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.

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BEFORE YOU START (CRITICAL)

Every time before using officecli, run this check:

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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

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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 |

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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	INLINECODE2	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.

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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.

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Quick Reference: Key Warnings

Warning	Detail
INLINECODE35/\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. |

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Quick Start (Social Science Paper Skeleton)

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Follow creating.md for the full step-by-step guide.

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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.)