Teaching with RStudio (zoom and "figure margins too large")

General
1

I enjoy teaching with RStudio but have one recurring frustration about using it whilst connected to various classroom projectors and TVs.

When my screen is projected I often need to zoom in (with "cmd +" on Mac) so folks at the back of the room can see the various RStudio menus and of course my code/text.

Unfortunately, I will then often get the familiar "Error in plot.new() : figure margins too large" and subsequent multiple warning msgs about "invalid graphics state" etc. I know and appreciate the reasons for this.

However, I was wondering how others deal with a zoomed in display of the console/script and GUI menus whilst having plots smoothly appear and perhaps even having the plot window squished?

I can call x11() and have them appear in a separate window or go through a "cmd -" cycle (or window resize) before each plot. Having to do this is a bit of pain and I was wondering if others have come up with better approaches?

Thanks for your attention!

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2

Could using notebooks be a nice alternative? This way figures would appear in the noteboook, instead of in the plot window.

3

Good idea, I will try this thanks!

During the very early stages of delivering R material I would still like to work for a little while in interactive mode (and not require the extra cognitive load of introducing notebooks until they are comfortable with the very basics).

Ideally, I would my screen to look somewhat like the students but perhaps with a detachable plots window that would not need to be squished and hence lead to the error and warning reports.
Thanks again!

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4

Can you kindly let me know why this error occurs, like figure margin too large or invalid graphics state?Recently, I am learning to use heat map and am encountering this error a lot.

Appreciate your help.