[R] Lattice + Word: Changing .wmf files to .pdf files

[Jim Price]

My apriori apologies if this is felt to be the wrong list for this issue -
although it starts with R, it's a combination of programs that creates the
problem.

Currently we are using windows metafile format for in-text tables for
reports created in Word. However, we've discovered some artifactual lines
being created in our final output once the Word document is changed to PDF.
The process is as follows:

# Simplest example code that contains all the sample features that create
the problem
library(lattice)

test <- expand.grid(type = paste('Type', 1:4), success = c('Yes','No'))
test$result <- exp(rnorm(nrow(test)))

win.metafile('u:\\test.wmf')
dotplot(
	success ~ result | type, 
	data = test, 
	panel = function(...)
	{
		panel.xyplot(...)
		panel.abline(v = 0, lty = 2)
	},
	xlim = c(-10, 10)
)
dev.off()

This is then imported into Word 2008 (running on XP Pro 2002 with service
pack 2) using the import picture tool. The resulting file is then saved as a
PDF from Word.

Although the .wmf file (and R console output if sent to there) look exactly
as you'd expect, there are a series of diagonal lines running from the
bottom of the panel.abline created index line to the upper bound of each
panel.

I confess to being somewhat confused - if windows metafile formats and PDF
are both vector graphic formats, I'm not sure where this extra line has come
from. I suspect it may be an artifact from Word's PDF creating routine, but
have no concrete proof of this.

If any one can shed enlightenment (or suggest an alternative approach that
preserves decent fidelity - we've struggled with postscript files in the
past, but this may be our opportunity to try them out again), it would be
much appreciated.


> sessionInfo()
R version 2.7.0 (2008-04-22) 
i386-pc-mingw32 

locale:
LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United
States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United
States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] lattice_0.17-6

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] grid_2.7.0



Jim Price.
Cardiome Pharma Corp.
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