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

BEFORE YOU START (CRITICAL)

If

officecli

macOS / Linux

if ! command -v officecli >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.sh | bash
fi

Windows (PowerShell)

if (-not (Get-Command officecli -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
    irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCLI/main/install.ps1 | iex
}

Verify:

officecli --version

If

officecli

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

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

Verified LaTeX Subset

\frac{a}{b}

x_i

x^{n+1}

\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}

\int_0^{\infty}

\oint

\prod_{i=1}^{n}

\lim_{x \to 0}

\sqrt{x}

\sqrt[3]{x}

\alpha

\Omega

\nabla

\partial

\hat{x}

\bar{x}

\tilde{x}

\vec{x}

\dot{x}

\mathbf{x}

\begin{aligned}...\end{aligned}

\begin{pmatrix}...\end{pmatrix}

\langle

\rangle

\left[...\right]

\left[...\right]

\left(...\right)

\mathcal{L}

\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.

Hard Rules (H1–H8)

The following rules are non-negotiable. Any violation constitutes a delivery failure.

officecli validate

firstLineIndent

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

Quick Reference: Key Warnings

\left

\right

()

[]

add /styles --prop pbdr.all=...

set /styles/X --prop pbdr.all=...

p[N]

--prop "formula=\\frac{a}{b}"

$

$

\$

"true"

true

"24"

24

move

move

add /body --type equation

remove

move

pbdr.bottom

set --prop pbdr.bottom=...

<w:pBdr>

validate

raw-set

<w:pBdr>

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=20 --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.

Adjustments After Creation

When the user requests changes after the paper is built:

officecli move paper.docx '/body/p[8]' --after '/body/p[2]'

officecli swap paper.docx '/body/p[3]' '/body/p[7]'

officecli set paper.docx '/body/p[N]' --prop text="..."

officecli set paper.docx / --prop find=OldText --prop replace=NewText

officecli remove paper.docx '/body/p[N]'

After any

swap

move

officecli get paper.docx /body --depth 1

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.)