START HERE! Open these to use as references!

Creating a Microsoft Word APA Template

Some of you may have noticed that Word offers an APA Template. Because of how Word templates work, you'll be better off creating your own custom template that you can modify as needed. Here are the steps.

**Note: For the instructions below for setting default fonts, margins, spacing, etc., when Word updates, you will likely need to reapply these default settings**

Setting Times New Roman 12 as Default Font for all Word Documents

1. Make sure you are at the default Home tab of Word
2. In the Font box, change your font to Times New Roman 12
3. Click the bottom right-hand pull-down arrow on the Font box
4. Click Set as Default
5. Change the selection to All documents based on the Normal.dotm template
6. Select OK (screenshot below)

Setting up Double Spacing

1. Make sure you are at the default Home tab of Word
2. Click the bottom right-hand pull-down arrow on the Paragraph box
3. In the Spacing area make sure that Before and After are set at 0 pt
4. For Line Spacing select Double
5. Check Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style (screenshot below)
6. *If you want to make this the default for all Word documents, then click on Set as Default > All documents based on the Normal.dotm template > OK

Setting up Margins

1. Switch from Word's Home tab to Layout
2. Select Margins > Normal. Normal should be 1 inch all around.
3. Once again, you can set this as your default by clicking on the right-hand pull-down arrow on the Page Setup box and going through steps for creating default settings

Turning on Page Numbers

1. Go to Word's Insert tab
2. Select Page Number, found in the Header & Footer box
3. For Page Number, select Top of Page > Plain number 3
4. Double click outside of the header region to get back into your paper body

Title Page Setup

1. Page numbers do start on the title page, so that should be fine
2. The title of your paper should start on the 3 or 4th line of text, so with your double spacing, hit Enter 3 - 4 times
3. Your title should be Centered, Bold, and it should be in Title Case - meaning capitalize words like you normally would for a title
4. Hit Enter twice after the title - there should be a blank line between your title and your name. Enter the needed information for your title page. See the Purdue Owl's Sample Student Paper

5. After your last entry on the title page, hit Enter a couple of times, being sure to still be on the first page, and then hit Insert > Page Break, and you should be taken to the 2nd page where your paper's text starts 

First Page and Subsequent Pages of Paper's Text

1. On page 2, where the text of your paper starts, enter your paper's title again, and make it Bold and Centered
2. Begin writing your paper! Your first paragraph starts directly below the title, there is no header after the title as this is by default where your introduction goes. Each paragraph has a standard 1 inch indent, which is the default when you hit Tab
3. In the body of your paper you'll start adding Headings. Refer to the linked sources below for assistance with creating needed headings