Figure position in markdown when converting to PDF with knitr and pandoc

Question

I'm trying to control the position of a plot when converting to PDF using knitr and pandoc. My .Rmd file looks this: ```` # My report Some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text ```{r myplot, echo=FALSE, fig.pos="placeHere", results='hide'} library(ggplot2) ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, drat)) + geom_point() ``` Some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text \usepackage{graphicx} \begin{figure}[placeHere] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.5	extwidth]{placeHere} \end{figure} Some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text ```` I'm converting to PDF using the functions provided here: http://quantifyingmemory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/reproducible-research-with-r-knitr.html How can I place the plot between the second and third blocks of text? The latex code is not working as it currently stands. EDIT: This is what I'm trying now. ```` # My report ```{r setup, inclu…

Accepted Answer

I'm not aware of such an option for `pandoc` to set the floating option of figures when converting a Markdown document to LaTeX. If you choose Markdown for its simplicity, you should not expect too much power from it, even with powerful tools like `pandoc`. Bottom line: Markdown is not LaTeX. It was designed for HTML instead of LaTeX.

Two ways to go:

use the Rnw syntax (R + LaTeX) instead of Rmd (R Markdown) (examples); then you will be able to use the chunk option `fig.pos='H'` after you `\usepackage{float}` in the preamble; in this case, you have full power of LaTeX, and pandoc will not be involved

hack at the LaTeX document generated by pandoc, e.g. something like

```
library(knitr)
knit('foo.Rmd')  # gives foo.md
pandoc('foo.md', format='latex')  # gives foo.tex
x = readLines('foo.tex')
# insert the float package
x = sub('(\\begin\{document\})', '\\usepackage{float}
\1', x)
# add the H option for all figures
x = gsub('(\\begin\{figure\})', '\1[H]', x)
# write the processed tex file back
writeLines(x, 'foo.tex')
# compile to pdf
tools::texi2pdf('foo.tex')  # gives foo.pdf
```

If you do not like these solutions, consider requesting a new feature to pandoc on Github, then sit back and wait.

Figure position in markdown when converting to PDF with knitr and pandoc

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