Academic Paper Skill
Create formally structured Word documents with Table of Contents, equations (LaTeX to OMML), footnotes/endnotes, bibliography, and scholarly formatting. Output is a single .docx file. This skill supersedes the docx creating.md Academic Paper recipe -- use THIS skill for any document requiring TOC + equations + footnotes + formal structure.
BEFORE YOU START (CRITICAL)
Every time before using officecli, run this check:
if ! command -v officecli &> /dev/null; then
echo "Installing officecli..."
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCli/main/install.sh -o /tmp/officecli_install.sh && bash /tmp/officecli_install.sh && rm -f /tmp/officecli_install.sh
# Windows: irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCli/main/install.ps1 -OutFile "$env:TEMP\officecli_install.ps1"; & "$env:TEMP\officecli_install.ps1"
else
CURRENT=$(officecli --version 2>&1 | grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -1)
LATEST=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name"' | sed -E 's/.*"v?([0-9.]+)".*/\1/')
if [ "$CURRENT" != "$LATEST" ]; then
echo "Upgrading officecli $CURRENT -> $LATEST..."
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCli/main/install.sh -o /tmp/officecli_install.sh && bash /tmp/officecli_install.sh && rm -f /tmp/officecli_install.sh
else
echo "officecli $CURRENT is up to date"
fi
fi
officecli --version
Use When
- User wants to create a research paper, journal manuscript, or conference paper with academic structure (abstract, numbered sections, references)
- User wants a white paper, policy brief, or technical report with formal structure (executive summary, TOC, branded headers)
- User needs math equations (LaTeX to OMML) in a Word document
- User needs footnotes, endnotes, or bibliography with hanging indent
- User needs a Table of Contents that auto-updates in Word
- User mentions "APA", "MLA", "Chicago", or any citation style formatting
- User needs multi-column abstract or mixed portrait/landscape sections
Don't Use When
- User wants a general letter, memo, contract, or simple report -- use docx skill
- User wants a presentation -- use pptx skill
- User wants a spreadsheet or dashboard -- use xlsx or data-dashboard skill
- User needs LaTeX output (.tex file) -- this skill produces .docx only
- User needs graduate thesis with Roman numeral front-matter pagination -- deferred to Phase 2
- User needs tracked changes or collaborative editing markup -- use docx skill with raw-set
What This Skill Produces
A single .docx file with:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Cover / title block | Centered title, authors, affiliations |
| Table of Contents | Native Word TOC field (levels 1-3), updateable |
| Structured sections | Heading1/2/3 hierarchy with consistent styling |
| Equations | Display and inline OMML from LaTeX subset |
| Footnotes / endnotes | Inline references at correct paragraph positions |
| Bibliography | Hanging indent, per-citation-style formatting |
| Headers / footers | Page numbers, optional branding |
| Optional: watermark, charts, custom bordered blocks, cross-references |
Core Concepts
Style-First Architecture (NON-NEGOTIABLE)
Define ALL styles before adding ANY content. Skipping style definitions causes formatting failures in 100% of cases. Different Word versions define Heading1 as 14pt, 16pt, or 13pt -- explicit style setup eliminates this variance.
Font Size Hierarchy
| Style | Size | Weight | spaceBefore | spaceAfter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heading1 | >= 16pt | bold | 360 (18pt) | 120 (6pt) |
| Heading2 | >= 14pt | bold | 360 (18pt) | 80 (4pt) |
| Heading3 | >= 12pt | bold + italic | 240 (12pt) | 80 (4pt) |
| Body (Normal) | 11-12pt | regular | per paper type | per paper type |
| Caption | 9-10pt | italic | -- | -- |
| FootnoteText | 9-10pt | regular | -- | -- |
Verified LaTeX Subset
| Category | LaTeX | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fractions | \frac{a}{b} | Nested supported |
| Sub/superscripts | x_i, x^{n+1} | Multi-char needs braces |
| Summation | \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} | Limits above/below in display |
| Integration | \int_0^{\infty}, \oint | Single, double, and contour |
| Products | \prod_{i=1}^{n} | |
| Limits | \lim_{x \to 0} | |
| Square roots | \sqrt{x}, \sqrt[3]{x} | nth-root supported |
| Greek letters | \alpha .. \Omega | Both cases |
| Nabla / partial | \nabla, \partial | |
| Accents | \hat{x}, \bar{x}, \tilde{x}, \vec{x}, \dot{x} | |
| Bold math | \mathbf{x} | For vectors |
| Aligned | \begin{aligned}...\end{aligned} | Multi-line systems |
| Matrices | \begin{pmatrix}...\end{pmatrix} | Also bmatrix, vmatrix |
| Angle brackets | \langle, \rangle | For bra-ket notation |
| Simple delimiters | \left[...\right] | ONLY when NO sub/super inside |
| DO NOT USE | \left[...\right] + subscript/superscript inside | Cast error crash |
| DO NOT USE | \left(...\right) + subscript/superscript inside | Same crash |
| DO NOT USE | \mathcal{L} | Invalid XML -- use \mathit{L} |
Footnote Behavior
Footnotes are inline reference runs within the target paragraph. They do NOT create new paragraphs and do NOT shift paragraph indices. You can add footnotes in any order -- forward, reverse, or arbitrary. The old "reverse order" advice is obsolete as of v1.0.24.
Workflow Overview
Phase 1: Analyze Input
Classify paper type (social science, physics/math, white paper). Look up the Feature Selection Table in creating.md Section A. Plan which sections to follow.
Phase 2: Setup
Create document, set defaults + margins, define ALL styles upfront. Plan section breaks if multi-column or landscape is needed.
Phase 3: Build
Add content in order: cover, TOC, abstract, body sections, equations, tables, footnotes, bibliography, headers/footers, watermark.
Phase 4: QA
Run verification loop: validate, view outline, view issues, view text. Fix and re-verify.
Quick Reference: Key Warnings
| Warning | Detail |
|---|---|
\left/\right + sub/super | Crashes with cast error. Use plain (), [] -- OMML auto-sizes. |
| pbdr at style level | add /styles --prop pbdr.all=... is silently dropped. set /styles/X --prop pbdr.all=... is rejected. Always set borders per-paragraph after creation. |
| Section break +1 offset | Each section break inserts one empty paragraph into /body. Account for +1 index offset on all subsequent p[N] references. |
| Shell escaping for LaTeX | Double backslashes in bash: --prop "formula=\\frac{a}{b}". Use heredoc for complex formulas. |
Dollar sign $ in text | Bash expands $ as variable in double quotes. Use single quotes or \$. See creating.md D-10. |
| Batch JSON values | ALL values must be strings: "true" not true, "24" not 24. |
| Batch intermittent failure | ~1-in-15 failure rate. Retry on error. Keep arrays to 10-15 max. |
Quick Start (Social Science Paper Skeleton)
officecli create paper.docx
officecli set paper.docx / --prop defaultFont="Times New Roman"
officecli set paper.docx '/section[1]' --prop marginTop=1440 --prop marginBottom=1440 --prop marginLeft=1440 --prop marginRight=1440
officecli add paper.docx /styles --type style --prop id=Heading1 --prop name="Heading 1" --prop type=paragraph --prop font="Times New Roman" --prop size=16 --prop bold=true --prop spaceBefore=360 --prop spaceAfter=120 --prop keepNext=true
officecli add paper.docx /body --type toc --prop levels=1-3 --prop title="Table of Contents"
officecli add paper.docx /body --type paragraph --prop text="Introduction" --prop style=Heading1
officecli add paper.docx /body --type paragraph --prop text="This paper examines..." --prop size=12 --prop lineSpacing=2x
Follow creating.md for the full step-by-step guide.
References
- creating.md -- Complete academic paper creation guide
- docx SKILL.md -- General docx reading, editing, and QA reference
- docx creating.md -- General building blocks (paragraphs, tables, images, etc.)