Thanks to R Markdown: Perhaps Word is an option after all?

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In many cases Word is still the preferred file format for collaboration in the office. Yet, it is often a challenge to work with it, not so much because of the software, but how it is used and abused. Thanks to Markdown it is no longer painful to include mathematical notations and R output into Word.


I have been using R Markdown for a while now and have grown very fond of it. Although I am quite happy with PDF and HTML output for basic reports and to switch to Sweave/LaTeX for more complex documents, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the new version of RStudio can produce MS Word files directly from R Markdown as well; thanks to the power of pandoc. Perhaps Word is an option after all?

1 comment :

Devin Pastoor said...

The biggest problem I've found with Rmd--> word is that the intent of word (especially in a collaborative setting) is for people to make edits, change formatting, or in general provide their comments. There isn't an easy way (as I know) to add those changes back at the Rmd level. It still ends up that extra degree of work as you have to manually go back and make all changes you want to accept for them. I think the biggest boon to Rmarkdown would be a WYSWYG-style editor that sits on top of a version controlled document to allow people to make those changes without feeling like they are inside markdown to at help people ease into the concept, and making it easier to convince them to make the full switch.

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