Legal Homework Formatter

Legal Homework Formatter

Purpose

This skill provides standardized formatting workflows for Chinese legal homework assignments. It helps documents follow a user-provided course template and the Law Journal Citation Handbook, while resolving common compatibility issues between WPS and Microsoft Word.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Creating new Chinese legal homework assignments in Word format
• Formatting existing homework to meet citation standards
• Fixing footnote display issues between WPS and Word
• Adjusting title, heading, or citation formats
• Generating or repairing a homework table of contents (目录/TOC)
• Converting draft content to properly formatted legal documents

Privacy and Required Inputs

This public version must never default to the maintainer's personal information or a private course template.

Before generating a title, filename, header, or metadata, ask the user for:

• assignment date prefix;
• assignment number/title;
• student name;
• student ID, if required;
• course or instructor-specific template, if required.

If the user does not provide a required identity field, use an explicit placeholder such as [待补: 姓名] or [待补: 学号] and flag it in the final checklist. Do not infer, reuse, or hard-code a real person's name, ID, school, email address, or local file path.

Reference Template

Use the user-provided course reference template as the base for generating homework documents when one is available. Its style system is the authoritative source for course-specific formatting. If no template is provided, create a conservative .docx with the formatting rules below and clearly tell the user which template-dependent checks could not be performed.

This public skill also includes an anonymized fallback template at:

assets/legal-homework-template-anonymized.docx

Use it when the user needs a working Word style base but has not provided a private course template. The template keeps the formatting structure while replacing identity fields with [日期], [序号], [姓名], and [学号]. Do not rename it to a private course filename when publishing or redistributing the skill.

For a user-facing material checklist and missing-information workflow, read:

references/user_materials_guide.md

Lessons From the 2026-05-13 Homework Formatting Pass

When the user asks to "strictly follow the homework skill" or provides the course reference template/PPT, apply these verified rules rather than relying on generic python-docx defaults:

• Use the user-provided reference template as the ZIP/DOCX base when available, not a blank document.
• Match the course PPT's "三名同一" rule: email subject, attachment file name, and document title should be identical.
• Main title: 小三, centered, no first-line indent, spacing after="156", split the title into runs so Chinese name and hyphens render in 宋体 while English/date/student ID render in Times New Roman.
• Body paragraphs: 五号, 宋体/Times New Roman, first-line indent 420 twips, line spacing 300 (1.25x), paragraph after 156 twips, justified alignment.
• Paragraph-after unit check: w:after="156" is stored in OOXML twips, equal to 7.8 pt because Word uses twentieths of a point. In the civil-law reference template this corresponds to half of the document grid line pitch (docGrid linePitch="312"), so Word/WPS may display the same setting as about 0.5 行 or 7.8 磅 depending on UI/context. Treat these as equivalent, not conflicting.
• Footnotes: 小五, 宋体/Times New Roman, single line spacing, left aligned, no first-line indent, no paragraph spacing before/after.
• Footnote numbering: remove ` from word/settings.xml and any section-level footnotePr; homework footnotes should number continuously across the whole document. The reference template contains eachPage`, but that setting causes duplicate-looking footnote numbers page by page.
• If using manual Chinese heading numbers such as 一、 and 二、, remove ` from heading styles 1, 2, and 3`; otherwise Word may visually render duplicate numbering.
• If the document was generated from Markdown/Pandoc or any converter that applies Word Heading1/Heading2 styles, do not only override run fonts and sizes. Also remove inherited heading paragraph styles and decorations from the final document, or Word may still render blue/green heading colors and automatic bullets/numbering:
• remove `, `, and similar converted heading styles from manually numbered titles/headings;
• remove paragraph-level `` from all title/heading paragraphs;
• clear run-level ` values inherited from styles/themes, especially w:themeColor, then set direct black color `;
• remove ` and ` on generated title/heading runs unless the user explicitly asks for color.
• run python3 scripts/fix_pandoc_heading_artifacts.py input.docx --output output.docx before the final compatibility check when the source DOCX came from Pandoc/Markdown.

This bug appeared in a 2026-05-27 Word check: Pandoc's heading style survived OOXML post-processing, so Word displayed the main title and headings in blue-green and with black bullet markers even though font/size had been overwritten.

• After running any quote normalizer, re-check footnotes: standalone curly quote runs in footnotes may accidentally inherit body size. Force footnote quote runs (“”‘’) back to 小五 (w:sz=18) and 宋体.
• Do not save a finished footnoted document with python-docx after manually editing footnotes unless you have verified word/footnotes.xml and footnoteReference markers are preserved. Prefer ZIP/XML surgery for final footnote and quote fixes.
• Before writing footnote text into DOCX, strip leading/trailing whitespace from the citation payload. The template may use one normal delimiter space after the footnote number, but the citation text itself must not start with an extra blank.
• Do not place two footnote references back-to-back after the same sentence-final punctuation. If multiple sources support the same claim, combine them in one footnote separated by ；; if they support different clauses, place each marker after its own clause or legal article.
• The homework template may include Chinese TOC styles. To add a directory, use the template's TOC styles and a clean Word field, but do not copy dirty old preview entries such as PAGEREF _Toc....
• For Word compatibility, do not set ` just to force TOC updates. Word will show a field-update prompt. Also avoid copying a template's whole w:sdt` TOC content-control shell into generated files unless you have verified Word opens without repair prompts. Prefer clean ordinary TOC field paragraphs plus static preview entries.
• Preserve WordprocessingML child order in generated paragraph properties. Word may show "unreadable content" even when ZIP/XML parsing succeeds if, for example, w:spacing appears before w:tabs in a TOC entry or w:pageBreakBefore is inserted before w:pStyle.
• Homework TOC layout: the document title and 目录 stay on the first page; the main body starts on the next page by setting w:pageBreakBefore on the first body paragraph, not by inserting a visible ``.
• Heading detection for TOC must use both style and text structure. Existing styles 1/2/3 are strong clues but not always trustworthy because users often hand-format titles. Confirm with text patterns like 一、, （一）, and 1. before including a paragraph in the TOC.

Style System (OOXML Reference)

Based on the reference template's styles.xml:

Paragraph Styles

| styleId | Name | sz (半磅) | 对应中文 | Bold | Other | |---------|------|----------|---------|------|-------| | a | Normal | 21 (五号/10.5pt) | 正文 | No | line=300 (1.25倍), after=50, firstLine=200, widowControl=0, adjustRightInd=0, snapToGrid=0 | | 1 | heading 1 | 28 (四号/14pt) | 一级标题 | Yes | keepNext, keepLines, numPr (auto "一、") | | 2 | heading 2 | 24 (小四号/12pt) | 二级标题 | Yes | keepNext, keepLines, numPr (auto "（一）") | | 3 | heading 3 | 21 (五号) | 三级标题 | Yes | keepNext, keepLines | | a7 | footnote text | 18 (小五号/9pt) | 脚注文本 | No | line=240 (单倍), left aligned | | TOC10 | TOC 标题1 | 28 (四号/14pt) | 目录标题 | No | centered, black | | TOC1 | toc 1 | 21/22-ish | 一级目录项 | No | right tab with dot leader when generated | | TOC2 | toc 2 | 21/22-ish | 二级目录项 | No | indented TOC item | | TOC3 | toc 3 | 21/22-ish | 三级目录项 | No | further indented TOC item |

Character Styles

| styleId | Name | Purpose | |---------|------|---------| | ab | footnote reference | Superscript footnote markers (上标) |

docDefaults

• sz=21 (五号/10.5pt), szCs=22 (default paragraph-level rPr)
• Default fonts in docDefaults: ascii="Times New Roman" eastAsia="宋体" hAnsi="Times New Roman" cs="Times New Roman"
• These are explicit font names, NOT theme font references (minorHAnsi/minorEastAsia)

Document Generation Workflow

Step 1: Gather Required Materials

1. Homework questions (PDF/DOCX) - assignment requirements
2. Reference template - user-provided formatting base, if required by the course
3. Student information - ask the user for name (姓名), student ID (学号), and date prefix; use [待补: ...] placeholders if missing

Step 2: Build Document Using Reference Template

Use the reference template as the ZIP base. Key principles:

Heading paragraphs (一级标题 like "一、XXX"):

  
  一、菜单案

• Use pStyle="1" for 一级标题, pStyle="2" for 二级标题
• Run does NOT need rPr — style provides sz=28/24 and bold
• IMPORTANT: Remove numPr from styles 1, 2, 3 in styles.xml if using manual heading numbers (not auto-numbering)

Body paragraphs (正文):

  
    
  
    正文内容...
  

• NO pStyle (inherits Normal/a: sz=21, line=300)
• Run rPr: only `` — NO explicit sz
• Bold body runs: add `` to rPr
• First-line indent: 420 twips (≈2 chars)
• Paragraph after: use 156 twips for generated homework body paragraphs. Although Normal style may show after=50, the course reference template's actual filled body paragraphs use after=156, and this is the safer value for submitted homework.
• Alignment: set `` explicitly to avoid Word/WPS drift.

Document title (split into multiple runs, hyphen in 宋体 font):

  
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
    
    0421 graded homework 4
  
  
    
    -
  
  
    
    [待补: 姓名]
  
  
    
    -
  
  
    
    [待补: 学号]

• NO pStyle, centered, sz=30 (小三号/15pt), bold
• Date prefix: follow the user's course requirement. If the course uses month+day, use e.g. "0421", not year+month+day.
• Date prefix may be the assignment release date, due date, or another course-specific value; ask the user instead of guessing.
• IMPORTANT: Hyphen "-" must be in its own run with explicit 宋体 font (ascii/hAnsi/cs all set to "宋体")
• IMPORTANT: pPr must include ` and ` block
• Title is split into 5 runs: date+text, hyphen, name, hyphen, student ID

Footnote references (in body text):

• Use character style rStyle="ab" (superscript, 9pt)
• Each footnoteReference must have a UNIQUE ID
• The course reference template uses separator IDs -1 and 0; its sample regular footnote uses ID 1.
• Starting newly generated footnotes at 4 is a conservative compatibility strategy for programmatic generation/repair, not a template requirement. It avoids collisions with legacy or AI-generated documents that misuse low IDs for separators or ordinary notes.
• If preserving an existing clean template footnote, do not renumber it merely because it is ID 1; only ensure every footnoteReference has a matching footnote definition.

Footnote definitions (in footnotes.xml):

  
    
      
      
      
      
    
    
     
    
      《民法典》第X条。
    
  

• Paragraph style: pStyle="a7" (sz=18/小五号, line=240/单倍)
• footnoteRef: rStyle="ab" (superscript)
• Text runs: only ``, sz=18 from a7 style
• Separator: w:id="-1" (separator), w:id="0" (continuationSeparator)
• If footnote text contains Chinese quotation marks, ensure the quote runs are also 小五: ` plus `.
• Nested Chinese quotation marks should be outer double and inner single, e.g. “违反‘打黑工’禁令的合同”.

Step 3: Heading Hierarchy

• 文档主标题（居中）: follow the user-provided title pattern, e.g. [date] graded homework [N]-[Name]-[ID]; use placeholders for missing identity fields
• 一级标题（左对齐）: 一、XXX, 二、XXX, 四号, pStyle="1"
• 二级标题（左对齐）: （一）XXX, （二）XXX, 小四号, pStyle="2"
• 三级标题及以下: 五号, pStyle="3"

Step 4: Homework Table of Contents (目录)

Use this step when the user asks for 目录, TOC, "做目录", or when the assignment/template clearly expects a directory.

Core strategy

• Use the homework template's TOC10, TOC1, TOC2, and TOC3 styles when they are available.
• Insert a clean ordinary Word TOC complex field: TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u.
• Generate static preview TOC entries from detected headings; Word/WPS can later update page numbers.
• Keep the TOC field clean, but generate static preview entries with TOC1/TOC2/TOC3 style plus a paragraph-level right-aligned dot-leader tab stop at w:pos="8296". Some templates have TOC2/TOC3 indentation but no dot-leader tab, which makes preview page numbers appear beside the heading until Word updates the field.
• Preserve untouched DOCX parts byte-for-byte when possible. If the document already has required TOC/heading styles and no updateFields, avoid rewriting unrelated parts.
• Do not copy old PAGEREF _Toc... preview entries from a template; they may refer to missing bookmarks and produce Word errors.
• Do not set w:updateFields=true in word/settings.xml; it causes Word to ask whether to update fields.
• Do not copy a whole w:sdt content-control TOC wrapper unless you have verified Word opens without repair prompts. A plain TOC field is safer.

TOC page layout

• Keep the document title and 目录 on the first page.
• Start the body on the next page by adding `` to the first body paragraph.
• Avoid inserting a visible page-break run (``) after the TOC because Quick Look/Word may display a stray square or layout artifact.

Heading detection and repair

• TOC levels map to common template styles:
• 一、..., 二、... -> heading style 1 -> TOC1
• （一）..., （二）... -> heading style 2 -> TOC2
• independent 1. ..., 2. ... -> heading style 3 -> TOC3
• Do not blindly trust existing Word styles. Users often hand-format headings, and converted documents may misuse styles.
• Use a double check:
• If style 1/2/3 and text numbering agree, include it directly.
• If style is missing but the paragraph is clearly a heading, add the correct heading style before generating TOC.
• If a paragraph has heading style but text does not look like a heading, do not include it; consider downgrading it to body style.
• If uncertain, leave it out and report it as "需人工确认标题".
• Only include levels 1-3 by default. Do not include fourth-level or lower material; homework TOCs get too dense quickly.

Validation

• Verify exactly one TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u field exists when a TOC is requested.
• Verify PAGEREF, _Toc... anchors, and missing bookmarks are not present in the generated preview entries.
• Verify generated w:pPr child order, especially w:pStyle before w:pageBreakBefore, and w:tabs before w:spacing.
• Verify mc:Ignorable prefixes are declared and w:rPr child order is valid. Running docx_compat_check.py is useful; a repaired Word sample should not have undefined-prefix or rFonts ordering errors.
• Verify body footnoteReference IDs and footnote text payload are unchanged unless the task also asked for footnote work. Byte-for-byte word/footnotes.xml equality may change if namespace prefixes are normalized to satisfy Word.
• Open in Word as well as WPS when possible. If Word reports "unreadable content", first check mc:Ignorable undefined prefixes, w:rPr order, and w:pPr child order, then rebuild the TOC as clean plain field paragraphs and remove updateFields.

For a deterministic helper, use:

…

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [NEU-ZHA](https://github.com/NEU-ZHA)
- **Source:** [NEU-ZHA/legal-ai-skills](https://github.com/NEU-ZHA/legal-ai-skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.