAT program is a fully interactive statistical package
that enables you analyze simple statistical problems and to
conduct basic hypothesis testing.  The FREESTAT program allows
you to conduct a wide range of statistical procedures.  For
example, you can conduct a wide range of parametric and
non-parametric hypothesis tests, obtain numerous confidence
intervals, conduct several types of simple regression analysis,
compute probabilities associated with a variety of continuous and
discrete distributions, and compute various measures of
association.

                          USER FRIENDLY

  A convenient feature of the FREESTAT program is its very high
degree of user friendliness.  Moreover, the FREESTAT is one of
the simplest and easiest to use statistical packages that you can
obtain.  Everything is presented to you in the form of simple
menus and on-screen instructions and you will never see a screen
that does not provide some cue as to what you should do next.
Thus, it is nearly impossible to get "lost".  In addition, the
program presents specialized assistance any time you see 'Help =
F1' on your screen.  At those points just press the F1 function
key and special help will be provided.  These instructional and
"help" functions all but make a User's Manual unnecessary.  Yet,
the program will display on screen a complete User's Manual for
those who want quick access to it.

               THOSE BEAUTIFUL SIMPLE STATISTICS!!

  We think that one of the most attractive features of FREESTAT
is the inclusion of a large number of truly simple statistical
procedures.  You know ... the ones you'd like to have and that
you need all the time but can't find on other microcomputer or
mainframe packages? 

  For example, how many times have you read a journal article and
doubted the author's computations for, say, a t-test or
Chi-square statistic?  How many times have you wanted to compute
a confidence interval around some descriptive statistic but
didn't because it was too much trouble or you couldn't take the
time?  These are things you can easily calculate on your pocket
calculator, but that means getting out the calculator, plugging
in the formulas and then entering the data to get the solution-
check you wanted.  FREESTAT takes all that agony out of your
scientific reading and all the other simple statistical chores
that you need handily available.  

  The FREESTAT program presently includes a large number of these
simple "convenience" procedures and even more will be added in
the future.  We love them and so do others who work with
statistical problems.  Naturally, we can't pretend that all of
them you may want are present in the package.  However, we shall
be delighted to occasionally serve as your personal statistical
programmer!  Yes, indeed.  If you will write to the publisher and
suggest the addition of your favorite statistical goodie, we just
might be able to include it for you.  If we do and if you've
purchased the program, you'll get the upgraded module free! 

                           NEXT STEPS

  Although the FREESTAT program is very simple to use, we do
recommend that you read each of the remaining chapters of the
User's Manual.  They can be read on-screen through the
instructional menu.  Incidentally, if you prefer to work with
printed copies of user's manuals you should know that the entire
manual is contained on the FREESTAT disks in the files ending
with the extension of HLP.  Thus, the file named INTRO.HLP is the
file you are currently reading.  You may call up any of the help
files with your word processor and then print them if you wish.


                         END OF CHAPTER
