[R] R: Including R plots in a Microsoft Word document

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:47:51 -0600
Paul Johnson <pauljohn at ku.edu> wrote:

> I have wrestled with this problem a lot. I use Linux, coauthors use 
> Windows, and the eps files I make from R don't work with MS Word.  Well,
> 
> the don't ever have "previews" and they sometimes won't print at all 
> when I use CrossOver Office with MS Office 2000 in Linux.  My coauthor 
> says he can often wrestle my eps files into word on his system with 
> Office 2003.  People keep telling me to use gsview to insert the preview
> 
> panes into eps files, and that does work, but more than one half of the 
> time my system creates eps files that look significantly worse than the 
> originals.  Sometimes it inserts a blank page at the top of the eps or 
> it reshapes a figure.  I don't care enough about MS to try to track that
> 
> down.  It just pisses me off.
> 
> 
> As a result, I think the answer is more complicated than other people 
> make it seem.
> 
> I don't think it does any good to output a pdf file because, as  I 
> learned yesterday, MS Word users can't import a pdf file into a doc.

Word XP does handle pdf and does not require previews, so the first
problem also vanishes.

eps and pdf are the most likely formats to render well.  Also, has anyone
tried creating a Word document using OpenOffice with figures imported from
R?

The real solution is LaTeX.

Frank Harrell

> 
> Clearly, if you are an MS windows user of R, you can save graphics in 
> the windows meta format (wmf)  (or is it enhanced meta format, emf?). 
> That will go more or less seamlessly into Word.  If you have a chance to
> 
> boot into Windows, and you really must make an image that works well 
> with Word, then you should boot into Windows, run your R in there and 
> make the wmf file.
> 
> If you are a Linux/Unix user, and you are too proud to use Windows,  the
> 
> problem is much more difficult to deal with.
> 
> If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that your image does not need to be resized 
> in any way, you could output from R into a picture type format, such as 
> png.  As long as the image does not need to resized in any way, that 
> will be fine.  If it is resized, then all bets are off.
> 
> I find that the R output to the xfig format is quite good and I can edit
> 
> files in xfig.  You can edit those files, add text, so its very very 
> handy.  So right now I'm looking for a good bridge from xfig format to 
> Word.  But I just started investigating that.
> 
> uaca at alumni.uv.es wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, Feb 20, 2004 at 05:54:33PM +0200, Mahmoud K. Okasha wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Greetings List,
> >>
> >>I am conducting some large simulations using R. As a result, I get
> >many plots but I'm having some trouble with including some of them in a
> >Microsoft Word document. Can any one tell me the easiest method of
> >having copies of the R-graphs in the Word documents?>    
> >>
> >
> >R can produce at least PostScript, PDF, png, jpeg/jpg
> >
> >see:
> >
> >	help(postscript)
> >	help(pdf)
> >	help(png)
> >	help(jpeg)
> >
> >I don't use word, for me the PostScript format (more precisely
> >Encapsulated PostScript/.eps) is the best/more easy/powerful format if
> >you don't have thousands of points or lines :-)
> >
> >por instance, to print a simple plot:
> >
> >postscript(file="somefile.eps");
> >
> >plot(whatever);
> >
> >dev.off(); <<---- Important
> >
> >other formats are similar
> >
> >regards
> >
> >	Ulisses
> >
> >
> >                Debian GNU/Linux: a dream come true
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >-------"Computers are useless. They can only give answers."           
> >Pablo Picasso
> >
> >Humans are slow, innaccurate, and brilliant.
> >Computers are fast, acurrate, and dumb. 
> >Together they are unbeatable
> >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Paul E. Johnson                       email: pauljohn at ku.edu
> Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn
> 1541 Lilac Lane, Rm 504                              
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> Lawrence, Kansas 66044-3177           FAX: (785) 864-5700
> 
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---
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                     Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University