Step 2: Under the References tab, click on the arrow next to Style to select a style of citation. Step 1: Open the Word document and click where you want to add citations. Let us begin with adding and editing citations in Word. How to Add, Find, and Edit Citations to Word However, the steps should be quite similar for other versions of Word available too. We are subscribed to Microsoft 365 plan and would be using Microsoft Word installed on Windows 10. Name this something like ‘APA Reference’, ensuring ‘Add to Quick style list’ is also selected, and click ok.The steps are easy, and the process is streamlined. The selection will default to the format of the text you have selected (your reference), which is correct. Select a reference that you just formatted by dragging over it with your mouse You’ll likely add / remove references in the process of editing, so it’s best to save the reference style for quick application in the future. That’s it! Your references should be in good shape. Click ok.Į) Set your font to Times New Roman, size 12.

This is the amount of space to leave between paragraph blocks. And unlike the rest of your paper they should be single spaced.ĭo NOT add tabs to do this, there’s a better way:Ī) Select all your references by dragging over them with your mouse.ĭ) In Spacing ensure line-spacing is ‘Single’, and enter ‘16pt’ in the field labelled ‘after’. Harvard Educational Review, 33(1) 1-20.ĪPA requires that all lines other than the first be ‘hanging’, that means indenting them by 1/2 inch. Then the journal in Italics “ Harvard Educational Review”.Not every word is capitalized: “How to format references” Then you put the year of the paper in parens (1994).

Authors are listed Surname, Initials: “Rathbone, M.A.”.

Seeing as I’m usually the dogs-body who ends up fixing APA reference formatting on an almost weekly basis, I thought I’d document it so maybe my wife will learn how (hint hint). If you’re like my wife, you’ll likely start inserting tabs and newlines all over the place, but then if you ever have to edit your references you’ll end up with a mess you’ll have to fix manually, which can be frustrating. If you write a lot of academic papers in the social sciences (like my wife does) you’re likely going to have to manually format some references at one time or another.

How to insert a citation in word 2011