[SOLVED] Changing page orientation in word using Quarto?

Changing page orientation in word using Quarto?

Is there a way of changing the page orientation for specific segments of a document when using Quarto and rendering to Word?

The ideal approach would be something similar to BLOCK_LANDSCAPE_START/BLOCK_LANDSCAPE_STOP from officedown.

But also interested in other approaches (for example using the reference-doc).

Solution

There's no unified solution for this yet, but you can get around by using a custom Lua filter. Store the filter given below to a file, say docx-landscape.lua, and then use it by listing it under filters in the document's YAML section. Use a fenced div with class landscape to mark content that should appear in landscape mode.

E.g.:

---
title: "Nullus"
filters:
  - docx-landscape.lua
---

This is in portrait mode.

::: landscape
This should appear in landscape mode.
:::

Things should be back to normal here.

where the filter docx-landscape.lua contains

local ooxml = function (s)
  return pandoc.RawBlock('openxml', s)
end

local end_portrait_section = ooxml
  '<w:p><w:pPr><w:sectPr></w:sectPr></w:pPr></w:p>'

local end_landscape_section = ooxml [[
<w:p>
  <w:pPr>
    <w:sectPr>
      <w:pgSz w:h="11906" w:w="16838" w:orient="landscape" />
    </w:sectPr>
  </w:pPr>
</w:p>
]]

function Div (div)
  if div.classes:includes 'landscape' then
    div.content:insert(1, end_portrait_section)
    div.content:insert(end_landscape_section)
    return div
  end
end

The filter takes a few shortcuts, but should work ok in most cases. Please let me know about any issues with it.

Addendum: if you prefer officedown commands, then append the following to the filter to make those commands work:

function RawBlock (raw)
  if raw.text:match 'BLOCK_LANDSCAPE_START' then
    return end_portrait_section
  elseif raw.text:match 'BLOCK_LANDSCAPE_STOP' then
    return end_landscape_section
  end
end