How to properly number headings in Word from a RMarkdown document

Question

I'm creating a RMarkdown document that I want to export in MS Word with RStudio.

I want a table of contents and numbered headings. Here is my sample markdown document:

---
title: "Test"
author: "Ben"
date: "`r format(Sys.time(), '%d/%m/%Y')`"
output:
  word_document:
    toc: yes
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
```

# Header 1

## Header 2

## Header 2

### Header 3

This produces the following word doc:

That's a good start. Following this tutorial, I edited the heading styles of the output document in Word to make them numbered.

I also changed the Table of contents title heading so that it's based on normal text and not another heading, otherwise the table of contents title gets numbered as well.

I saved the modified document in a template folder and added it as reference in the markdown header:

---
title: "Test"
author: "Ben"
date: "`r format(Sys.time(), '%d/%m/%Y')`"
output:
  word_document:
    toc: yes
    reference_docx: "../templates/word-styles-reference-01.docx"
---

Here is the output:

Now, I want a page break after my table of contents, so I followed this other tutorial and changed my Heading 6 so that it is white, very small, based on the normal style and adds a page break afterwards.

The new markdown file looks like this:

---
title: "Test"
author: "Ben"
date: "`r format(Sys.time(), '%d/%m/%Y')`"
output:
  word_document:
    toc: yes
    reference_docx: "../templates/word-styles-reference-01.docx"
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
```

###### Page break after table of contents

# Header 1

## Header 2

## Header 2

### Header 3

And here is the output:

I now have my page break but the Heading 6 title is numbered by Word and thus my first title is numbered 2.

In the end, it's either:

• a word question: how do I modify the style of Heading 6 so it's not numbered?
• an R question: how can I add a page break without using word headings?

Answer 1

Following on from the Blockquote debate. I found the following solution:

R Markdown

add a block quote with a space

>  

Word template

The block quote is formatted as Block Text style in Word.

Edit the Block Text style

• small font (I use size 3)
• change the paragraph settings
  • no space before/after
  • tick "page break before"

Answer 2

As suggested by Frost_Maggot in the comments,

Maybe try modifying a different style in Word that is shared with R Markdown. If you are not using block quotes in your R markdown this might relate to quote in the MS Word stylings?

This indeed works for me as I don't use the quote style in my document.