_rtf_document_format.Rmd

---
title: "RTF Documents"
output:
  html_document:
    toc: true
---

## Overview

To create an RTF document from R Markdown you specify the `rtf_document` output format in the front-matter of your document:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    author: John Doe
    date: March 22, 2005
    output: rtf_document
    ---

## Table of Contents

You can add a table of contents using the `toc` option and specify the depth of headers that it applies to using the `toc_depth` option. For example:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    output:
      rtf_document:
        toc: true
        toc_depth: 2
    ---

If the table of contents depth isn't explicitly specified then it defaults to 3 (meaning that all level 1, 2, and 3 headers will be included in the table of contents).

## Figure Options

The `fig_width` and  `fig_height` options can be used to control the default figure width and height (5x4 is used if not values are specified). For example:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    output:
      rtf_document:
        fig_width: 5
        fig_height: 5
    ---

## Keeping Markdown

When knitr processes an R Markdown input file it creates a markdown (md) file which is subsequently transformed into an RTF document by pandoc. If you want to keep a copy of the markdown file after rendering you can do so using the `keep_md` option:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    output:
      rtf_document:
        keep_md: true
    ---

## Markdown Extensions

By default R Markdown is defined as all pandoc markdown extensions with the following tweaks for backward compatibility with the markdown package:

```
+autolink_bare_uris
+ascii_identifier
+tex_math_single_backslash
```

You can enable or disable markdown extensions using the `md_extensions` option (you preface an option with `-` to disable and `+` to enable it). For example:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    output:
      rtf_document:
        md_extensions: -autolink_bare_uris+hard_line_breaks
    ---

The above would disable the `autolink_bare_uris` extension and enable the `hard_line_breaks` extension. 

For more on available markdown extensions see the [pandoc markdown specification](http://pandoc.org/README.html#pandocs-markdown).


## Pandoc Arguments

If there are pandoc features you want to use that lack equivalents in the YAML options described above you can still use them by passing custom `pandoc_args`. For example:

    ---
    title: "Habits"
    output:
      rtf_document:
        pandoc_args: [
          "--csl", "/var/csl/acs-nano.csl"
        ]
    ---

Documentation on all available pandoc arguments can be found in the [pandoc user guide](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#options).

## Shared Options

If you want to specify a set of default options to be shared by multiple documents within a directory you can include a file named `_output.yaml` within the directory. Note that no YAML delimiters or enclosing output object are used in this file. For example:

**\_output.yaml**

```yaml
rtf_document:
  fig_width: 5
  fig_height: 5
```

All documents located in the same directory as `_output.yaml` will inherit its options. Options defined explicitly within documents will override those specified in the shared options file.