R help - Apr 2010 - What is the best way to have "R" output tables in an MS Word format?

Dear "R" list,

Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would like
to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into a
Microsoft
Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
easily.

Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?

I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
lifting for our research group.

Many thanks,
Max


Max Gunther, PhD

Vanderbilt University - Radiology
Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
Center for Health Services Research
Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

On Apr 30, 2010, at 6:13 PM, Max Gunther wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I  
> would like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a
> Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers  
> more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
print.xtable in xtable package would allow output as html format. Not  
sure about copy-pastable into MSWord, but MSWord can surely import  
them.  Excel is quite good about pasting HTML formated tables.

>
> Many thanks,
> Max
>
>
> Max Gunther, PhD
-- 

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT

On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 11:13 PM, Max Gunther
<max.gunther at vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
 Learn to use Sweave for your documents, and then you can create
dynamic reports with the R code mixed in with your text. New data
comes in? Just run Sweave again, it does the R analysis, redoes the
tables, graphs etc, and out pops an updated PDF. Obviously if the
conclusions change you might have to rewrite some paragraphs.

It will save you tons of time, be more accurate to minimise
copy-and-paste errors, and help you update everything in your papers
more easily.

http://www.stat.uni-muenchen.de/~leisch/Sweave/

Barry

On 04/30/2010 05:13 PM, Max Gunther wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
>
> Many thanks,
> Max
>
>
> Max Gunther, PhD
>
> Vanderbilt University - Radiology
> Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
> Center for Health Services Research
> Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
See http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/SweaveConvert

-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chairman        School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University

On Apr 30, 2010, at 5:13 PM, Max Gunther wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
> 
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
> 
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
> 
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Max
Max,

I would urge you to consider using Sweave. It enables the use of R and LaTeX to
facilitate reproducible research, which seems to be your goal here.

You might want to talk to your campus neighbor Frank Harrell, who has extensive
information on the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department web site on this:

  http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/StatReport 

Frank also has some pointers for converting between various formats:

  http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/SweaveConvert

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

When I work with clients who want to cut and paste to word or powerpoint I
usually use the odfWeave package, set up a template file with the tables and
graphs (possibly other output), then I run that through odfWeave and then use
openoffice to save the results as a word file that I can send to the client (and
they happily copy and paste from it).

There is also development on Sword (still in beta) from the people who brought
us Rexcel.  It works similarly, but directly with word, I will probably start
using it more in the future.

Hope this helps,

-- 
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 Max Gunther
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 4:13 PM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] What is the best way to have "R" output tables in an
MS
> Word format?
> 
> Dear "R" list,
> 
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
> like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a
> Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers
> more
> easily.
> 
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
> 
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Max
> 
> 
> Max Gunther, PhD
> 
> Vanderbilt University - Radiology
> Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
> Center for Health Services Research
> Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

odfWeave might be a less daunting option here, as it can output results in
some .doc formats. I have no idea how well tables would survive the
translations, however.

-- Bert 

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Statistics

-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On
Behalf Of Marc Schwartz
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 3:46 PM
To: Max Gunther
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] What is the best way to have "R" output tables in an
MS
Word format?

On Apr 30, 2010, at 5:13 PM, Max Gunther wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
> 
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a
Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
> 
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
> 
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Max
Max,

I would urge you to consider using Sweave. It enables the use of R and LaTeX
to facilitate reproducible research, which seems to be your goal here.

You might want to talk to your campus neighbor Frank Harrell, who has
extensive information on the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department web site on
this:

  http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/StatReport 

Frank also has some pointers for converting between various formats:

  http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/SweaveConvert

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

On 04/30/2010 05:45 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:
> On Apr 30, 2010, at 5:13 PM, Max Gunther wrote:
>
>> Dear "R" list,
>>
>> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
>> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly
into a Microsoft
>> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
>> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers
more
>> easily.
>>
>> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>>
>> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
>> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
>> lifting for our research group.
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> Max
>
> Max,
>
> I would urge you to consider using Sweave. It enables the use of R and
LaTeX to facilitate reproducible research, which seems to be your goal here.
>
> You might want to talk to your campus neighbor Frank Harrell, who has
extensive information on the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department web site on
this:
>
And note Max that we have an R clinic every Thursday at 2pm.  LaTeX and 
Sweave are frequently discussed during the clinic.

Frank
>    http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/StatReport
>
> Frank also has some pointers for converting between various formats:
>
>    http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/SweaveConvert
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chairman        School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University

On 05/01/2010 08:13 AM, Max Gunther wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
>
Hi Max,
In addition to all the other suggestions, htmlize in the prettyR package 
will produce HTML output with embedded plots, and delim.table in the 
same package will output tables in a variety of formats if you only want 
tables.

Jim

I normally do not post "thank-yous" to listservs but this is really
quite a
remarkable response and I really appreciate the guidance. I am certain that
this will increase the accuracy and productivity of our research.

Best of wishes,
Max

Max Gunther, PhD

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine
Center for Health Services Research
Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org


On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Max Gunther
<max.gunther@vanderbilt.edu>wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
> like to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly
into a
> Microsoft Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate
> to minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
>
> Many thanks,
> Max
>
>
> Max Gunther, PhD
>
> Vanderbilt University - Radiology
> Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
> Center for Health Services Research
> Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org
>
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi


r-help-bounces at r-project.org napsal dne 01.05.2010 00:13:06:
> Dear "R" list,
> 
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would 
like
> to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly into
a
Microsoft
> Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate to
> minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
Others gave you more sophisticated solutions which can pay out in longer 
time and when you use the output quite often. However there is one simple 
approach

select output in R console
ctrl C
open Word
ctrl V
format text as (I believe) Courier

This usually aligns text in proper way to columns.

Regards
Petr
> 
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
> 
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Max
> 
> 
> Max Gunther, PhD
> 
> Vanderbilt University - Radiology
> Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
> Center for Health Services Research
> Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org
> 
>    [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide 
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

Hi Max,


It looks like most of answers were towards to the statisticians you work with
(i.e. R -> Word).? For yourself, if you just worry about converting the PDF
reports from your statisticians to Word, here is another link with a more
comprehensive review besides the two online apps Prof. Harrell's mentioned
on his webpage.
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2010/03/06/how-to-convert-pdf-to-word-doc-for-free-a-comparative-test/

Also, Adobe Acrobat 9.0 can do PDF->Word, but I haven't tried it
personally.


...Tao

On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Max Gunther <max.gunther at
vanderbilt.edu>wrote:
> Dear "R" list,
>
> Our statisticians usually give us results back in a PDF format. I would
> like to be able to copy and past tables from "R" output directly
into a
> Microsoft Word table since this will save us tons of time, be more accurate
> to minimize human copying errors and help us update data in our papers more
> easily.
>
> Do people have suggestions for the best way to do this?
>
> I am a novice to "R" but I do work with a couple of
> very knowledgeable statisticians who do most of the heavy statistical
> lifting for our research group.
>
> Many thanks,
> Max
>
>
> Max Gunther, PhD
>
> Vanderbilt University - Radiology
> Institute of Imaging Sciences - VUIIS
> Center for Health Services Research
> Nashville, TN www.ICUdelirium.org
>
 		 	   		  
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