Using MS Word to create an APA formatted paper.

Hints on Using Word

• Note that holding the cursor over an icon for 2 seconds makes a label appear.
• At the end of the tool bar on the top of the page, on the right of the toolbar click the down triangle (toolbar options) and select Show Buttons on Two Rows. Tool bars are your friends.
• Using the mouse:  Put the mouse cursor over any word and double click with the left button (index finger button). Note that one word is highlighted.
  • Triple click over any word and the entire paragraph is highlighted.
  • Right Click once over the title and read the menu.
  • Highlight any paragraph, (triple left click) > right click over it > click Copy. Cool huh!
• Tool Hint: Click on the paragraph (¶) mark on the tool bar. This shows many of the formatting features in your document.
• Spacing: Use Edit > Select all to highlight the entire document, click Format > Paragraph > Double space. Alternatively you may highlight only the portion that you want to double space.
• Fixing Font and Formatting Oddities: View > Task Pane > Styles and Formatting, and in the Show window select “Formatting in use” and examine the list. Select the formatting that you DO NOT want, click the down triangle > click Select all xx instances, click delete. Alternatively, Edit > Select All, select Format > Font > and enter Times New Roman (which has a high readability index for tired professor eyes). Or: In the font window click on Times New Roman and 12.
• Paragraph Indent: Edit > Select all, then Format > Paragraph > Indentation and enter or select 0.5 for Left. All first lines or paragraphs are now indented one half inch. To undo this change Edit > Undo or use the left facing arrow on the tool bar.
  • Or - Tab at the beginning of every paragraph.
  • Or - Select only the text paragraphs you would like indented and use Format > Paragraph > Indentation as above.
• Copying into your document from the web: When retrieving material from the web you may need to ensure that the font is “Normal” and not “Normal (Web)” which has leading and following line spacing for each paragraph. Note that you may update “Normal” font to be double space. The easiest way to correct material pasted into a document is to highlight everything that you pasted into your paper and select “Normal” in the formatting window. Normal font and Normal (Web) font have different features.

 Beginning Your Document

•  Default double Space: Click on Format > Paragraph and select “Double” in the “Line Spacing” window. Make sure the Spacing Before and After are at “0”. If you import text that is not double spaced, you can click Edit > Select All, then click Format > Paragraph and select double spacing as above.

• Default font: Click Format > Font and select Times New Roman 12.

 Title Page

1. Press enter enough times to place your name slightly above the middle. Add lines for class title, paper title, professor’s name, and the date.

2. Running Head: View > Header and Footer, in the “Header” window type the first three words of your paper title, click the icon for the page number and right justify using the tool bar.

3. New Page / Section: Insert > Break > select “Next page” on the “Section break types”. You now have a new page. You can also do this by typing ctrl/enter.

4. Save your document to your disk.

 Paper Body

1. Move the cursor to the second page, type “Introduction” and press enter, click on “Introduction” and click on the center icon on the toolbar.

2. Creating Heading Levels: Click View > Task Pane, Click the down triangle and select “Styles and Formatting”, Click on the word “Introduction”. Put the cursor over the “Heading 1” in the Task Pane, click on the down triangle, and select Update to Match Selection. You will notice that “Heading 1” is now centered, normal font in the Task Pane. You will notice that “Heading 1” appears in the font window. Close the Task Pane. You will do this for Heading 2 (Italics, left justified) later when you create a level 2 heading.

3. Save your document to your disk.

4. Write your paper using at least two levels of heading. Make sure to use the format window on the tool bar to create your heading levels. A table of contents uses these headers when it is created for a longer paper.

 Reference Section

1. Insert a Page Break (ctrl/enter), type “References”, and click enter. Place the cursor over references and in the formatting window select Heading 1. Once you have entered all of your references into your document in the proper format (copied them from the web or from someone else’s paper) you will need to double space them as above, alphabetize them, and format the hanging indent for them.

2. Alphabetizing References: Highlight all of your references, click Table > Sort > and select sort by paragraphs.

3. Formatting References: Highlight all of your references, find the “Hanging Indent” triangle on the ruler bar at the top of the page. It is the lower upward facing triangle and if you place the mouse over it a label will show up in 2 seconds. Slide that triangle to right one half inch and all of your references are now properly formatted.

4. Save your document to disk and back it up onto your hard drive. Then make a second copy on a disk.

University Learning Outcomes Assessment

College Student Affairs Personnel Administration Leadership Management Higher Education Graduate Study Program Master's Masters MS M.S. MA M.A. CAS