{"id":450,"date":"2020-06-19T14:18:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T18:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/?p=450"},"modified":"2020-09-16T09:47:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T13:47:19","slug":"making-a-new-blank-stata-do-file-within-windows-explorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/2020\/06\/19\/making-a-new-blank-stata-do-file-within-windows-explorer\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a new, blank Stata do file within Windows Explorer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Simplify your do file creation! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I figured out how to add Stata Do-Files to the list of new files to create on the right-click menu within Windows explorer! Now you can create a blank Do file from within Windows Explorer. I hope Stata decides to build this into future versions. This is incredibly helpful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why is something like this useful?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I do 99% of my Stata work from within do files. There is one huge advantage to opening up Stata by clicking on a do file within Windows Explorer: It sets the working directory as the folder that the do file is in<\/strong>. For example, if your do file here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C:\\users\\MYID\\research\\BP_project\\project.do<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Double clicking that do file in Windows Explorer to open up a new Stata session will set your working directory as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C:\\users\\MYID\\research\\BP_project\\<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Now let’s say you have a subfolder with your data here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C:\\users\\MYID\\research\\BP_project\\data\\baseline.dta<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Since Stata has set your working directory as “C:\\users\\MYID\\research\\BP_project\\”, all you need to type to open this dataset is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
use data\\baseline.dta, clear<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is great because now you can move around your research folder and not worry about your new directory tree being different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, the only way to make a new Do file is from within <\/em>Stata’s Do file editor. This means you need to open Stata, open the Do File Editor, save a blank Do file in the desired folder, close Stata, then double click on the new Do file to re-open Stata with the correct directory as the working directory. By adding it to the “new file” menu in Windows Explorer, you can just right-click your research folder and make a blank do file with your desired name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to do this?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Full disclosure, this is a modification of a blog post that I found here on howtogeek.com written by Lori Kaufman<\/a>. You need to have administrator privileges to do this, btw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 1: Open the registry editor from the start menu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hit the Start button then type “regedit”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 2:  Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT –> .do <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Right-click the .do folder and make a new Key<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Name that key “ShellNew”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: In the ShellNew key, make a new String Value<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 6: Name it “FileName”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Step 7: Close the registry editor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
That’s it! It’d be nice for this to be built in with Stata in a future version. Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Simplify your do file creation! I figured out how to add Stata Do-Files to the list of new files to create on the right-click menu within Windows explorer! Now you can create a blank Do file from within Windows Explorer. I hope Stata decides to build this into future versions. This is incredibly helpful. Why … Continue reading Making a new, blank Stata do file within Windows Explorer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4473,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tbplante\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}