Help me choose my template

Not sure which OTTR template is right for you? Answer two quick questions and we’ll point you to the right setup guide.

At a glance

Template	Best for	Write in	Can also publish to
Quarto Courses ⭐	New courses, starting fresh, existing `.qmd` course files	`.qmd`	GitHub Pages · Coursera · Leanpub
R Markdown Courses	Existing `.Rmd` course files	`.Rmd`	GitHub Pages · Coursera · Leanpub
Quarto Websites ⭐	New websites, starting fresh, existing `.qmd` website files	`.qmd`	GitHub Pages
R Markdown Websites	Existing `.Rmd` website files	`.Rmd`	GitHub Pages
Dashboards	Metrics tracking & reporting	`.Rmd` by default; `.qmd` if adapted to Quarto	GitHub Pages

R Markdown is no longer being actively updated

Posit has shifted its focus to Quarto as the next-generation publishing system for data science. While OTTR’s R Markdown templates remain functional, R Markdown will not receive new features or improvements going forward. If you have existing .Rmd files, they will continue to work but for any new project, we strongly recommend starting with a Quarto template.

Resources for Quarto-fying your content:

quartify: an R package that automates conversion of R Markdown files to Quarto
Transitioning from R Markdown to Quarto: a practical guide from Openscapes

Choose by goal

Courses

Chapter-based learning content

Choose a course template when you need a sidebar table of contents, chapter-by-chapter navigation, and optional publishing to Coursera or Leanpub. Use Quarto for new courses or existing .qmd course files, or R Markdown for existing .Rmd course files.

Websites

Flexible pages with top navigation

Choose a website template for documentation sites, resource hubs, or other materials that need flexible page organization. Use Quarto for new projects or existing .qmd files, or R Markdown/bookdown if you already have .Rmd files.

Dashboards

Metrics tracking and reporting

Choose the dashboard template when your main goal is to collect and display metrics such as GitHub stars, Google Analytics traffic, CRAN downloads, Calendly bookings, and more with metricminer.

Note

You will need to establish a publishing contract with Coursera if you want to publish there.

Get Started →