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Rendering and post-processing

Source: vignettes/articles/output.Rmd
output.Rmd

Once a document is built, three steps turn it into a deliverable: render it to an .rtf, optionally post-process the file, and – for a multi-table package – assemble several RTFs into one with a table of contents.

Show code 
df <- data.frame(
  Parameter = c("Creatinine clearance", "  Mean", "  SD"),
  Result    = c("", "88 ug/mL", "12 ug/mL"),
  stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)
doc <- rtf_document() |>
  rtf_tables(as_rtftables(df), titles = list(c("Table 14.3.1 Renal Function")))

Rendering – generate_rtfreport()

generate_rtfreport() writes the document to a file you can open in Word or LibreOffice. Use overwrite = TRUE to replace an existing file.

out <- tempfile(fileext = ".rtf")
generate_rtfreport(doc, out, overwrite = TRUE)
file.exists(out)
#> [1] TRUE

The file can also be said where the document is made, with the program: rtf_document(file = ) keeps it in the document, and generate_rtfreport(doc) writes there. A file_path given to generate_rtfreport() wins, so the same document can still be written somewhere else for a check.

Show code 
out2 <- tempfile(fileext = ".rtf")
doc2 <- rtf_document(file = out2) |>
  rtf_tables(as_rtftables(df), titles = list(c("Table 14.3.1 Renal Function")))
generate_rtfreport(doc2)
file.exists(out2)
#> [1] TRUE

Post-processing – rtf_replace_text()

Sometimes the rendered file needs a small tweak that you do not want to push back into the (validated) source data. rtf_replace_text() does a find/replace directly on the generated .rtf.

A typical case is units: the analysis dataset carries an ASCII-safe token like ug/mL, but the report should display µg/mL. Rather than putting a non-ASCII character in the data, render with the ASCII token and swap it in the finished file. The replacement is the RTF unicode escape for µ (U+00B5 = 181), i.e. \u181?:

Show code 
final <- tempfile(fileext = ".rtf")
rtf_replace_text(out, "ug/mL", "\\u181?g/mL", output_file = final)

rtf <- paste(readLines(final, warn = FALSE), collapse = "\n")
grepl("\\u181?g/mL", rtf, fixed = TRUE)   # Word/LibreOffice show "µg/mL"
#> [1] TRUE

The same approach swaps any ASCII placeholder for a symbol you cannot (or prefer not to) carry in the source data. rtf_replace_text() also supports vectorised targets, fixed or regex matching (use_regex = TRUE), case-insensitive matching, in-place editing (with an automatic .bak) or writing to a separate output_file. See ?rtf_replace_text.

Note: rtfreporter already escapes non-ASCII characters you put in the data (so "µg/mL" in a cell renders correctly too). Post-processing is the tool for the “last mile” – when the source must stay ASCII, or for a one-off fix to a finished file.

Assembling several RTFs – assemble_rtf()

Many outputs become one deliverable – a cover page, a table of contents whose entries are links, and a bookmark per output – with assemble_rtf(): see Assembling reports into one document.

That completes the workflow for one output: build a document, render it, and post-process it if needed. See ?generate_rtfreport, ?rtf_replace_text, and ?assemble_rtf for full references.

Where next

The four recipes (?rtfreporter-recipes) are the same ground covered as runnable help-page examples: demographics, adverse events, PK and laboratory, each data-in to RTF-out.