Written by core developers of the R Markdown ecosystem, this is the first official book-length reference to R Markdown. R Markdown combines the simplicity of Markdown with code in R and other languages, building on knitr to run the code and Pandoc to convert the results into many output formats. With it, you can produce reproducible reports, presentations, dashboards, interactive applications, books, dissertations, websites, and journal articles from plain text.

The book starts with installation and the basics, then walks through the built-in output formats before moving on to extension packages and more advanced techniques. The early chapters help newcomers get started quickly, while later parts open up the wider world of extensions and customization for experienced users.

Along the way, you will learn about:

  • Markdown syntax, R code chunks, inline code, and other language engines
  • Document formats, including HTML, PDF, Word, notebooks, and package vignettes
  • Presentations with ioslides, Slidy, Beamer, PowerPoint, xaringan, and reveal.js
  • Dashboards with flexdashboard and Tufte-style handouts
  • Websites, books with bookdown, journal articles, and interactive tutorials with learnr
  • Parameterized reports and HTML widgets
  • Custom document templates and new output formats
  • Interactive Shiny documents

Thanks to Chapman & Hall/CRC, the online version of the book is free to read.