Encoding: knitr and child files

I am using Windows 7, R2.15.3 and RStudio 0.97.320 with knitr 1.1. Not sure what my `pandoc` version is, but I downloaded it a couple of days ago. sessionInfo() R version 2.15.3 (2013-03-01) Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) ``` locale: [1] LC_COLLATE=Spanish_Argentina.1252 LC_CTYPE=Spanish_Argentina.1252 LC_MONETARY=Spanish_Argentina.1252 [4] LC_NUMERIC=C LC_TIME=Spanish_Argentina.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] tools_2.15.3 ``` I would like to get my reports both in `html` and Word, so I'm using markdown and pandoc. I write in spanish with accents on vowels and tildes on the n: `á-ú` and `ñ`. I have read many posts and I see problems similar to the one I'm having have been solved with new versions of `knitr`. But there is one issue I haven't found a solution for. When I started, I used the `'system default'` encoding that appears in the `RStudio` dialog, i.e. `ISO 8859-1`, and the `RStudio` previews worked great. However when I tried to get Word documents, `pandoc` choked on the accentuated vowels. I found a post showing how to solve this using `iconv`: iconv -t utf-8 "myfile.md" | pandoc -o "myfile.docx"| iconv -f utf-8 While this did solve `pandoc's` unrecognized `utf-8` characters complaints, for some reason `pandoc` stops finding my plots, with an error like this one: pandoc: Could not find image `figure/Parent.png', skipping... If I use only non-accent characters, pandoc finds the images with no problems. I looked at the two `.md` files with an `hex` editor, and I can't see any difference when I compare the sections that handle the figures: `` although obviously the accentuated characters are completely different... I have verified that the image files do exist in the figure folder Anyway, after reading many posts I decided to set `RStudio` to use `UTF-8` encoding. With only one level of files things work great. For example, I can -independently- knit and then pandoc into Word the following 2 Rmd files: ```` Parent - SAVED WITH utf-8 encoding in RStudio ======================================================== u with an accent: "ú" SAVED WITH utf-8 encoding in RStudio ```{r fig.width=7, fig.height=6} plot(cars, main='Parent ú') ``` ```` and separately: ```` Child - SAVED WITH utf-8 encoding in RStudio ======================================================== u with an accent: "ú" Child file ```{r fig.width=7, fig.height=6} plot(cars, main='One File Child ú') ``` ```` and I get both 2 perfect prevues in `RStudio` and 2 perfect Word documents from `pandoc`. The problem arises when I try to call the child part from the parent part. In other words, if I add to the first file the following lines: ```` ```{r CallChild, child='TestUTFChild.Rmd'} ``` ```` then all the accents in the child file become garbled as if the `UTF-8` was beeing interpreted as `ISO 8859-1`. `Pandoc` stops reading the file as well, complaining it's not `utf-8`. If anybody could point me in the right direction, either: 1. With `pandoc` not finding the plots if I stay with `ISO 8859-1`. I have also tried `Windows-1252` because it's what I saw in the `sessionInfo`, but the result is the same. or 2. With the call to the child file, if `UTF-8` is the way to go. I have looked for a way of setting some option to force the encoding in the child call, but I haven't found it yet. Many thanks!