Hey there, I get how frustrating it is dealing with restricted work environments—let’s walk through practical fixes for your openxlsx::saveWorkbook issue without needing Rtools or admin access:

1. Use the writexl Package (No Dependencies Required) #

This is my top recommendation because writexl is built to work without any system tools like Rtools. It’s a pure-R package with pre-compiled binaries available on CRAN, so you can install it directly to your user-specific library even without admin rights.

• Install the package (target your user library to avoid permission errors):

  # Install to your personal R library (no admin needed)
  install.packages("writexl", lib = Sys.getenv("R_LIBS_USER"))
  
  # If your R is already configured to use user libraries by default, you can simplify to:
  # install.packages("writexl")
  

• Use it to save data frames or convert openxlsx Workbooks:

  • For a single data frame:

    library(writexl)
    write_xlsx(your_data_frame, path = "your_output_file.xlsx")
    

  • For an existing openxlsx Workbook object (with multiple sheets):

    library(openxlsx)
    library(writexl)
    
    # Extract each sheet's data into a named list
    sheet_data <- lapply(wb$sheets, function(sheet) sheet$df)
    names(sheet_data) <- names(wb$sheets)
    
    # Save to Excel
    write_xlsx(sheet_data, path = "multi_sheet_output.xlsx")
    

2. Disable Compression in openxlsx #

The error about missing compression tools often comes from openxlsx trying to use DEFLATE compression (which relies on system tools). Try saving without compression using the compression parameter:

saveWorkbook(your_workbook, path = "output_no_compression.xlsx", compression = "STORE")

This skips the compression step entirely, which might bypass the need for Rtools. Note that the resulting file will be larger, but it’s a quick fix if it works for your use case.

3. Fallback: Export to CSV and Manual Conversion #

If the above options don’t pan out, you can export your data to a CSV file (which requires no special tools) and then convert it to Excel manually:

• Export to CSV:

  write.csv(your_data_frame, path = "temp_output.csv", row.names = FALSE)
  

• Open the CSV file in Excel, then go to File > Save As and choose the Excel (.xlsx) format. It’s a bit manual, but it’s reliable when all else fails.

Hope one of these gets you up and running! Let me know if you hit any bumps with the steps.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Max M