word-multicol.Rmd

---
title: "Two columns in Word Documents"
output: officedown::rdocx_document
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
	echo = TRUE,
	message = FALSE,
	warning = FALSE
)
library(officer)
library(tidyverse)
library(palmerpenguins)
```

# Intro

There are a collection of packages called [{officeverse}](https://ardata-fr.github.io/officeverse/) for creating and manipulating MS Word and MS Powerpoint documents. To create two column layouts we need to use two of these packages:

- {officedown}: This package provides additional RMarkdown output formats for creating .docx and .pptx files. We change the YAML header to contain `output: officedown::rdocx_document`.

- {officer}: This package allows us to programmatically generate (and modify existing) .docx and .pptx files. We use this package to add column breaks with the `run_columnbreak()` function.

There are two steps to creating multiple columns:

1. Use a pair of HTML comments as follows:

<code>
&lt;!--BLOCK_MULTICOL_START---&gt;
  
&lt;!---BLOCK_MULTICOL_START---&gt;
</code>

1. Call `run_columnbreak()` as an inline expression at the beginning of the content for the second column.

## What's an inline expression?

An inline R expression allows us to run R code within a Markdown content instead of in a code chunk. It looks like this:

```{yaml}
There are `r 2+2` lights
```

## Page break

I've manually inserted a page break here with `run_pagebreak()`

```{r}
run_pagebreak()
```


# Example two column layout

The two column content begins underneath the HTML comment. Remember that the HTML comment won't display inside the output document.

<!---BLOCK_MULTICOL_START--->

This is the beginning of the first column

```{r echo=FALSE, fig.cap="Penguin scatter plot", fig.cap.style = "Image Caption", fig.width=3, fig.height=3, dpi=300}
gg_penguin_scatter <- penguins %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = bill_length_mm,
             y = bill_depth_mm,
             color = species)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 8)

ggsave("gg_penguin_scatter.png",
       gg_penguin_scatter,
       width = 3,
       height = 3,
       unit = "in",
       dpi = 300)
knitr::include_graphics("gg_penguin_scatter.png")
```

`r run_columnbreak()`This sentence begins the second column.

```{r echo=FALSE, fig.cap="Penguin scatter plot", fig.cap.style = "Image Caption", fig.width=3, fig.height=3, dpi=300}
gg_penguin_bar <- penguins %>% 
  count(island, species) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = n,
             y = island,
             fill = species)) +
  geom_col() +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 8)

ggsave("gg_penguin_bar.png",
       gg_penguin_bar,
       width = 3,
       height = 3,
       unit = "in",
       dpi = 300)
knitr::include_graphics("gg_penguin_bar.png")
```

The multi column will end after this sentence.

<!---BLOCK_MULTICOL_STOP--->

**This text** is just below the HTML comment so Word continues in single column mode. There's another manual page break here.

```{r}
run_pagebreak()
```


# Customising column appearance

By modifying the closing HTML comment it's possible to customise the appearance of the columns:

<!---BLOCK_MULTICOL_START--->

This is the beginning of the first column

```{r echo=FALSE, fig.cap="Penguin scatter plot", fig.cap.style = "Image Caption", fig.width=3, fig.height=3, dpi=300}
gg_penguin_scatter <- penguins %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = bill_length_mm,
             y = bill_depth_mm,
             color = species)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 8)

ggsave("gg_penguin_scatter.png",
       gg_penguin_scatter,
       width = 3,
       height = 3,
       unit = "in",
       dpi = 300)
knitr::include_graphics("gg_penguin_scatter.png")
```

`r run_columnbreak()`This sentence begins the second column.

```{r echo=FALSE, fig.cap="Penguin scatter plot", fig.cap.style = "Image Caption", fig.width=3, fig.height=3, dpi=300}
gg_penguin_bar <- penguins %>% 
  count(island, species) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = n,
             y = island,
             fill = species)) +
  geom_col() +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 8)

ggsave("gg_penguin_bar.png",
       gg_penguin_bar,
       width = 3,
       height = 3,
       unit = "in",
       dpi = 300)
knitr::include_graphics("gg_penguin_bar.png")
```

The multi column will end after this sentence.

<!---BLOCK_MULTICOL_STOP{widths: [3,3], space: 0.2, sep: true}--->