Configuring theAPA format in Wordis very useful when we need to send a document in which sources or bibliographic references are cited.
How to Set APA Format in Word Easily
Thanks to this group of standardized rules, any work or project sent will be governed by a certain style that anyone who knows them must apply in their document. But how to configure APA format in Word to perform jobs? Don’t miss the step by step below.
What are the APA standards?
TheAPA(American Psychological Association) standardsmake up a specific style under which the research documents used especially by professionals in the world of psychology, but also by other professionals belonging to the social sciences, should be configured.
These types of rules are widely used by college students to format their work and include how the margins should be formatted, spacing, and even the type or size of the font.
On the other hand, many professionals use them to format their work, so it has become a standard that more and more people use.
TheAPA rulesare configured in the following way:
- The font must be Times New Roman
- The font size must be 12
- The line spacing will be in the 2.0 format with the text without justification and aligned to the left
- Spaces should never be used between paragraphs
- Margins should be 1 inch (2.54 cm) apart
- Regarding the use of indents for documents, they must be 5 spaces at the beginning of each paragraph
- The tables will not have lines that separate the cells
- The document should always be written in the third person
Setting up APA rules in verbatim citations
When making references to verbatim citations, you must bear in mind that, if the quotation is less than 40 words, the text must be enclosed in quotation marks and italicized. If the text contains more than 40 words, no quotation marks will be used.
Author quotes
In the event that a quote from the author is to be written:
- It must be cited with the surname and year of publication
- The information is written after the appointment, and after the appointment the end point
- After the text, the author’s last name and the year will be placed
- The page where the citation is located is placed in parentheses after the final period
Quotes from the text
In the event that the quote is based on a text:
- The appointment is placed, and after it, the last name, the year and the page. Everything must go in parentheses.
- A full stop will be placed when the quote has been written, but always before the data.
- It must be cited with last name, year and page, but it must be done in a separate paragraph
Setting up APA standards for bibliographic references
Regardingbibliographic references, they must follow the following structure:
- The citation of a printed book: Surname, Initial of the first name in capital letters.Year.Title: Editorial
- The citation of an electronic book: Surname, Initial of the first name in capital letters.Year.Qualification. Retrieved from (web address)
- Chapter of a book: Surname, AA & Surname, AA (Year). Chapter title. In AA Surname (Ed.), Book Title (pp. Xx-xx). City: Editorial
- Thesis work: Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (date YY – MM – DD). Thesis title [TYPE: Undergraduate, master’s or doctoral thesis). Institution name, institution location.]
- Scientific articles: [Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (Publication date). Article title. Name of the journal, volume (Number), pages.]
- Encyclopedia: [Author’s last name, Author’s initial name.(Year).Entry Title, Encyclopedia Name (volume, Pages). Location: Editorial.]
- PDF files: [Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (Date). Document title [PDF file]. Recovered from (website where it was downloaded)
- Wikipedia article: [Article name [On Wikipedia]. Recovered (Date) from http://urlwikipedia.com]
- Dictionaries: [Dictionaryname. (Year published). Name (edition) of http://urldictionary.com]
- Youtube videos: [Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. [Name or nick on Youtube]. (Year, month, day of publication). Video title [Video]. Recovered from http://Urlvideo.com
- Movies: [Author’s last name, Author’s initial name.(Year).Movie name [Movie]. Study name]
- Song: [Author.(Year).Song name. [Song]. Label name.]
- Photographs: [[Photograph] of the author’s surname and first name]. (Place, Year). Name of the collection. Location]
Articles webs
- Web article (No author):[Title of the article. (Publication date). Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (No date):[Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (sf). Article title. Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (Untitled):[Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (Publication date). [Description of the document]. Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (No author – no date):[Title of the article. (sf). Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (Without author – without title):[Description of the article]. (Publication date). Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (No date – no title):[Author’s last name, Author’s initial name. (sf). [Description of the article]. Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
- Web article (No author – no date – no title):[[Description of the article]. (sf). Recovered from http://urlweb.com]
Remember that when inserting the bibliography section, it must always be on a single page and in alphabetical order, indented.
Number of authors
In the event that it is necessary to cite one or more authors, the appropriate format should be the following:
- Single author: Author’s last name, year, p.
- Two authors: Surname of the 1st and 2nd author separated by a comma, year, p.
- Three to five authors: Surname of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd author separated by a comma, year, p.
- Six or more authors: Last name of the 1st author and the word “et.al” (without quotation marks) which means “and others”
Main abbreviations in APA format
There are also a series of rules that must be taken into account when making abbreviations. The most common are the following:
- Chapter: ch.
- Edition: ed.
- Revised edition: ed. rev.
- Editor (s): Ed. (Eds.)
- Translator (s): Trad. (Trads.)
- Undated: sf
- Page (pages): p. (pp.)
- Volume (Volumes): Vol. (Vol.)
- Number: no.
- Party: Pte.
- Supplement: Suppl.
Configure APA rules in Word: step by step
Now that you know how theAPA standards are governed, you will learn how to configure them directly from Word.
This is very useful for carrying out your work or writing articles for a research thesis with content based on other references.
To apply the APA format in Word you must follow the steps indicated below. Here are the four rules that you must apply in your word document:
1. APA font and size settings
If we have a document already written and we want to adapt it tothe APA formatin Word, you will have to select all the text and modify the size and font type as indicated:
- Source:Times New Roman
- Size: 12 pts
- Alignment:Left
- Line spacing:2
2. APA setting of margins and spacing
Whenconfiguring the margins and spacing of a textaccording toAPA standards, you must follow the following step by step:
- Go to the PageLayouttab and selectPage Setup> Margins.
- Now you must choose the option:Custom marginsand write 2.54 cm
- The next step is to put the line spacing. To do this you must go toStart> Paragraph. In this case you have to usedouble spacing
3. Header and page number APA settings
The page numbers as well as the heading of a text must also be governed by the APA format, following the steps indicated:
- Go to theInserttab> Header & Footer.
- Choose the style and enter the information in the text «Write here».
- The page number within the header will be made, by clicking on the text and going to the Header and footer section and selecting the Page Number with the selector
- SelectCurrent Position> Raw Number
4. APA settings for titles and styles
- Another section that must be configured according toAPA standardsis that of titles. The full title, the name of the author or authors and the institution of origin will appear in them. The step by step is as follows:
- Write the title of the text and select it
- Go toStart> Styles. Here you must choose the style that the title will have and follow the logical rule of Title 1 for the main title and Title 2 and later for secondary titles.
If you want to avoid having to do each section of the configuration in each project, you can make a custom configuration of the APA format in Word, before starting to write your work.
In this way you will have already done all the configuration work previously and also your writings will already be written in APA format.