Paper Formatter Skill

Reformat an academic manuscript to match the style of a target journal, based on a sample paper (范文).

Workflow

Step 1: Receive Inputs

Ask the user for:

1. Sample paper (范文): A paper from the target journal that exemplifies its formatting. Can be .docx or .tex.
2. User manuscript: The manuscript to reformat. Can be .docx, .tex, or plain text.
3. Desired output format: .docx or .tex (default: same as manuscript format).

Step 2: Analyze Sample Paper Style

If sample is .docx:

Run the analysis script:

pip install python-docx 2>/dev/null
python ~/.claude/skills/paper-formatter/scripts/analyze_docx.py "<sample.docx>" "<output_rules.json>"

This extracts:

• Page layout (margins, paper size, orientation, columns)
• Paragraph styles per role (title, headings, body, abstract, captions, references)
• Font families, sizes, bold/italic
• Line spacing, indentation, paragraph spacing
• Table styles
• Citation style detection (numeric, author-year, etc.)

If sample is .tex:

Read the .tex file and extract style information from the preamble:

• \documentclass options (font size, paper, columns)
• \usepackage{geometry} margins
• Font packages and settings (fontspec, xeCJK, ctex)
• \usepackage{setspace} line spacing
• \titleformat / \titlesec heading styles
• Citation package (natbib, biblatex) and style
• \fancyhdr header/footer settings
• Custom commands for title, abstract, keywords formatting

Produce a JSON style-rules object with the same structure as the docx analyzer output.

Step 3: Present Extracted Style Rules

Show the user a summary of extracted formatting rules organized by the checklist in references/formatting-elements.md:

• Page: paper size, margins, orientation
• Title: font, size, bold, alignment
• Authors/Affiliations: format
• Abstract: font, size, indentation
• Keywords: separator, font
• Headings: each level's font, size, bold, numbering scheme
• Body: font, size, line spacing, first-line indent, alignment
• Captions: position, font, size
• References: citation style, bibliography format
• Header/Footer: content

Ask the user to confirm or adjust any rules before proceeding.

Step 4: Parse User Manuscript

Read the user's manuscript and extract structured content:

{
    "title": "...",
    "authors": ["..."],
    "affiliations": ["..."],
    "abstract": "...",
    "keywords": ["..."],
    "sections": [
        {
            "heading": "Introduction",
            "level": 1,
            "content": ["paragraph1...", "paragraph2..."],
            "subsections": [...]
        }
    ],
    "references": ["[1] ...", "[2] ..."],
    "acknowledgments": "...",
    "footnotes": ["..."]
}

For .docx manuscripts: use python-docx to read paragraphs, classify by style (similar to analyze_docx.py logic).

For .tex manuscripts: parse section commands (\section, \subsection), extract text between them, identify \begin{abstract}, \bibliography, etc.

For plain text: ask the user to identify sections or use heuristic detection (numbered headings, "Abstract:", "References" headers).

Step 5: Apply Formatting

If output is .docx:

Save the structured content to a temporary JSON file, then run:

python ~/.claude/skills/paper-formatter/scripts/format_docx.py "<content.json>" "<style_rules.json>" "<output.docx>"

If output is .tex:

python ~/.claude/skills/paper-formatter/scripts/generate_latex.py "<content.json>" "<style_rules.json>" "<output.tex>"

Step 6: Review & Iterate

After generating the output:

1. Tell the user the output file path
2. Ask them to review and identify any formatting issues
3. Adjust style rules or content structure as needed
4. Re-run the formatting script with updated inputs

Important Notes

Chinese Journal Support (中文期刊支持)

• Chinese font size names (字号) are mapped: 五号=10.5pt, 小四=12pt, etc.
• Common Chinese fonts: 宋体 (body), 黑体 (headings), 楷体 (abstract), 仿宋
• First-line indent: typically 2em (2 characters)
• Use ctexart document class for LaTeX output
• GB/T 7714-2015 citation format with document type identifiers [J], [M], [C], etc.
• Full-width punctuation handling

Citation Styles

Refer to references/common-citation-styles.md for detailed formatting rules for:

• APA 7th, GB/T 7714-2015, Vancouver, IEEE, Chicago, MLA

Formatting Checklist

Refer to references/formatting-elements.md for the complete list of formatting elements to check and apply.

Dependencies

• python-docx: Required for .docx analysis and generation. Install with pip install python-docx.
• For LaTeX output: the generated .tex file requires XeLaTeX compilation (for font support).
• Chinese LaTeX documents require: ctex, xeCJK packages and appropriate Chinese fonts installed.