Rendering and Output

Quarto can render the same .qmd file to multiple formats by changing the format field in the YAML header.

HTML produces a web page viewable in any browser. It supports interactive elements (plotly charts, searchable tables) and is the most feature-rich format:

format:
  html:
    toc: true
    theme: cosmo

PDF produces a print-ready document. It requires a LaTeX installation — run quarto install tinytex from the terminal to install the lightweight TinyTeX distribution:

format: pdf

Word (DOCX) produces a .docx file that can be opened in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice. This is the format required for most assignments in this textbook:

format: docx

How to Render

From RStudio: Click the Render button at the top of the editor panel. RStudio executes the code, generates the output, and opens the result in the Viewer pane (HTML) or your default application (PDF, Word).

From the terminal:

quarto render report.qmd            # uses format from YAML header
quarto render report.qmd --to docx  # override to Word
quarto render report.qmd --to html  # override to HTML

From Claude Code: Ask naturally — “Render my report.qmd to Word format” — and Claude Code will run the appropriate command.