Re: st: Spss vs Stata

["Data Analytics Corp." <walt@dataanalyticscorp.com>]

Hi,

I rarely comment to postings, but I have to say something here.  I'm not 
an SPSS user.  The most I do with it is receive data in SPSS format from 
my clients.  I use a combination of R for its sheer programming power 
(plus I came out of Bell Labs so I was raised on the S language) and 
Stata for many routines that are just easier to use.  I do many graphs 
in Stata often having a dozen graph tabs opened at once plus logit 
regressions -- all for my clients who pay the bills.  These people 
require results in PowerPoint, not Word or publication-oriented 
formats.  They want presentation-ready results, almost 100% in 
PowerPoint.  Whether we like it or not, the people who pay the bills 
want PowerPoint slides.

Now here's the problem with Stata and many of the comments made about 
SPSS and Stata.  The comments mentioned many times that there are ways 
to get output into Latex for publication-quality output.  I need it in 
PowerPoint!  And I'm sure there are many others like me (does any one 
know the breakdown of Stata users between pure academics worried about 
publications and consultants/business people?).  How do I take a dozen 
graphs and get them into PowerPoint without cutting and pasting each 
one, one at a time (as a note, S-Plus has a PowerPoint wizard that is 
amazing and R has a package called R2PPT that works fairly well)?  How 
do I get logit regression output into a PowerPoint slide without coping, 
pasting, and laboriously reformatting so it looks "pretty"?  This is 
where users like me need help.  We don't need LaTeX functions (by the 
way, I'm also a heavy LaTeX user, preferring this over Word any day), 
but rather functions to get things into PowerPoint.  To me, the gist of 
the thread on SPSS and Stata is how to get useful output to give to 
anyone, and my vote is for functions that are PowerPoint oriented.

I welcome any suggestions on how to get output into PowerPoint easily, 
quickly, and with minimum reformatting.

Thanks,

Walt

________________________

Walter R. Paczkowski, Ph.D.
Data Analytics Corp.
44 Hamilton Lane
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
________________________
(V) 609-936-8999
(F) 609-936-3733
walt@dataanalyticscorp.com
www.dataanalyticscorp.com

_____________________________________________________

On 8/2/2010 5:03 AM, SCHOUMAKER Bruno wrote:
> I still have to use SPSS for my teaching - but I am working hard to 
> convince a sufficient number of colleagues to switch to Stata. 
> Incidentally, I started using Stata when doing my postdoc in Montreal :-)
>
> SPSS is is also available in French, which is thought by some people 
> in French speaking places (like here) to be an advantage over SPSS. 
> However, the translation is sometimes so weird in the latest SPSS 
> versions that I personnally consider it to be an disadvantage.
>
> I agree SPSS can produces nice tables, but with some user-written 
> packages and some investments in programming, I find Stata much more 
> powerful even for tables.
>
> Best,
>
> Bon apprentissage de Stata...
>
> Bruno
>
> Le 2/08/2010 2:04, Yves Therriault a écrit :
> > Dear Stata users,
> >
> > I've been using SPSS for 20 years. For the time being, I still use a
> > six years old version of SPSS (12.01). For many reasons, I told my
> > organisation that I would rather purchasing one licence of Stata
> > instead of upgrading to the newest release of SPSS (18.0).
> >
> > A few months ago, I've asked former SPSS users to write about their
> > experience with Stata. Generally, people who have decided to switch
> > from SPSS to Stata aren't looking back.
> >
> > In order to learn the basics of Stata more easily when the software is
> > installed on my computer, I bought 3 introductory books : A Gentle
> > Introduction to Stata ; An Introduction to Stata for Health
> > Researchers and, finally Data Analysis Using Stata.
> >
> > I'm interested to hear from those who made the switch to Stata and
> > particularly about the lurning curve regarding the management of Stata
> > output. Generally, Stata seems to be far more superior to SPSS in many
> > ways. But, in my humble opinion, Stata is currently far behind SPSS
> > concerning how it displays its output. I'm aware that a lot of
> > routines have been written by Stata users to customize outputs though.
> >
> > Just in case Stata programmers were monitoring this list, I would be
> > very pleased if the company decided to "improve" the output display in
> > a future release. Perhaps, another possible feature would gave the
> > user the choice between a "standard" Stata output and a Spss-like
> > output.
> >
> > Of course, I don't intent to start a controversy here.  Maybe I'm just
> > an "old SPSS user" who is a little bit afraid to have to learn a new
> > syntax ! : - )
> >
> > Finally, I just want tell you all how much I appreciate this list.
> > This is a very nice and vibrant community. I'm sure that I will learn
> > a lot from Stata experts as soon as I start using the software.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Yves (Province de Québec)
> >
> > P.S. Sorry for the bad English. I write in English just once in a while.
> >
> > *
> > *   For searches and help try:
> > *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> > *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> > *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


--
________________________

Walter R. Paczkowski, Ph.D.
Data Analytics Corp.
44 Hamilton Lane
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
________________________
(V) 609-936-8999
(F) 609-936-3733
walt@dataanalyticscorp.com
www.dataanalyticscorp.com

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/