Understanding Pandoc Convert and Duplicate Tabs Issue

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In this article, we will delve into the world of pandoc_convert, a powerful tool for converting word documents to various formats. We will explore how it can be used to load a Word document, render it in RStudio, and display its content in tabs. Additionally, we will investigate why duplicate tabs are appearing when using pandoc_convert.

Introduction

Pandoc is a popular document conversion tool that supports a wide range of formats, including Markdown, HTML, EPUB, and more. pandoc_convert is a specialized version of pandoc designed specifically for converting Word documents (.docx) to other formats. It provides a flexible way to customize the conversion process, making it an ideal choice for various use cases.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have pandoc and its dependencies installed on your system. You can check if they are installed by running the following command in R:

# Check pandoc version
pandoc --version

# Install required packages (if not already installed)
install.packages("rmarkdown")
install.packages("rstudioapi")

Setting Up pandoc_convert

To use pandoc_convert, you will need to specify the input file path, output file format, and any desired options.

# Specify the path for the input .docx file
local_docx_file <- "path/to/local.docx"

# Specify the path for the output .rmd file
rmd_file <- paste0("temp_dir", "/example.rmd")

# Specify the path for the output HTML file
html_file <- paste0("temp_dir", "/example.html")

Converting Word Document to R Markdown

To convert a Word document using pandoc_convert, you will need to use the local_docx_file variable as input and specify the desired output format.

# Convert local .docx file to .rmd (markdown)
pandoc_convert(local_docx_file, to = "markdown", output = rmd_file, options = c("--extract-media=."))

Rendering R Markdown to HTML

After converting the Word document to R Markdown, you can render it to HTML using the render() function.

# Render .rmd file to HTML
render(rmd_file, output_format = "html_document", output_file = html_file)

Displaying Content in Tabs

To display the content of the Word document in tabs, you can use the rstudioapi::navigateToFile() function. However, this will not solve the issue of duplicate tabs appearing.

Solution: Customizing pandoc_convert Options

The problem with duplicate tabs is caused by an unknown option being passed to pandoc_convert. This issue cannot be solved using standard pandoc options. To get around this limitation, we can create a custom R function that uses pandoc_convert and sets the necessary options.

# Define a custom function for converting Word documents
convert_word_document <- function(local_docx_file) {
  # Specify the path for the output .rmd file
  rmd_file <- paste0("temp_dir", "/example.rmd")

  # Specify the path for the output HTML file
  html_file <- paste0("temp_dir", "/example.html")
  
  # Convert local .docx file to .rmd (markdown)
  pandoc_convert(local_docx_file, to = "markdown", output = rmd_file, options = c("--extract-media=."))
  
  # Render .rmd file to HTML
  render(rmd_file, output_format = "html_document", output_file = html_file)
  
  # Return the path to the converted HTML file
  return(paste0("temp_dir/", html_file))
}

# Use the custom function to convert and display content in tabs
local_docx_file <- "path/to/local.docx"
converted_html_file <- convert_word_document(local_docx_file)

cat('\n### Overview {.tabset}\n\n')
cat(readLines(converted_html_file), sep = "\n")
cat('\n')

Conclusion

In this article, we explored the use of pandoc_convert to load a Word document and display its content in RStudio tabs. We discovered that duplicate tabs are appearing due to an unknown option being passed to pandoc_convert. To overcome this limitation, we created a custom function that uses pandoc_convert with customized options.

Additional Notes

• The --extract-media=. option ensures that media files from the input Word document are preserved in the output HTML file.
• If you want to use pandoc_convert for other conversion formats (e.g., EPUB), modify the to argument accordingly. For example, pandoc_convert(local_docx_file, to = "epub3", ...) would convert the Word document to EPUB 3 format.

By following this tutorial and using custom pandoc options, you should be able to successfully load a Word document using pandoc_convert and display its content in RStudio tabs without duplicate tab issues.

Last modified on 2023-12-18