Installation

Installing apaquarto is not hard, but it takes a bit more effort than installing a standalone program. There are four main steps:

  1. Install Quarto
  2. Install a programming language (e.g., R, Python, Julia)
  3. Install a programming environment (e.g., RStudio, VS Code, Jupyter)
  4. Install apaquarto

Install Quarto

The current stable version of Quarto can be installed here.

If you use a recent version of RStudio, Quarto is already installed. If you are not sure if your version of Quarto is recent enough, there is no harm in re-installing it.

In a terminal, run

Terminal
quarto --version

Install a Programming Language

Your primary options are

  1. R
  2. Python
  3. Julia

If you just want to use apaquarto to make APA-style documents, but do not plan to do any analyses, install R and RStudio. You do not need R for anything, but the Quarto experience will be easier in RStudio with R installed.

Install your programming environment

At the same link for installing Quarto, there are links for selecting an environment for using Quarto. Your options include:

  1. RStudio will probably give the smoothest experience to anyone new to data analysis. It is made by Posit, the same company that makes Quarto.
  2. VS Code works for any language. Some R users really like VS Code.
  3. Jupyter, as its name indicates, works with Julia, Python, and R.
  4. Neovim, a hyperextensible Vim-based text editor
  5. Any text editor will do. Everyone has options—Quarto won’t box you in.

Install apaquarto

What do you wish to do with apaquarto? You can create a new template file in a new project folder, or you can add the apaquarto format to an existing Quarto file.

There are two ways to install Quarto extensions like apaquarto: If you are an R user, you might prefer the R console method. Anyone, including R users, can use the terminal method.

After installing apaquarto

If you made a…

A new file

If you create a new apaquarto file, you will see a template file in the folder you select. The template file will have the same name as the folder you installed the template to and ends with .qmd.

The example.qmd file has most of the options already filled out and explains how and why to change them. It also has a examples of how to use the extension in the text.

It is recommended for RStudio users to use apaquarto inside a project. To create project for an existing directory, see here.

An existing file

Once the extension is installed, you still need to change the output format of your document. You can select one or more of three formats: .docx, .pdf, or .html. You can add all of these formats or any combination of them:

To include all four formats, add this to your .qmd file’s yaml format option:

format:
  apaquarto-docx: default
  apaquarto-html: default
  apaquarto-pdf: default
  apaquarto-typst: default

When writing, I prefer to output to .html, because it renders quickly. Then I switch to .docx or .pdf, depending on where I need to submit the paper.

Here is a minimal example of what the YAML metadata might look like:

---
title: "My Paper's Title: A Full Analysis of Everything"
shorttitle: "My Paper's Title"
author:
  - name: W. Joel Schneider
    corresponding: true
    orcid: 0000-0002-8393-5316
    email: schneider@temple.edu
    affiliations:
      - name: Temple University
        department: College of Education and Human Development
        address: 1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
        city: Philadelphia
        region: PA
        postal-code: 19122-6091
abstract: "This is my abstract."
keywords: [keyword1, keyword2]
author-note:
  disclosures:
    conflict of interest: The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
bibliograpy: mybibfile.bib     
format:
  apaquarto-docx: default
  apaquarto-html: default
  apaquarto-pdf: default
  apaquarto-typst: default
---