Starting a New Page in R Markdown: A Comprehensive Guide

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Introduction

R Markdown is a dynamic and powerful tool for creating reproducible research documents, combining code, text, and data visualizations seamlessly. One common requirement when creating reports or documents is the ability to start a new page. This article will guide you through various methods for inserting page breaks in R Markdown.

Understanding R Markdown

R Markdown is an extension of the Markdown language, specifically designed to integrate with R. It allows users to include R code within markdown documents, enabling the creation of elegant, reproducible reports. R Markdown outputs can be rendered in various formats, including HTML, PDF, and Word.

Inserting a New Page in R Markdown

Page Breaks in PDF Output

For inserting a new page in documents rendered to PDF, LaTeX commands are utilized. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Using the \newpage Command: Insert the command \newpage where you want the page break.

   ## Section before the page break
   
   Some content here.
   
   \newpage
   
   ## Section after the page break
   
   Content on the new page.
   

2. Using the \pagebreak Command: Another LaTeX command that achieves a similar result is \pagebreak.

   ## Section before the page break
   
   Content before the break.
   
   \pagebreak
   
   ## Section after the page break
   
   This starts on a new page.
   

Page Breaks in Word Output

To create a new page in Word documents, you can use the following method:

1. Using HTML Tags: The <div> HTML tag with a style attribute can be used to force a page break in Word output.

   ## Section before the page break
   
   Some content here.
   
   <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div>
   
   ## Section after the page break
   
   Content on the new page.
   

Page Breaks in HTML Output

For HTML outputs, page breaks can be less critical since scrolling is the primary navigation method. However, for print-ready HTML, the following can be used:

1. Using CSS: Embed CSS to handle print page breaks.

   Create a style block at the beginning of your R Markdown document:

   <style>
   .page-break { page-break-before: always; }
   </style>
   

   Use a <div> with the page-break class:

   ## Section before the page break
   
   Some content here.
   
   <div class="page-break"></div>
   
   ## Section after the page break
   
   Content on the new page.
   

Conclusion

Inserting page breaks in R Markdown documents depends on the output format you are targeting. For PDF, using LaTeX commands \newpage or \pagebreak is effective. For Word documents, HTML tags with CSS styles like <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div> work well. In HTML, CSS rules can be employed to handle content separation for print purposes. Understanding these methods ensures your R Markdown documents are well-structured and professionally presented.