Creating Bullets Points in putdocx

The putdocx suite of commands allow you to build and style comprehensive documents and reports, which include results, tables, and graphs directly from Stata. You can create an entire document within Stata. SDAS runs a popular one day class on preparing documents using putdocx. To learn more about that class see https://surveydesign.com.au/class.

In this TechTip we demonstrate the method to create bullet points in putdocx.

Bullet points are a popular way to set out a list of items. Typically the bullet points will look like this:

• bullet number 1
• bullet number 2
• …
• bullet number n

These are sometimes call an unordered list, because the bullets can be in no special order.

To create a set of bullet points in a putdocx document there is no special paragraph style or option, instead we create them using using a cheat.

1. Create a local macro of your desired bullet e.g. local bullet = "• " // you can choose any bullet or character for your bullets e.g. ► or ♣ or ☻
2. Be sure to place a couple of spaces or a tab after your bullet character.
3. To create your bullet list use these commands:

putdocx paragraph
putdocx text ("`bullet'This is my first bullet point.")
putdocx paragraph
putdocx text ("`bullet'This is my second bullet point.")
putdocx paragraph
putdocx text ("`bullet'This is my third bullet point.")

Give this a go with your putdocx and watch out for more training on automated reporting in Stata.