How to create a gap between code and table when rendering to docx ?

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

Hi,
How to increase the space between the code and its output (table, graph ) in MS Word rendered document ? With default rendering it produces no space, code and resulting table looks merged together in MS Word. How to increase that distance, meaning no space with that grey code area and table placed underneath that code exists - how to separate this ?
Additionally I have got resulting table squeezed in Word and I must manually adjust width of the columns as columns' names are divided between two consecutive lines ?
Plaease help me with this. Thank you.

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

Actually to be more precise I want to createa a space between output (of the first line of code in a chunk) and next, new line of code.
I found something here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74575072/insert-pagebreak-for-output-after-code-chunk
but that is creating a break after code chunk. So how to adapt this to my needs, please ?

[mcanouil]

Could you share a small working (reproducible) example to work with? Thanks.

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

My apologies for redirecting you, but because I have looked for help elsewhere too, here you are:
My desired output:
https://community.rstudio.com/t/how-to-create-a-space-break-between-output-of-code-and-next-line-when-rendering-to-docx-in-quarto/165808

and the code to create a table (flextable actually):
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76141089/how-to-merge-cells-in-flextable-multirow-header-in-flextable-in-r/76159499

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

[mcanouil]

Could you put and format the content here?
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html.

PS: be aware that cross-posting questions/problems is not considered a "good practice" or very "polite" by a lot of users, especially on Stack.

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

I am aware but still can't find a solution for this render behaviour anywhere or could a solutions to this be, that it is a bug ?
How long should I wait for a solution until I look for help elsewhere (days, weeks) ?

[mcanouil]

I personally don't mind much about cross-posting, but choosing the right place to ask the question the first time matters.

This being said, none of your links are valid, and I personally don't have or want to spend time to look through several threads to figure out a possible (not) working example to work with in order to actually help.
So if you really want people to help, please help them first by providing all that is needed for them to actually help, this means for example setting up a repository with all relavant information, or put all documents/code in the post (not as attachment).

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

Yes you are right, I did not know about links not working, I do not know why (my apologies regarding that matter). I included links here only because attaching screenshots is not possible here.
I have prepared reprex below, please find attached code of qmd file as requested:

---
title: "My_quarto"
format: docx

---


```{r}
library(flextable)
library(tidyverse)
library(officer)
library(magrittr)


M <- as.table(rbind(c(762, 327, 468), c(484, 239, 477)))

dimnames(M) <- list(
  gender = c("F", "M"),
  party = c("Democrat", "Independent", "Republican"))

M

f <- ftable(M,
            row.vars = "gender",
            col.vars = c("party"))


ftable_to_flextable <- function( x ){

  row.vars = attr( x, "row.vars" )
  col.vars = attr( x, "col.vars" )
  rows <- rev( expand.grid( rev(row.vars), stringsAsFactors = FALSE ) )
  cols <- rev(expand.grid( rev(col.vars), stringsAsFactors = FALSE ))

  xmat <- as.matrix(x)
  cols$col_keys = dimnames(xmat)[[2]]
  xdata <- cbind(
    data.frame(rows, stringsAsFactors = FALSE),
    data.frame(xmat, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
  )
  names(xdata) <- c(names(row.vars), cols$col_keys)

  ft <- flextable(xdata)
  ft <- set_header_df(ft, cols)
  ft <- theme_booktabs(ft)
  ft <- merge_v(ft, j = names(row.vars))
  ft
}



final <- ftable(M) %>% ftable_to_flextable()

ft_2 <- add_header_row(final, values = c("Party"), colwidths = c(4), top = TRUE)

ft_2 <- add_header_row(final, values = c("Gender", "Party"), colwidths = c(1, 3), top = TRUE)

ft_2 <- width(ft_2, j=1, 3/2.54)

ft_2 <- align(ft_2, align = "center", part = "header")

ft_2 <- border_outer(ft_2, fp_border(color="black", width=1.5))

ft_2 <- border_inner(ft_2, fp_border(color="gray"))

ft_2 <- fix_border_issues(ft_2)

ft_2 %<>% bold(part = "header")

ft_2 %<>% bold (i = c(1,2),
               j = 1, bold = TRUE)

ft_2


```

```{r}

ft_2 %>% vline(i = c(1,2), j= 1,  fp_border(color="red", width=1.5))

ft_2 %>% border(border.bottom = fp_border(color="red", width=1.5), part = "header") 

ft_2 %<>% border(border.bottom = fp_border(color="red", width=1.5), part = "header") 

ft_2

```

https://community.rstudio.com/t/how-to-create-a-space-break-between-output-of-code-and-next-line-when-rendering-to-docx-in-quarto/165808

[mcanouil]

A reprex is a small thing allowing us to reproduce.
For example

---
title: "My_quarto"
format: docx
---

```{r}
library(flextable)
library(officer)
ft <- flextable(airquality[ sample.int(5),]) |>
  add_header_row(colwidths = c(4, 2), values = c("Air quality", "Time")) |>
  theme_vanilla() |>
  border_outer(fp_border(color = "black", width = 1.5)) |>
  border_inner(fp_border(color = "gray"))
ft
```

```{r}
ft
```

It produces

There are three ways to handle styling in Word document:

1. Manually
2. By defining a reference docx, see https://quarto.org/docs/output-formats/ms-word-templates.html
3. By defining some fenced/spans divs or using existing one in addition to a custom Lua filter

[mcanouil]

I am afraid, there is no easy way when it comes to Word.
FYI, the option in Word is "distance from surrounding text" in "table properties".

Alternatively, you can hack your way around this by manually adding   between the two chunks or by creating a knitr hook to add it (https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/output-hooks.html).

---
title: "Demo"
format: docx
---

```{r}
library(flextable)
library(officer)
ft <- flextable(airquality[ sample.int(5),]) |>
  add_header_row(colwidths = c(4, 2), values = c("Air quality", "Time")) |>
  theme_vanilla() |>
  border_outer(fp_border(color = "black", width = 1.5)) |>
  border_inner(fp_border(color = "gray"))
ft
```

&nbsp;

```{r}
ft
```

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

If I separate it into independent chunks there is no problem, I want to do it when everything is placed in one chunk, I mean:
code,
table,
code,
table, and so on. I do not want manually edit in Word if possible, as because in a long report where many tables are created it would be tedious. By the way how do you attach screenshots here ?

[mcanouil]

Either by using the buttons or by pasting them.

Well, in my opinion, Word is the worst format for automatic reporting and styling, i.e., there is no style component to control the "distance from surrounding text" globally for all tables thus how can you expect other tools to fill the gap in Word?

As I said, you have to hack your way, or leave docx format.

A hack could to be to add an empty row without border or any style at the end of each tables.

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

Thank you. Is there such a thing like controlling "distance from surrounding text" globally for tables in other formats besides docs ?
Do you know by any chance how to remove gray background produced by Quarto rendering in Word documents surrounding a code, but leaving code formatting intact ? I can remove it all by "clear text format" option but this removes everything. I want only to remove gray background/rectangle surrounding that code in Word.

[mcanouil]

Thank you. Is there such a thing like controlling "distance from surrounding text" globally for tables in other formats besides docs ?

As I said, I looked (maybe missed it) but did not find one.

Do you know by any chance how to remove gray background produced by Quarto rendering in Word documents surrounding a code, but leaving code formatting intact ? I can remove it all by "clear text format" option but this removes everything. I want only to remove gray background/rectangle surrounding that code in Word.

This is controlled by the reference docx file, take it, edit it, use it, see
https://quarto.org/docs/output-formats/ms-word-templates.html.

[mcanouil]

Also if you really need Word that much, you should consider using dedicated tools, such as officedown in R.

[Andrzej-Andrzej]

Thank you very much for your help and explanations. Much appreciated.