README.md
1### Overview
2
3[](https://travis-ci.org/rstudio/rmarkdown)
4
5The **rmarkdown** package is a next generation implementation of R Markdown based on [pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/). This implementation brings many enhancements to R Markdown, including:
6
7- Create HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents as well as [Beamer](https://bitbucket.org/rivanvx/beamer/wiki/Home), [ioslides](https://code.google.com/p/io-2012-slides/), and [Slidy](http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy2/) presentations.
8- New markdown syntax including expanded support for tables, definition lists, and bibliographies.
9- Hooks for customizing HTML and PDF output (include CSS, headers, and footers).
10- Include raw LaTeX within markdown for advanced customization of PDF output.
11- Compile HTML, PDF, or MS Word notebooks from R scripts.
12- Extensibility: easily define new formats for custom publishing requirements.
13- Create interactive R Markdown documents using Shiny.
14
15Note that PDF output (including Beamer slides) requires an installation of TeX.
16
17See the [R Markdown documentation](http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/) for full details.
18
19### Installation
20
21If you are working within RStudio then you can simply install the [current release](http://www.rstudio.com/ide/download/preview) of RStudio (both the rmarkdown package and pandoc are included).
22
23If you want to use the rmarkdown package outside of RStudio then you can install the package from CRAN as follows:
24
25```r
26install.packages("rmarkdown")
27```
28
29A recent version of pandoc (>= 1.12.3) is also required. See the [pandoc installation instructions](PANDOC.md) for details on installing pandoc for your platform.
30
31### Usage
32
33The `render` function is used to convert R Markdown (Rmd) files into various output formats (the default is HTML). Calling `render` will knit the specified input document and then produce the final output document using pandoc:
34
35```r
36render("input.Rmd")
37```
38
39You can also specify a plain markdown file in which case knitting will be bypassed:
40
41```r
42render("input.md")
43```
44
45#### Output Formats
46
47R Markdown documents can contain a metadata section that includes both title, author, and date information as well as options for customizing output. For example, this metadata included at the top of an Rmd file adds a table of contents and chooses a different HTML theme:
48
49```yaml
50---
51title: "Sample Document"
52output:
53 html_document:
54 toc: true
55 theme: united
56---
57```
58
59R Markdown has built in support for several output formats (HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents as well as Beamer presentations). These formats can also be specified in metadata, for example:
60
61```yaml
62---
63title: "Sample Document"
64output:
65 pdf_document:
66 toc: true
67 highlight: zenburn
68---
69```
70
71If you aren't specifying format options you can also just use a simple format name:
72
73```yaml
74---
75title: "Sample Document"
76output: pdf_document
77---
78```
79
80Multiple formats can be specified in metadata:
81
82```yaml
83---
84title: "Sample Document"
85output:
86 html_document:
87 toc: true
88 theme: united
89 pdf_document:
90 toc: true
91 highlight: zenburn
92---
93```
94
95To select from the various formats defined you can pass a format name to `render`. For example:
96
97```r
98render("input.Rmd", "pdf_document")
99```
100
101If no explicit format name is passed to `render` then the first one defined will be used. You can also render all formats defined in the file with:
102
103```r
104render("input.Rmd", "all")
105```
106
107#### Shared Output Formats
108
109You can also define output formats externally in a file named `_output.yml` located in the same directory as the R Markdown source file. For example:
110
111```yaml
112html_document:
113 toc: true
114 theme: united
115pdf_document:
116 toc: true
117 highlight: zenburn
118```
119
120Using an `_output.yml` file is a good way to share output settings across multiple R Markdown files in the same directory.
121
122#### Output Format Functions
123
124Output formats need not be specified in metadata. In fact, metadata is just a convenient way to invoke functions that implement output formats. There are seven built-in output formats each exported as a function from the package:
125
126- `html_document`
127- `pdf_document`
128- `word_document`
129- `md_document`
130- `beamer_presentation`
131- `ioslides_presentation`
132- `slidy_presentation`
133
134As you'd expect, these functions can also be invoked as part of the call to `render`, for example:
135
136```r
137render("input.Rmd", html_document(toc = TRUE))
138render("input.Rmd", pdf_document(latex_engine = "lualatex"))
139render("input.Rmd", beamer_presentation(incremental = TRUE))
140```
141
142For more details on the options available for each format see their respective help topics.
143
144### License
145
146The **rmarkdown** package is licensed under the GPLv3 (<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>).
147
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