is there a way to get Stata to look for the ado file somewhere else
(i.e.
in a folder in which the user has writing privileges)? i've come up
against this issue myself.
Yes, of course; help adopath. Since the current directory is on the
adopath, if you set the current directory (to which you do have write
access) as Stata's working directory (File->Set Working Folder), any
stuff there will be found.
HOWEVER it is generally a bad idea (since we're talking about Windows
machines) to follow David's advice and 'find the file online and copy
it'. That often leads to corrupted files (if one is not careful to
avoid line wrapping) and is generally problematic (for security
reasons) for .hlp files. If you can use the "net from" command or the
ssc command (as you can in a reasonably up-to-date Stata 7), do so.
