[R] Transferring results from R to MS Word

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Tom Backer Johnsen wrote:
> Greg Snow wrote:
>> You may want to try the odfWeave package.  It uses openoffice which 
>> can read and write MSWord documents.  This is an alternative to the 
>> HTML > Excel > Word route.
> 
> Now that is an interesting alternative.  Not for this term though, to 
> get the students to learn R and at the same time to change word 
> processor would be far from optimal.
> 
> Tom

Several years ago I had new students learning S and LaTeX at the same 
time, using a LaTeX server to produce pdf so they didn't have to install 
LaTeX.  It was 3 weeks of hell then they did fine.

Frank

>>
>> -- 
>> Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
>> Statistical Data Center
>> Intermountain Healthcare
>> greg.snow at imail.org
>> 801.408.8111
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
>>> project.org] On Behalf Of Tom Backer Johnsen
>>> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 1:31 PM
>>> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>> Subject: [R] Transferring results from R to MS Word
>>>
>>> R-users
>>>
>>> At the moment I am teaching a course on the use of R for data analysis.
>>>   Part of course requirements involves the transfer of results from R
>>> to
>>> something that resembles the APA (American Psychological Associations)
>>> type tables to MS Word.  Until now I have used the HTML function in the
>>> R2HTML library, with a call like this:
>>>
>>> HTML(summary(model1), file("clipboard", "w"), digits=4)
>>>
>>> Where "model1" is an object containing results from a linear model
>>> (function lm ()).  I have to add that I do not remember where I got the
>>> digits argument from.  The main point is that the output is transferred
>>> to Excel as the first step where the output can be deleted and shuffled
>>> in order to produce a correctly formatted table according to APA
>>> standards which then is transferred to MS Word with a copy and paste
>>> operation.
>>>
>>> The problem is simply that what is tranferred to Excel varies with what
>>> you throw at the HTML function.  Nothing is rounded of with an lm()
>>> model.  With a function like sd () I seem to consistently get 2 decimal
>>> points transferred, less than what I want, while there are variations
>>> in
>>> respect to the number of decimals when I transfer the result on the
>>> summary () using a frame as the argument.
>>>
>>> The optimal thing for me (and the students) would be to consistently
>>> have all the decimals tranferred to Excel, any rounding to could be
>>> done
>>> there before the transfer of the table to MS Word.  Alternatively, that
>>> something like the argument digits=x works in a consistent manner with
>>> at least most objects.
>>>
>>> So:
>>>
>>> What do I tell my students on what to do using R2HTML in order to
>>> obtain
>>> consistent results?
>>>
>>> Alternativly: are there other alternatives I and my students could use
>>> for the transfer of results from R via Excel to MS Word?
>>>
>>> I really would appreciate some suggestions.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>> 
-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University