R Markdown is an authoring format that enables easy creation of dynamic documents, presentations, and reports from R. It combines the core syntax of markdown (an easy-to-write plain text format) with embedded R code chunks that are run so their output can be included in the final document. R Markdown documents are fully reproducible (they can be automatically regenerated whenever underlying R code or data changes).

To learn how to use R Markdown, visit our extensive R Markdown development center at rmarkdown.rstudio.com.

There you will find an introduction to R Markdown, as well as:

• Markdown Basics, which describes the most commonly used markdown constructs.

• R Code Chunks, which goes into more depth on customizing the behavior of embedded R code.

• R Markdown Cheat Sheet (PDF), a quick guide to the most commonly used markdown syntax, knitr options, and output formats.

• R Markdown Reference Guide (PDF), a more comprehensive reference guide to markdown, knitr, and output format options.

• Bibliographies and Citations, which describes how to include references in R Markdown documents.

• Interactive Documents with Shiny, which describes how to make R Markdown documents interactive using Shiny.

• Compiling Notebooks, which describes how to compile HTML, PDF, or MS Word notebooks from R scripts.

• Document output formats: HTML, PDF, Word, Markdown, and Tufte Handout.

• Presentation output formats: ioslides, Slidy, Beamer

For even more in-depth documentation see:

• The website for the knitr package. Knitr is an extremely powerful tool for dynamic content generation and the website has a wealth of documentation and examples to help you utilize it to its full potential.

• The full specification of Pandoc Markdown, which describes all of the markdown features and syntax available within R Markdown documents.

• If you are migrating documents from R Markdown v1 or wish to continue using RMarkdown v1 see the article on Migrating from R Markdown v1.

See also the R Markdown developer documentation including:

• Creating re-usable Document Templates

• Guide to Creating New Formats for R Markdown

• Adding interactive components to R Markdown documents using HTML Widgets and Shiny Widgets.