| name | officecli-academic-paper |
| description | Use this skill when the user wants to create an academic paper, research paper, white paper, technical report, policy brief, or any formally structured document with TOC, equations, footnotes, endnotes, or scholarly formatting. Trigger on: 'academic paper', 'research paper', 'white paper', 'technical report', 'policy brief', 'journal paper', 'scholarly document', 'paper with equations', 'paper with footnotes', 'paper with TOC', 'manuscript', 'conference paper'. Output is always a single .docx file. |
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 | bash
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 | bash
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 |
|---|
| Cover title | 20pt | bold | 72pt (≈1 inch) | 24pt |
| Heading1 | >= 18pt (20pt preferred) | 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.
Hard Rules (H1–H8)
The following rules are non-negotiable. Any violation constitutes a delivery failure.
| Rule | Requirement |
|---|
| H1 | officecli validate passes — zero XML errors |
| H2 | Cover page present with ≥7 of 10 required elements (title, authors, affiliation, submission target, date, abstract excerpt, keywords, horizontal rule, contact, subtitle) |
| H3 | All body sections use continuous numbered headings (e.g., "1. Introduction", "2. Methods") — see Section C.3 |
| H4 | Abstract paragraph has NO firstLineIndent (block style) |
| H5 | Table of Contents (TOC) field present |
| H6 | Dynamic PAGE field in footer (not static text) |
| H7 | Heading hierarchy is consistent — no level skipping (H1 → H2 → H3, never H1 → H3) |
| H8 | References/Bibliography section REQUIRED. Every academic paper must have a final section titled "References" or "Bibliography" containing at minimum 5 formatted citations with hanging indent. A document with inline citations and no reference list is a delivery failure. |
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. |
| TOC displays blank in LibreOffice | TOC field renders as "Update field to see table of contents" in LibreOffice/PDF — this is normal OOXML behavior. In Microsoft Word: Ctrl+A → F9 to update all fields. For LibreOffice-only recipients: add static text TOC paragraphs after the field, or include a delivery note asking the user to open in Word and press F9. |
move on oMathPara not reliable | move command does not reliably reposition equation paragraphs (oMathPara elements). Workaround: use add /body --type equation to create the equation at the target position, then remove the original. Do NOT use move on equations. |
pbdr.bottom XML order bug (P3) | set --prop pbdr.bottom=... may generate <w:pBdr> with child elements in wrong order, causing validate to report a pBdr schema error. Workaround: use raw-set to write the full <w:pBdr> XML manually (see creating.md D-4b). This is a known CLI bug — P3, CLI team owns the fix. |
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:
| Request | Command |
|---|
| Move a paragraph after another | officecli move paper.docx '/body/p[8]' --after '/body/p[2]' |
| Swap two paragraphs | officecli swap paper.docx '/body/p[3]' '/body/p[7]' |
| Edit paragraph text | officecli set paper.docx '/body/p[N]' --prop text="..." |
| Find & replace text | officecli set paper.docx / --prop find=OldText --prop replace=NewText |
| Remove a paragraph | officecli remove paper.docx '/body/p[N]' |
After any swap or move, paragraph indices shift — re-query with officecli get paper.docx /body --depth 1 before further edits.
References
