Re: st: copying graphs in Mac

[Michael Hanson <mshanson@mac.com>]

On Jan 8, 2009, at 10:31 PM, David Airey wrote:

> For the record, Stata 10 for OS X copies graphs to the Finder  
> clipboard as PDF. For some applications this doesn't paste at all,  
> and that behavior is not satisfying I agree. For example, pasting  
> works fine into Apple Pages and Microsoft Word, but Apple Mail does  
> not recognize the clipboard contents. Apple Mail will paste if you  
> choose Paste and Match Style or Past as Quotation rather than plain  
> Paste. The Apple Finder clipboard also doesn't recognize what is on  
> the clipboard after copying a graph from Stata, if you Show  
> clipboard in the Finder. Remember you can change what goes onto the  
> clipboard in the Stata general preferences such that is PICT. If  
> you do that, you can past anywhere, but then you get PICT not the  
> better PDF. Also, the Finder clipboard does recognize what is on  
> the clipboard if you copy as PICT (it says and shows a picture).  
> All this seems a little buggy to me, either in the Finder or in  
> Stata for Mac. I think it is Stata, because if you have a PDF open  
> in Preview, and you copy, you get a picture in the Finder clipboard  
> no problem.


I agree with David that copying and pasting graphs from Stata leaves  
something to be desired.  I haven't looked into this extensively, but  
I can confirm all same issues that he has identified.  (I am using  
Mac OS X 10.4.11 to test.)  That said, it's only with Stata that I  
have noticed these problems over the years, so it may well be  
something unusual in the interaction of Stata with Mac OS X.  While  
these issues are hardly deal-breakers, hopefully they will be ironed  
out in time.

More generally, however, I'd recommend to Richard Goldstein (the  
original poster) to avoid copying and pasting Stata graphs when  
possible, and rather export them to a file first.  This approach has  
numerous advantages:  automation, reproducibility, and (if needed)  
the ability to fine-turn graphic images in another program.   
Obviously the convenience of copy and paste in one-off cases is  
attractive, but based on the answers given by other users on the  
list, exporting to a file and then importing in OOo seems like the  
best solution even in these situations.  As I do most of my  
professional writing in LaTeX, I find exporting Stata graphs as EPS  
and converting them to PDF to work very well.

Hope this helps,
Mike

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