Quarto Installation and help

Author

Charlie Belinsky
belinsky@msu.edu

Published

November 16, 2023

1 Info

This document was created and is maintained by Charlie Belinsky and lives here: https://qfcatmsu.github.io/tutorials/Quarto.html. It is meant to be a living document so expect to see changes on it. Feel free to email me with questions and/or suggestions.

1.1 What’s next

  • explanation of the two types of Quarto editors (visual and source)

  • using headers in quarto

  • better organization of the document and presentation types

  • rendering doucments

  • Changing editor font: Tools -> Global Options -> Appearance

    • Lucida Console (default) causes cursor positioning issues when editing Quarto

    • I currently use Cascadia Code

2 Install Quarto

You need to download and install Quarto version 1.4, which, as of November 16, 2023, is the pre-release version.

https://quarto.org/docs/download/prerelease.html

The released version of Quarto (1.3) will not work.

2.1 RStudio

Quarto has worked for me on every 2023 version of RStudio, however it is recommended to get the latest RStudio because RStudio is constantly updating its Quarto interface (both Quarto and RStudio are developed by the same company, posit)

2.2 Packages needed

You need to install RmarkDown:
install.packages("rmarkdown")

3 Installation of LaTex on Windows (tinyTeX)

This is only needed if you plan to render a Quarto document directly to PDF format.

Install the tinytex package (from CRAN):
install.packages("tinytex")

Use the tinytex package to install the tinytex application:
tinytex::install_tinytex()

3.1 Update issue with tinyTeX

When rendering a PDF Quarto might prompt you to update tlmgr, which is your LaTeX distribution. You will not be able to render a PDF until the update has occurred but following Quarto’s prompts will NOT be successful.

You need to update tlmgr manually by running:
tinytex::tlmgr_update()

4 Starting a new Quarto document

In RStudio, click File -> New File -> Quarto document…

4.1 Quarto document options

There are three types of documents you can create in Quarto:

  1. HTML document

  2. PDF document (requires a LaTex installation)

  3. Word document

4.2 HTML and PDF documents

If you want a document that can be both HTML and PDF then:

  1. Create an HTML document.

  2. Open the HTML document in any browser

  3. Use the Print dialog and Print to a PDF

Note: This method does not require a LaTeX installation.

5 Starting a new Quarto presentation

In RStudio, click File -> New File -> Quarto presentation…

5.1 Quarto presentation options

  1. Reveal JS presentation (a webpage designed like PowerPoint)

  2. Beamer presentation (a PDF designed like PowerPoint)

  3. PowerPoint

5.2 HTML and PDF presentations

If you want a PowerPoint-like presentation that can be both HTML and PDF then:

  1. Create an Reveal JS document.

  2. Open the HTML document in Chrome

  3. Click “E” on the webpage

  4. Use the Print dialog and Print to a PDF

Note: This method does not require a LaTeX installation.