Custom Academic Template Design

I want a professionally-formatted template that scholars can drop their work into without worrying about style guides or fiddly layout fixes. Whether the finished file ends up being a research paper, a thesis, or a course assignment, the key for me is consistency: predefined heading levels, auto-generated tables of contents, clearly styled quotations, figure captions that stay put, and a bibliography area that plays nicely with reference managers.

I am flexible on the tool. If you are most comfortable in Word, LaTeX, or Google Docs, pitch me your strongest option and explain why it will serve academics best. What matters is that the end user can open the file, start writing, and have every mandatory section—title page through references—already wired up with the correct fonts, margins, and spacing.

Deliverables
• An editable master template in the chosen platform
• A brief style guide (one-page PDF) explaining how to apply or modify the styles
• A sample filled-in document demonstrating each section

Acceptance criteria
• Template passes a quick test where I populate each element and export to PDF without layout shifts
• Automatic table of contents generates correctly up to heading level 3
• Bibliography integrates with Zotero, EndNote, or BibTeX without manual reformatting

If this sounds straightforward to you, tell me which platform you recommend and how long you need to turn around the first draft.