In Chapter 1, Getting Started, we introduced the concept of a compendium—the set of scripts and data files that reproduce a statistical analyses as well as the report that is based on it. Managing growing sets of interdependent files, especially when multiple people are working on the same analyses, can be a hassle. RStudio's project management features make things a lot more manageable.
Tip
Always create an RStudio project, even for simple analyses—it makes managing your scripts a lot easier with virtually no extra effort.
Technically, an RStudio project is just a directory with the name of the project and a few files and folders created by RStudio for internal purposes. It typically holds your scripts, data, and reports, which you may manage through RStudio's file manager tab or through your operating system's file manager. The project directory can also contain subdirectories.
When a project is reopened, RStudio opens every file and data view that was open when the project was...
