Generate a CV document from a curriculr workbook

Called with no arguments, create_cv() runs in scaffold mode: it copies the template Excel workbook and placeholder profile image to the current working directory and prints instructions for the next step. No rendering takes place.

Usage

create_cv(
  data = NULL,
  photo = NULL,
  output_file = "CV.pdf",
  overwrite = FALSE,
  variant = "cv",
  use_icons = "fontawesome"
)

Arguments

data

A character string or NULL. Path to the Excel workbook. Defaults to NULL, which triggers scaffold mode.

photo

A character string or NULL. Path to the profile image. Defaults to NULL, which renders the CV without a profile photo using a single-column header layout. Supply a path to use a photo with the two-column header layout.

output_file

A character string. Name of the output PDF file, without a directory component – the PDF is always written beside the workbook. Defaults to "CV.pdf". Ignored in scaffold mode.

overwrite

A logical. Whether to overwrite existing files. Defaults to FALSE. In scaffold mode, controls whether the template workbook and placeholder image are replaced if they already exist in the destination directory. Has no effect in render mode – the intermediate CV.qmd is written to a temporary directory and never touches the workbook folder.

variant

A character string. Controls content scope. "cv" (the default) renders all rows from every section. "resume" renders only rows where include_in_resume is checked in the workbook.

use_icons

A character string. "fontawesome" (the default) renders contact fields in the CV header with Font Awesome icons via the Typst @preview/fontawesome package. "none" renders plain text.

Value

In scaffold mode, invisibly returns the path to the directory where files were copied. In render mode, invisibly returns the path to the rendered PDF.

Details

Called with data and photo arguments, create_cv() runs in render mode: it reads the workbook, generates an intermediate CV.qmd in a temporary directory, renders it to PDF there using Quarto's Typst engine, and copies only the finished PDF back beside the workbook. Nothing else is written to the workbook folder.

Scaffold mode (no arguments):

1. Copies cv-data-template.xlsx to getwd().

2. Copies placeholder.png to getwd().

3. Prints instructions for editing the workbook and rendering the CV.

Render mode (data supplied):

1. Resolves and validates the workbook and photo paths.

2. Reads the workbook with read_cv_data(), applying variant filtering.

3. Resolves theme values from the workbook or built-in defaults.

4. Writes an intermediate CV.qmd to a temporary directory by injecting all resolved values into the package template via sentinel substitution.

5. Renders that file to PDF inside the temporary directory, then copies the finished PDF beside the workbook. The temporary directory and everything in it are removed when the call returns.

Rendering in a temporary directory rather than in the workbook folder is a deliberate reproducibility choice. Quarto stages Typst packages into a .quarto/ cache in whichever directory it renders, and it walks up the directory tree looking for a _quarto.yml to decide whether it is inside a project. Rendering in the workbook folder therefore made the output depend on where the workbook happened to live: a folder carrying a stale package cache, or sitting beneath someone's unrelated Quarto project, could render the same workbook differently. A fresh temporary directory has neither, so every render starts from the same conditions. It also means curriculr never creates or deletes files in a directory it does not own.

Because the workbook and photo paths are injected into the template as absolute paths, they resolve correctly from the temporary directory.

When variant = "resume", row-level filtering is controlled entirely by the include_in_resume column in each section sheet. Check the rows you want included in the resume and leave the rest unchecked.

Theme values (fonts, colors, page layout) are read from the theme sheet in the workbook. If the theme sheet is absent, built-in defaults are used. Individual keys missing from a partial theme sheet are filled from defaults.

Examples

# \donttest{
# Scaffold mode — copy template files to a temp directory
withr::with_dir(tempdir(), create_cv())
#> ✔ Created /tmp/Rtmp297DFq/cv-data-template.xlsx
#> ✔ Created /tmp/Rtmp297DFq/placeholder.png
#> ℹ Next steps:
#> Open /tmp/Rtmp297DFq/cv-data-template.xlsx and fill in the "profile" sheet with
#> your information.
#> Replace /tmp/Rtmp297DFq/placeholder.png with your own profile photo.
#> Call `create_cv(data = 'cv-data-template.xlsx', photo = 'your-photo.png')` to
#> render your CV.
# }

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Render mode — requires cv-data.xlsx, Quarto, and Typst
create_cv(
  data  = "~/my_cv/cv-data.xlsx",
  photo = "~/my_cv/me.jpeg"
)

# Render mode — no photo, single-column header
create_cv(
  data = "~/my_cv/cv-data.xlsx"
)

# Render mode — resume variant
create_cv(
  data        = "~/my_cv/cv-data.xlsx",
  photo       = "~/my_cv/me.jpeg",
  variant     = "resume",
  output_file = "resume.pdf"
)

# Render mode — plain text contact line, custom output filename
create_cv(
  data        = "~/my_cv/cv-data.xlsx",
  photo       = "~/my_cv/me.jpeg",
  use_icons   = "none",
  output_file = "erwin-lares-cv.pdf"
)
} # }