Thus it's better to create the graph you want in the first place where possible, but the editor is still a very useful addition. If you later make any changes to your data, you'll have to start your graph over from scratch. This gives you even more control over your graph, but unlike the GUI for creating a graph the editor does not give you a command you can rerun later. Stata 10 also added a graph editor which allows you to modify a graph after you've created it. That doesn't mean you shouldn't put your graph commands in do files once you've created them, but it does mean that for complex graphs you can use the GUI to create the commands you'll store. What's more, Stata's Graphical User Interface (GUI) organizes the various graphing options in an intuitive way so you can find them when you need them without memorizing the syntax for each one. However, you'll probably only need to make a few different kinds of graphs, and in most cases Stata's default settings will be fine. Between the wide variety of graphs you can make and the sheer number of details you can control in a graph, Stata graphics can be a daunting subject. Stata includes a rich set of tools for creating publication-quality graphics.
