# Officecli Academic Paper

> Academic paper DOCX tools.

- Skill: `kyrie66nb/officecli-academic-paper` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kyrie66nb/officecli-academic-paper`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kyrie66nb/officecli-academic-paper/raw
- Safety review: WARNING
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: kyrie66nb (https://skillmd.com/u/kyrie66nb)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kyrie66nb/officecli-academic-paper

---


# 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:**

```bash
if ! command -v officecli &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Installing officecli..."
    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCli/main/install.sh | bash
    # Windows: irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iOfficeAI/OfficeCli/main/install.ps1 | iex
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)

```bash
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](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

- [creating.md](creating.md) -- Complete academic paper creation guide
- [docx SKILL.md](../officecli-docx/SKILL.md) -- General docx reading, editing, and QA reference
- [docx creating.md](../officecli-docx/creating.md) -- General building blocks (paragraphs, tables, images, etc.)