Universal Output Function for Crowd Plots and Tables

Automatically detects the appropriate output method based on the rendering context and input type. Simplifies workflows by providing a single function that works for both Quarto/knitr rendering (HTML tabsets/tables) and officer-based DOCX generation.

Usage

crowd_output(
  plot_list,
  path = "crowd_output.docx",
  force_format = c("auto", "html", "docx"),
  ...
)

Arguments

plot_list

Either:

• A named list of ggplot2 objects (for HTML plots)

• A named list of mschart objects (for DOCX plots)

• A saros_officer_plots object (from crowd_plots_as_officer())

• A data.frame or list of data.frames (for tables)

path

Character. File path for DOCX output (e.g., "output.docx"). Only used when not in a knitr/Quarto rendering context. Default: "crowd_output.docx".

force_format

Character. Force a specific output format:

• "auto" (default): Auto-detect based on context

• "html": Force HTML tabset output via crowd_plots_as_tabset()

• "docx": Force DOCX file output via crowd_plots_as_docx()

...

Additional arguments passed to crowd_plots_as_tabset() or crowd_plots_as_docx() depending on the detected/forced format.

Value

• In knitr/Quarto context: Invisibly returns NULL (side effect: prints tabset markdown)

• Outside knitr context: Invisibly returns the DOCX file path

Details

Context Detection: The function uses getOption("knitr.in.progress") to detect if code is running within a knitr/Quarto rendering context:

• In knitr/Quarto → Generates HTML tabset via crowd_plots_as_tabset()

• Outside knitr → Writes DOCX file via crowd_plots_as_docx()

This allows the same code to work in multiple contexts:

• Quarto → HTML rendering

• Quarto → DOCX rendering (still uses HTML output in document)

• R script → Officer-based DOCX generation

Input Type Detection: The function automatically detects and handles different input types:

• ggplot2 objects → Uses crowd_plots_as_tabset() or crowd_plots_as_docx()

• mschart objects → Uses crowd_plots_as_docx()

• saros_officer_plots → Uses crowd_plots_as_docx()

• data.frame/tables → Uses crowd_tables_as_tabset() or writes to DOCX

Typical Workflow:

# In a Quarto document - works for both HTML and DOCX output formats
plots <- makeme(
  data = ex_survey,
  dep = b_1:b_3,
  crowd = c("target", "others"),
  mesos_var = "f_uni",
  mesos_group = "Uni of A",
  type = if (is_rendering()) "cat_plot_html" else "cat_plot_docx"
)
crowd_output(plots)  # Auto-detects context and renders appropriately

See also

• crowd_plots_as_tabset() for HTML tabset generation

• crowd_plots_as_docx() for DOCX file creation

• is_rendering() for context detection helper

• makeme() for creating plots with crowd parameter

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Example 1: In a Quarto document (auto-detects HTML context)
plots <- makeme(
  data = ex_survey,
  dep = b_1:b_3,
  crowd = c("target", "others"),
  mesos_var = "f_uni",
  mesos_group = "Uni of A",
  type = if (is_rendering()) "cat_plot_html" else "cat_plot_docx"
)
crowd_output(plots)

# Example 2: In an R script (auto-detects non-knitr context, writes DOCX)
plots <- makeme(
  data = ex_survey,
  dep = b_1:b_3,
  crowd = c("target", "others"),
  mesos_var = "f_uni",
  mesos_group = "Uni of A",
  type = "cat_plot_docx"
)
crowd_output(plots, path = "my_report.docx")

# Example 3: Force specific format
crowd_output(plots, force_format = "docx", path = "forced_output.docx")
} # }