MDPI Manuscript Formatter

Automatically reformats a Word manuscript (.docx) into the MDPI journal template format — correct styles, three-line tables, numbered references, and all.

Quick Start

1. Install

pip install python-docx

2. Download this repo and place mdpi_template.docx next to mdpi_formatter.py:

your-folder/
  mdpi_formatter.py
  mdpi_template.docx      ← get this from MDPI (included in the repo)

3. Run

python mdpi_formatter.py

A file picker window will open. Select your manuscript .docx and the formatted output will be saved in the same directory as:

your-manuscript_MDPI.docx

You can also pass the file path directly:

python mdpi_formatter.py path/to/manuscript.docx

What It Does

The script reads your manuscript with python-docx, maps each element to the correct MDPI style, and writes the result into a copy of the official MDPI template — preserving headers, footers, line numbering, and page layout.

Manuscript Element	MDPI Style Applied
Title	MDPI_1.2_title (18pt bold)
Authors	MDPI_1.3_authornames (placeholder)
Abstract	MDPI_1.7_abstract (indented, "Abstract:" bold prefix)
Keywords	MDPI_1.8_keywords (indented, "Keywords:" bold prefix)
Section headings (H1)	MDPI_2.1_heading1 (12pt bold)
Subsection headings (H2)	MDPI_2.2_heading2 (italic)
Body text (first after heading)	MDPI_3.2_text_no_indent
Body text (subsequent)	MDPI_3.1_text (first-line indent)
Table captions	MDPI_4.1_table_caption (9pt, "Table N." bold)
Table body	MDPI_4.2_table_body (centered, three-line borders)
Table footnotes	MDPI_4.3_table_footer (9pt)
Figure captions	MDPI_5.1_figure_caption (9pt)
References	MDPI_8.1_references (9pt, numbered list)

All inline formatting (bold, italic, subscript, superscript) is preserved from the original.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• python-docx (pip install python-docx)
• tkinter (included with Python on Windows and macOS; on Linux: sudo apt install python3-tk)

No other external tools needed — no pandoc, no LaTeX, no LibreOffice.

Notes

• Author names and affiliations are inserted as placeholders — fill them in manually after formatting.
• Figures are preserved as caption-only placeholders. Insert your actual figures in the output document.
• Tables are rebuilt as MDPI three-line tables (thick top/bottom borders, thin header separator).
• The template file (mdpi_template.docx) must be in the same folder as the script. Get the latest version from your target MDPI journal's submission page.

How It Works

1. Reads the manuscript .docx using python-docx (no pandoc needed)
2. Walks the document body in order — paragraphs and tables — classifying each element by its style and content
3. Extracts the MDPI template's document.xml from the .docx zip archive
4. Builds a new document.xml with the manuscript content wrapped in MDPI styles
5. Writes the result back into a copy of the template zip, preserving all headers, footers, fonts, and page settings
6. Your feedback and contribution is essential. Please report any bugs or preferences you might have

License

MIT