[R] Getting eps into Word documents.

[(Ted Harding)]

Rolf (& Marc)

On 03-Oct-05 Marc Schwartz (via MN) wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-10-03 at 16:31 -0300, Rolf Turner wrote:
>> A student in one of my courses has asked me about getting R graphics
>> output (under Linux) into a Word document.  I.e. she wants to do her
>> R thing under Linux, but then do her word processing using Word.
>> 
>> Scanning around the r-help archives I encountered an inquiry about
>> this topic --- eps into Word documents --- from Paul Johnson but
>> found no replies to it.  I tried contacting him but the email address
>> in the archives appeared not to be valid.  Does anyone know a
>> satisfactory solution to the problem of including a graphic which
>> exists in the form of a *.eps (encapsulated postscript) file into a
>> Word document.  If so, would you be willing to share it with me and
>> my student?
>> 
>> If so, please be gentle in your explanation.  I am not myself (repeat
>> ***NOT***) a user of Word!
> 
> Hehe...  :-)
> 
> Rolf, just use the guidance provided in ?postscript. In the details
> section it indicates:
> 
>      The postscript produced by R is EPS (_Encapsulated PostScript_)
>      compatible, and can be included into other documents, e.g., into
>      LaTeX, using '\includegraphics{<filename>}'.  For use in this way
>      you will probably want to set 'horizontal = FALSE, onefile =
>      FALSE, paper = "special"'.
> 
> So use something like the following:
> 
> 
> postscript("RPlot.eps", height = 4, width = 4, 
>            horizontal = FALSE, onefile = FALSE,
>            paper = "special")
> 
> plot(1:5)
> 
> dev.off()
> 
> 
> You can then import the .eps file into Word or most other such
> applications that can import encapsulated postscript files.
> 
> The recent versions of Word will also automatically generate a
> bitmapped preview of the plot upon import.  BTW, OO.org 2.0,
> which is in late beta testing now, also generates EPS preview
> images upon import.
> 
> The key to doing this successfully is using the arguments to
> postscript() as defined above. I have never had a problem with this.
> 
> More information is available from MS here:
> 
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290362
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Marc Schwartz

This suggestion could be problematic in that

a) According to the MS web site above, it applies to recent Word
   (Office 2002/2003) or possibly earlier "depending on installed
   graphics filters".

b) It won't work anyway if printed to a non-PostScript printer.

If either of these applies to Rolf's student, she could have problems.

[Just to add my own "disclaimer": the only version of Word I'm in
any position to ever touch, and then only if driven to, belongs
to Office 98; and I'm sure that this doesn't know a thing about
PostScript!]

Another option to consider, since she's doing her R work on Linux,
is that recent versions of the ImageMagick program 'convert' have
the capability to convert EPS into WMF (Windows Metafile; use
file extension ".wmf" for 'convert') or EMF (Enhanced Metafile);
use file extension ".emf". The gubbins is built in to a file
"wmf.so" in the lib/ImageMagick tree.

Likewise, the program 'pstoedit' can do it (to ".wmf" or ".emf"),
using library /usr/local/lib/pstoedit/libp2edrvwmf.so (on my machine).

Most Linux distributions these days come with ImageMagick and
pstoedit. If not already installed in the machine she's using it
should be straightforward to get this dome.

Hoping this helps,
Ted.


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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
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Date: 03-Oct-05                                       Time: 22:00:11
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