To get started we need a couple of commands and some external tools.
1. The markstat command is available from the Statistical Software
Components (SSC) archive. To install from net-aware Stata type
ssc install markstat
If you have installed an earlier version type
ssc install markstat, replace to update. (If you installed an
experimental version please type ado uninstall markstat first.)
2. You also need the whereis command, which is also available from the
SSC archive, type
ssc install whereis
Both commands come with help files.
1. To convert Markdown to HTML, PDF or DOCX we use an external document converter called pandoc. I find that it works very well and is easy to install, with binaries for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Please visit pandoc.org/installing to download and install the program. Make sure you make a note of where it was installed.
2. Then run the whereis command in Stata with the location. For
example on a Windows system where Pandoc was installed for all users, I
typed
whereis pandoc "c:\program files (x86)\pandoc\pandoc.exe"
The file path is in quotes because it includes spaces. On a Mac I typed
whereis pandoc /usr/local/bin/pandoc
But of course the location may be different in your system. If you have
trouble finding a file type help whereis and check out the User Tips
section.
This step is important because markstat uses whereis to find pandoc.
These steps are only needed if you plan to generate PDF documents via LaTeX. A simpler alternative is to generate HTML and then ask a browser such as Chrome to save it as PDF, or read the file into Word and then save it as PDF.
1. For best results generating PDF documents we first convert Markdown to LaTeX using Pandoc, and then use a LaTeX-to-PDF converter.
This will be part of a LaTeX installation such as MikTeX on Windows, MacTex on Mac OS X, or TeX Live on Unix. Consult your local TeX guru if you need help installing this tool.
2. You then use the whereis command to register the location of your
converter so markstat can find it. For example on a Windows computer
where I had installed MikTeX 2.9 on a folder of the same name on the D:
drive I used
whereis pdflatex "d:\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\pdflatex.exe"
using quotes because the file path includes a space. Again, your location may differ.
3. You also need a LaTeX style file called stata.sty, which is needed
to render Stata output. This file can be downloaded from the Stata
Journal using the Stata command
copy https://www.stata-journal.com/production/sjlatex/stata.sty stata.sty
which will copy the file to your current directory. To avoid having
multiple copies in various folders, consider copying stata.sty to your
TeX tree and updating the TeX database. Please consult the documentation
for your LaTeX distribution for instructions.
In order to run R code you need to have R installed. You then need to
register the location of the R executable with whereis. On a Windows
10 system I used the command
whereis R "c:/program files/R/R-3.4.3/R/bin/x64/R.exe"
whereas on a Mac running OS X I used
whereis R Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/R
but of course your settings may be different. Note the use of uppercase
R in both platforms, and the use of quotation marks when the file name
has a space. Also, the executable name is R.exe on Windows but just
R on Mac and Linux.