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 To make this change quickly, first press Ctrl + A to highlight all text and then press Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing (symbol) > 2.0. Line spacing affects the distance between lines of text within a paragraph, and paragraph spacing affects the distance (i.e., the white space) between paragraphs. Both are attributes of paragraph formatting that can be configured via the Paragraph dialog,1 but they work differently. All the text in your essay should be double-spaced. In Word, there are two types of spacing: line spacing and paragraph spacing.
If for some reason you need to fix the margins, go to Page Layout > Margins > Normal. 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. Fortunately, APA format has the same requirement. Do not add extra space before or after paragraphs. That’s it! Your references should be in good shape. What line spacing is APA Format In general, double-space all parts of an APA Style paper, including the abstract text block quotations table and figure numbers, titles, and notes and reference list (including between and within entries). 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’. For Mac, highlight what you want, then go to format -> paragraph -> under indentation its.
Read more: Center for Writing Excellence>Tutorials and Guides>Software Tutorials and Guides>Formatting. To create a hanging indent on the References page for APA. This template is already formatted for double spacing. In addition, remember to double space the entire paper using the double space functionality in Word. 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. Be sure to indent the first line of each paragraph between five and seven spaces by pressing the Tab key one time on the keyboard. 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.