APA Style Resources (7th ed.)

APA 7 simplifies formatting requirements for student papers. See the instructions below for specific formatting elements, as well as a video tutorial.

Double spacing

• Select the Home tab
• Under the Paragraph section, Select Line and Paragraph Spacing
• Select 2.0
• Select Line and Paragraph Spacing again
• Select Remove Space After Paragraph

Font changes

• Select the Home tab
• Under the Font section, select Times New Roman
• Select 12 pt.

Title page

• With the cursor at the top of the page, hit enter 3-4 times
• Center the cursor
• Type your title and bold it
• Hit enter twice, to leave one blank space under the title
• Type the following information on separate lines:
  • Your name
  • Academic department and college name
  • Course number and name
  • Instructor name
  • Assignment due date (formatted: Month Day, Year; e.g. April 1, 2020)

Page numbers

• Double click the header (anywhere at the top of the page)
• Once in the header, the “Header & Footer” tab will appear
• Select Page Number
• Hover over Top of Page
• Select Plain Number Three
• Highlight the page number that has been inserted
• Change the font to Times New Roman, 12 pt.
• Double click anywhere on the page to finish editing the header

Page breaks

• Page breaks are necessary to separate the title page, the body of the paper, and the reference page
• Place the cursor at the end of the page, after all text/images/etc.
• Select the Insert tab
• Select Pages
• Select Page Break

Hanging indent

• Hanging indents are required for reference list entries that are longer than 1 line of text
• Type out the reference list entry entirely
• Place the cursor at the end of the first line of the entry
• Hit enter
• Hit tab
• Now, the second line will be indented while the first line is still flush left
• For entries 3 lines or longer, simply place the cursor at the end of the next line and hit enter