{iheiddown} is a package that provides templates for writing documents
in styles consistent with the Geneva Graduate Institute/ Institut de
Hautes Etudes Internationales et du Developpement (IHEID) in (R)
markdown.
The main use case for {iheiddown} is for writing a Masters or PhD
Dissertation at IHEID, as it offers a user-friendly, simple, and
straightforward way to write a well-formatted and consistent
dissertation that weaves together argument, evidence, and
interpretation. However, it also integrates templates for creating IHEID
themed presentations powered by
{xaringan} as well as a template
for IHEID course syllabi.
The package is built upon the IHEID LaTeX dissertation template, which offers versus common word processors:
- less prone to corruption or crashing
- more internal consistency
- ensured consistency with the IHEID dissertation and other guidelines, e.g. dedication, abstract, abbreviations, tables of contents, figures, and tables
- automatic figure and table referencing
- automatic compilation of your references and bibliography (under different styles)
- compilation chapter-by-chapter (for sending to your supervisor) or whole dissertation (for submission)
- cross-referencing
- smaller files
- automatic versioning
- and much more!
Though you may have never had problems using Word in the past, the size and structure of most theses tax Word’s capabilities.
However, {iheiddown} helps you avoid the need to (learn how to) write
in LaTeX. LaTeX can be daunting for first time users, and many users
often feel it would only pay off if they were writing very complex
dissertations. {iheiddown} allows students to write their
dissertations in RMarkdown.
Markdown is a simple and easy-to-use
way to ‘markup’ parts of plain text as headings, bold or italics
(and much more) in ways that remain very readable and thus editable as
you write. {iheiddown}, R, and LaTeX do the work to turn this into a
beautiful dissertation. You write in minimally marked-up plain text and
you get a correctly-formatted dissertation out at the end.
But wait, there’s more! Because {iheiddown} is an R package, it
especially shines for those who are analysing data.
R is a free statistical programme and
language that has a huge range of packages available for most current
methods of analysis and visualisation. RStudio is a
typical frontend that makes working in R and especially with
{iheiddown} easy. So though {iheiddown} is especially attractive to
those writing dissertations with many tables and figures, the
user-friendly nature and pretty output should make it of great benefit
to nearly anyone writing a thesis project.
You can see an example of the kind of dissertation output on the package website.
Not quite done yet, there is even more! Take a look at the following table for all available templates:
| Templates | Format | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Thesis | 👍 | |
| Syllabus | 👍 | |
{xaringan} presentations |
HTML (can be printed to PDF) | 👍 |
| Problem set | 👍 | |
| Posters | HTML (+ print to PDF) | 🌟 🆕 🌟 |
| Your idea | Open a PR! | ✨ |
You will first need to install the following software on your system2:
- R
- RStudio version 1.2 or higher, and
- LaTeX or MiKTeX1
The easiest way to install the latest stable version of {iheiddown} is
via CRAN. Simply open the R console and enter the following to install
and load {iheiddown}
install.packages('iheiddown')
library(iheiddown)That’s it! iheiddown is now installed and ready to go.
To get access to the latest features, you may want to install the development version of the package.
An easy way of getting access to this version is to install the latest
main version of {iheiddown} from Github. To do that, please install
the {remotes} package from CRAN and then enter the following commands
into the console:
- For latest stable version:
remotes::install_github("jhollway/iheiddown") - For latest development version:
remotes::install_github("jhollway/iheiddown@develop")
Alternatively, you can find the binaries for all major OSes – Windows, Mac, and Linux – by looking up the latest release of the package here. Manually download the appropriate binary for your operating system, and install using an adapted version of the following commands:
- For Windows:
install.packages("~/Downloads/iheiddown_winOS.zip", repos = NULL) - For Mac:
install.packages("~/Downloads/iheiddown_macOS.tgz", repos = NULL) - For Unix:
install.packages("~/Downloads/iheiddown_linuxOS.tar.gz", repos = NULL)
{iheiddown}, among other things, sets up a thesis template that you
can then modify for your dissertation. It’s very easy to get started!
Since the process is similar for theses, presentations, problem sets and syllabi let us take a look at how to set up a thesis project.
- Open RStudio (if it is not already).
- Click the new document symbol at the very top left and choose
R Markdown.... - Then from the options on the left
From Template. - Scroll down through the options on the right until you find
Thesis {iheiddown}. - Name your thesis project
index, i.e. your main.Rmdshould be namedindex.Rmd - Select where the project should be saved on your hard drive.
Congratulations! You have now set up your first thesis project. For a more detailed walkthrough of the different functionalities and how to get started with each one, please check out the different articles on the package website.
Please raise an issue for this repo if you encounter any bugs or if you have any feature requests. You can also vote on existing issues that you would like to see addressed soon. If you would like to contribute to the repo, please fork this repository and open a pull request when your changes are ready, or get in touch with me directly.
1 For Windows users, make sure you
have the latest MiKTeX version installed on you computer. From the
MiKTeX console, you should regularly check for updates as “MiKTeX user
mode”, this will prevent issues when generating your pdf document from
your Markdown template.
2 Note that, for unclear reasons,
Yihui Xie’s TinyTeX is causing trouble.
Try tinytex::uninstall_tinytex() and install a local copy.
Unfortunately, full LaTeX installations are large.