Introduction
The main purpose of onbrand is to create an abstraction
layer that allows for the same reporting workflow to be used with
different document templates. In order to do this, the abstraction
information (or mapping) needs to be provided in a yaml
configuration file. The process will be detailed below, but at a high
level it involves the following steps:
- Read in a template using the function:
onbrand::view_layout()
- Use the resulting files to create the mapping (saved as a
.yaml) - Test the mapping for accuracy using the function:
onbrand::preview_template()
The following sections describe this process in detail for both Word and PowerPoint documents. Before you get started, copy the provided examples into your current working directory. To do so, use the following code:
library(onbrand)
file.copy(system.file(package="onbrand","examples","example.pptx"), ".", overwrite = TRUE)
file.copy(system.file(package="onbrand","examples","example.docx"), ".", overwrite = TRUE)
file.copy(system.file(package="onbrand","examples","example.yaml"), ".", overwrite = TRUE)This will create the following files:
-
example.pptx- example PowerPoint template -
example.docx- example Word template -
example.yaml- exampleyamlmapping file (shown at the bottom)
Mapping and the yaml file format
Before we start discussing how to create templates we need to talk a
little bit about the yaml file format (and it’s recursive
nature). If you already understand this, feel free to skip ahead to the
relevant section below.
onbrand utilizes the yaml file as a method
for describing information in a hierarchical manner using key/value
pairs. To help understand this better, consider the following example
where the colors of the different parts a tree are listed in a hierarchy
based on where the parts are located on the tree:
tree colors:
roots:
- white
- brown
trunk:
bark: brown
crown:
branches:
leaves: green
flowers: redThis example lays out key: value pairs based on the
formatting of the file. The key is followed by both a colon and a space
(:) which are, in turn, followed by the value.
- If you have multiple values you can list those below the key (see
below about spacing).
- If the value also has a colon then it’s a key for a nested value.
The main key in the example above is tree colors. This
key has three values: roots, trunk, and
crown. One for each section of a tree. The hierarchy comes
from the indentation. Each of the main sections of a tree are indented
two spaces. Each of these values (roots,
trunk, and crown) are also keys themselves
because they end with both a colon and a space - and are followed by
still more values.
The color values associated with roots are white and
brown. The root hierarchy is complete.
The trunk has value bark. But, because
bark is also indented two spaces and is followed by both a
colon and a space, it is also a key with value brown. Which
completes the trunk hierarchy.
The value crown is indented two spaces and followed by
both a colon and a space. Hence, crown is a key with value
branches. Again, branches is indented and
followed by both a colon and a space. Then, branches is
also a key with values: leaves and flowers.
Each of these are also indented and followed by by both a colon and a
space. So the key leaves has value green.
Similarly, key flowers has value red. This
completes the crown hierarchy.
There is more that can go into a yaml file, but this
should be enough to help you understand how to create mapping files for
onbrand. For more details see yaml.org.
PowerPoint
This section provides a detailed walk-through for each of the three steps in the Introduction. We recommend everyone walk through this process at least once.
A quick note about terminology. A slide master is the top slide in a hierarchy of slides that stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation, including the background, color, fonts, effects, placeholder sizes, and positioning. The slide master is the largest slide image at the top of the slide thumbnail list.
Step 1: Read the PowerPoint template
To create your custom abstraction layer for PowerPoint, you start by
reading in your master template. If you don’t already have one, create a
PowerPoint template master slide with slide layouts for each of the
different layouts you want to use. In this example, we have the
Office Theme Master Slide with two slide layouts:
- a title slide named:
title - a content slide with two columns of information named:
two_col
Tip When you make slide layouts under a master, give each of them a descriptive name that will be easy to use when you are coding later. These names will be used to refer to them within scripts.
PowerPoint assigns read-only names to every placeholder within each
slide layout. To reveal those read-only names, create an annotated slide
deck using the onbrand::view_layout() function:
library(onbrand)
vlres = view_layout(template = "example.pptx",
output_file = "example_layout.pptx")This will create the file example_layout.pptx. It
contains a slide for each slide layout (title &
two_col) under the master (Office Theme) in
the input template file (example.pptx). On each slide, the
names of both the slide layout and slide master will be indicated in the
upper right corner. Each placeholder within the slide layout will be
shown and is identified by the placeholder label
(ph_label). For each placeholder within each slide layout
under a slide master, onbrand::view_layout() produces three
pieces of information: ph_label, type, and
index. Notice, there are plenty of duplicate placeholder
names.
Step 2: Create the PowerPoint mapping
Before we get to the mapping, take a moment to locate and open the
example.yaml file we copied over at the start of this
vignette. In the yaml file there will be a key for mapping PowerPoint
templates (rows 1-39 in the file). This key is called rpptx
and it will have three values (which are also keys):
-
master- Holds the name of the master slide -
templates- Has an element for each slide layout you want to use in the template -
md_def- Default formatting for when markdown formatting is being used
Within the hierarchy of rpptx: templates: there is a
value for each slide layout: title and
two_col.
Remember the tip in Step 1 about names? The name you provided becomes the key value in the
yaml. It’s used to reference the placeholders on the slide in your code.
Notice, the example.yaml doesn’t contain all of the
placeholders for either slide in the example_layout.pptx.
This is because those elements were inherited from the master slide and
are not unique to either of the slide layouts.
In the yaml, each placeholder will have two value pairs
below it. For example, the placeholder sub_title in slide
layout title has both ph_label and
content_type. The ph_label maps to the
ph_label from the annotated layout (in the
example_layout.pptx). The content_type should
be either text or list depending on whether
the placeholder contains text or list data.
The figure below shows how the annotated layout relates to the
yaml mapping file.
Note: You only have to define mapping information for the slide layouts under a master you want to access in R. You can have as many masters defined in the template as you want and only use a subset in R.
Defining markdown defaults
Now you need to define the defaults for rendering components with markdown (see the Workflow vignette for more information on how this is used). For this you need to create elements in the following hierarchy:
rpptx:
md_def:
default:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Table_Labels:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
post_processing: NULLFor PowerPoint templates you need to define the sections:
default and Table_Labels. The
default is used when rendering general markdown text. The
Table_Labels is used when markdown is present in table
elements like headers. For each of these you need to define the
different aspects of fonts. If you’re unsure, just leave them with the
defaults above.
Post-processing
rpptx:
post_processing: NULLSometimes you may wish to modify the underlying officer
object. When you call save_report(), just before writing
the file, the function will look for the field
post_processing. Here you can define R code to modify the
officer object. Within the post-processing environment the
officer object rpt containing your report will be
available. You should modify this object to apply any changes you want
made. If the post_processing element is missing or has a
value of NULL the post-processing step will be skipped.
Step 3: Testing and previewing your template
In R you can read your template by supplying the template and mapping file names:
obnd = read_template(template = "example.pptx",
mapping = "example.yaml")When a template is read, onbrand will check for basic
errors. Look for messages in the console to help you debug any issues
you may have.
After reading in the template, you can test the template using
onbrand::preview_template(). Tip Save the
obnd report to a file and view it to make sure the mappings
are what you expect.
obnd = preview_template(obnd)
save_report(obnd, "example_preview.pptx")That’s it. You have completed the PowerPoint example and used
onbrand to create an abstraction layer for use in your own
efforts. Keep in mind, this is a very straightforward example. Depending
on the complexity of the template the annotated slide deck generated
using onbrand::view_layout() will probably not look nearly
as clean. All of the placeholders will be there; they may not be
formatted as nicely. Expect to have to find the annotations you are
interested in using in your mapping.
Word
This section provides a detailed walk-through for each of the three steps in the Introduction. Once again, we recommend everyone walk through this process at least once. In fact, we assume you have already worked through the PowerPoint section. If you have not and don’t feel very comfortable with abstraction layers and yaml syntax, then you might want to walk through that section first.
Another quick note about terminology. All Word documents, even a blank document, start from a template. Where PowerPoint templates are more closely tied to specific slide layouts, Word templates are files that help you design documents. They contain content and design elements (referred to as content blocks or styles) to use as a starting point when creating a document. All the formatting is complete; you simply add what you want to them.
Step 1: Read the Word document
To create your custom abstraction layer for Word, you start by
reading in a Word document saved from the template you are using. This
Word document should have all the styles defined and contain all the
placeholders you want to use. In the example.docx there is
one paragraph style and one table style.
Placeholder can be used in documents. For example, if you wanted to use this template for reports, and you wanted to have “Report NNNN”, where NNNN is the report number, in the right header. Then place a text placeholder, e.g., “Report ===RPTNUM===”, in the right header. This placeholder will be referenced in your code; the Creating Templated Office Workflows Vignette has more details.
Note: Do not type this placeholder text directly into the Word document. Cut and paste the text into the Word document from a text editor. Word is not a text editor, so while the text string may appear to be contiguous, it may not be so in the underlying XML code.
To view all of the styles in the document you can use the
onbrand::view_layout() function here as well:
library(onbrand)
vlres = view_layout(template = "example.docx",
output_file = "example_layout.docx")This will produce a word document, example_layout.docx
that looks something like this:
Step 2: Create the Word mapping
For each paragraph, character, and table style,
example_layout.docx displays the name and what that style
looks like. You can use this when you define elements in your
yaml mapping file. The process is very similar to that in
the PowerPoint section above so we will not go into as much detail this
time.
In the example.yaml file copied over from earlier, there
will be a key for mapping Word templates. That key is called
rdocx and will have the following values:
-
styles- maps user-generated (keys) for each content block to their respective Word style_name (values) -
doc_def- maps the keys defined in thestylessection to their default values for the report -
formatting- general formatting options for the document -
md_def- default formatting for styles when markdown is being used
The following sections will walk you through each of these elements
in the example.yaml mapping file.
styles
This section contains onbrand to Word mappings as
key/value pairs. The keys represent the name of the content block you
want to use in your R code. The values, generated by
onbrand::view_layout() and found in
example_layout.docx, represent the style name used by Word.
In our example, we have the following styles defined:
styles:
Plain_Text: Normal
Default_Table: Normal Table
Table_Caption: Normal
Figure_Caption: Normal
Notes: NormalSo, for example, the Normal style is defined in Word,
but I’m going to call it Plain_Text in the workflows I
develop. Note: The functions of onbrand
require you define at least two styles: one paragraph style and one
table style.
doc_def
This section contains the default style mappings as key/value pairs.
The keys are required by onbrand, so you have to have an
entry for each of them. The values are the user-generated
(keys) from the styles section. So, in this
example if you want to insert a Word table (Table) in the
document you are going to generate, the table will be formatted
according to the onbrand style name
Default_Table.
doc_def:
Text: Plain_Text
Table: Default_Table
Table_Caption: Table_Caption
Figure_Caption: Figure_Caption
Notes: Notes
formatting
Basic document formatting is specified under this key in the
yaml file. The default values are shown here:
formatting:
separator: ","
Table_Order:
- table
- notes
- caption
Table_Caption_Label_Pre: "Table "
Table_Caption_Label_Post: ". "
Figure_Order:
- figure
- notes
- caption
Figure_Caption_Label_Pre: "Figure "
Figure_Caption_Label_Post: ". "
Figure_Width: 6.0
Figure_Height: 5.0
Figure_Seq_Id: "Figure"
Figure_Number: |-
list(officer::run_autonum(pre_label = "",
seq_id = Caption_Seq_Id,
post_label = "",
start_at = Caption_Start_At))
Table_Seq_Id: "Table"
Table_Number: |-
list(officer::run_autonum(pre_label = "",
seq_id = Caption_Seq_Id,
post_label = "",
start_at = Caption_Start_At))The separator key is a region specific setting. From
experimentation it seems that in the US and Canada, this should be a
comma, and in Europe it should be a semicolon. It mainly appears in the
table of contents generation (list of figures or tables). If you try to
generate a table of contents and you keep getting No table of
contents entries found. try changing the separator from “;” to
“,” or the reverse.
The *_Order keys indicate the order that the
figure or table, caption and
notes are displayed. The *_Pre and
*_Post elements control what is displayed before
(Pre) and after (Post) the caption number. For
example the third table would look like: Table 3.. The
default figure width and height are specified here in inches. You
probably wont need to change the keys ending in _Seq_Id and
_Number. The *_Seq_Id specifies the internal
Word sequences used to group tables and figures. The
*_Number keys specify how you want to number things. The
default value, while appearing complicated, will just give you a single
number. If you want to number your figures with the current section
number (e.g. 3-2 for the second figure in the third section) you would
do the following:
Figure_Number: |-
list(
run_word_field("STYLEREF 1 \\s"),
ftext("-"),
officer::run_autonum(pre_label = "",
seq_id = Caption_Seq_Id,
post_label = "",
start_at = Caption_Start_At))Note: If you have figures or tables in multiple
sections, you will also need to reset the figure counter for each major
section that contains figures and tables. To do this you will need to
use the fig_start_at and tab_start_at
arguments to report_add_doc_content().
md_def
These elements contain the default values used when markdown
formatting is used. For this section, you will need entries for
default and Table_Labels as well as an entry
for each style defined in the styles section. The
default is used when rendering general markdown text. The
Table_Labels is used when markdown is present in table
elements like headers.
Tip It’s a good idea to open up the styles in Word and make sure that each style element (font size, bold, etc) matches what is in your Word document.
Step 3: Testing and previewing your template
Once you’re done creating your abstraction layer (i.e., mapping), you can test the template. In R you can read your template by supplying the template and mapping file names:
obnd = read_template(template = "example.docx",
mapping = "example.yaml")If there are no problems you can use
onbrand::preview_template() create an annotated file
showing the onbrand names mapped to the Word names with the
style applied. Tip Save the obnd report to
a file and view it to make sure the mappings are what you expect.
obnd = preview_template(obnd)
save_report(obnd, "example_preview.docx")Once again, that’s it. You have completed the Word example and used
onbrand to create an abstraction layer for use in your own
efforts. Again, this is a very straightforward example. Word templates
can also become fairly complex, fairly quickly. Luckily, you only have
to do it once per template now!
Tip Now that you have walked-through this example,
the best way to learn about Word templates is to change something and
walk through the steps again. In the example file, we are using the base
word document template. After running through the steps below. You can
add additional styles to the document by opening the styles
pane, selecting the appropriate style, and saving (with a new name to
easily see the difference). Similarly, You can also select a new
theme and new style set in the design tab. Then rerun
onbrand::view_layout() and see what’s changed.
Switching templates
The goal of onbrand is to allow users to easily switch
between organizational document templates without changing the actual
reporting workflow. This is accomplished through the yaml
file (i.e., the abstraction layer).
First, make a copy of your yaml file for the new
templates. Then, modify the copy as described below:
PowerPoint
If you want to change to a new PowerPoint template you need to do the following:
- Under the Master, create slide layouts with the same names
- Create the layouts with the same elements as your previous template
- Use
onbrand::view_layout()on the new template to get a mapping for the new placeholders - Edit the new
yamlfile to update the master field, ph_label fields, and the md_def field. - Confirm the new template is behaving as expected using
onbrand::preview_template()
Note: If you have a template where certain elements
are missing you need to set the ph_label value to
NULL. For example you are changing to a new template that
does not have subtitles, but the workflow does have these specified,
then for each slide with a subtitle you will need to set that value to
NULL.
Word
If you want to change to a new Word template you need to do the following:
- Create a document with the same types of styles in your mapping file
- Use
onbrand::view_layout()on the new template to get a mapping for the new styles - Edit the new
yamlfile to update thestylessection to the new names used in Word (keeping theonbrandstyle names the same) - Confirm the new template is behaving as expected using
onbrand::preview_template()
Using your new template
Once you have a new template and mapping file you can then use those
at the top level of your reporting workflow when calling
onbrand::read_template() and that should be it. To learn
more about reporting workflows, walk through the second vignette:
Creating Templated Office Workflows.
Mapping file
rpptx:
master: Office Theme
templates:
title:
title:
ph_label: Title 1
content_type: text
sub_title:
ph_label: Subtitle 2
content_type: text
two_col:
title:
ph_label: Title 1
content_type: text
left_content:
ph_label: Content Placeholder 2
content_type: text
right_content:
ph_label: Content Placeholder 3
content_type: text
md_def:
default:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Table_Labels:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
post_processing: NULL
rdocx:
styles:
Plain_Text: Normal
Default_Table: Normal Table
Table_Caption: Normal
Figure_Caption: Normal
doc_def:
Text: Plain_Text
Table: Default_Table
Table_Caption: Table_Caption
Figure_Caption: Figure_Caption
formatting:
separator: ","
Table_Order:
- table
- notes
- caption
Table_Caption_Label_Pre: "Table "
Table_Caption_Label_Post: ". "
Figure_Order:
- figure
- notes
- caption
Figure_Caption_Label_Pre: "Figure "
Figure_Caption_Label_Post: ". "
Figure_Width: 6.0
Figure_Height: 5.0
Figure_Seq_Id: "Figure"
Figure_Number: |-
list(officer::run_autonum(pre_label = "",
seq_id = Caption_Seq_Id,
post_label = "",
start_at = Caption_Start_At))
Table_Seq_Id: "Table"
Table_Number: |-
list(officer::run_autonum(pre_label = "",
seq_id = Caption_Seq_Id,
post_label = "",
start_at = Caption_Start_At))
md_def:
default:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: FALSE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Cambria (Body)
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Table_Labels:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Plain_Text:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: FALSE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Cambria (Body)
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Default_Table:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: FALSE
italic: FALSE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Helvetica
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Table_Caption:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: TRUE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Cambria (Body)
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
Figure_Caption:
color: black
font.size: 12
bold: TRUE
italic: TRUE
underlined: FALSE
font.family: Cambria (Body)
vertical.align: baseline
shading.color: transparent
post_processing: NULL