General Statistical Packages Comparisons - Agricultural Statistical Data Analysis Using Stata - page 26

The last menu item, Stata Website, has three submenus: Main
Website, User Support, and Frequently Asked Questions on
Macintosh computers. On Windows and Unix computers, it
includes The Stata Blog, The Stata Journal , and Stata Press. he
Main Website will automatically load Stata's main Web site in your
default browser. User Support loads Stata's user support Web site.
The Frequently Asked Questions loads Stata's Web page of fre-
quently asked questions.
Stata's commitment to user support is evident. Internet access dra-
matically increases your access to Stata support, additional files and
programs, and the ability to take Netcourses if you wish. Stata techni-
cal support is very responsive answering both simple questions about
the Stata program and complex questions about statistics. They are
easily reached via email and usually respond within a few days. All
updates are free with a perpetual license—no annual fee or payments
for updates. These updates are not insignificant and they are available
quite often as Stata personnel routinely update the program and make
these changes available to users.
As you begin to use the program, many of the dialog boxes used
to implement various commands have common elements that appear
at the bottom of these windows (Figure 1.9). The question mark,
when selected, opens a Viewer window with information on using the
selected command. The R button resets the dialog box clearing previ-
ous entries and the copy button does just that, copies the command
to the clipboard. The OK and Submit buttons execute the command
with the OK button closing the dialog box with execution, whereas
Submit leaves the dialog box open. The Cancel closes the dialog box
without executing the command.
Figure 1.9 The bottom of many dialog boxes have similar elements with a question mark, R, and
copy buttons on the lower left and OK, Cancel, and Submit buttons on the lower right.