rmarkdown: kable, xtable or tab_df tables in Word doc - r

Question

---
output:
word_document: default
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
data("mtcars")
library(tidyverse)
library(xtable)
library(sjPlot)
library(kableExtra)
```
```{r, results='asis'}
df <- mtcars %>%
group_by(cyl) %>%
summarise(disp = mean(disp),
wt = mean(wt),
n = n()
)
kable(df)
# tab_df(df)
# xtable(df)
```
I have tried xtable, tab_df, and kable to generate a word document with a table. When "knit to HTML document", all tables looked fine. When "knit to Word", xtable didn't show the table while tab_df and kable produced a table with only one column:
kable(df)
cyl
disp
wt
n
4
105.1364
2.285727

Answer 1

I experimented with flextable quite a bit the last few days and it might be the best option when you have to work with Word:
---
output:
word_document: default
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
data("mtcars")
library(tidyverse)
library(flextable)
```
```{r, results='asis'}
mtcars %>%
group_by(cyl) %>%
summarise(disp = mean(disp),
wt = mean(wt),
n = n()
) %>%
flextable() %>%
align(part = "all") %>% # left align
set_caption(caption = "Table 1: Example") %>%
font(fontname = "Calibri (Body)", part = "all") %>%
fontsize(size = 10, part = "body") %>%
# add footer if you want
# add_footer_row(values = "* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001.",
# colwidths = 4) %>%
theme_booktabs() %>% # default theme
autofit()
```