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Writing, Research & Presentations for Nursing

Great for nursing courses. Get resources that help you with writing, research and presentations for nursing.

Create a Hanging Indent in Word on PC or MAC

You'll need to use a hanging indent for block quotations and your MLA style Works Cited or APA style References page. Once you know the trick, it's easier done than said:*

  1. Place your cursor at the beginning of your citation, and highlight it.
  2. Right click your mouse
  3. Select Paragraph from the resulting pop up menu
  4. Under Indentation, use the Special pull-down menu to select hanging
  5. Use the By menu to select 0.5"
  6. Select OK. 

To Apply Formatting to Multiple Citations

  1. Once you've applied the hanging indent using the technique above to your 1st citation, hit enter after the citation.
  2. If you are typing in your citation, Word will keep the same formatting, but most people paste in their citations, and that's where the trick comes in. You have to paste by right clicking and selecting the paste as text option (looks like a A on clipboard, see image below) so that Word can automatically apply all the formatting you've already done, including hanging indent, spacing, font, etc. Alternatively you could wait until all your citations are on your bib, highlight them all at once, then use the first 5 steps as listed above.

* These instructions are designed for use with Word on a PC, see below for instructions on a device. 

Create a Hanging Indent in Word on a Device

There is a way to create a hanging indent in Word on your device. The key is to rotate the screen to landscape mode so you can see the available options (see images below to see the difference). Here are the steps:

  1. Once you have typed in the text you want for your block quote, tap enter/return before the first word of the quote and after the last word of the quote.
  2. Highlight the text that you want to indent.
  3. Rotate your device so that you're viewing it in landscape mode.
  4. Choose the indent option and you're good. If for some reason you can't do that, you'll have to tap the dot options that represent more menu options, but that will take more steps.

View in Landscape Mode

 

View In Portrait Mode

Create a Block Quote

APA

APA requires that any quotation over 40 words be started on a new line, indented .5 inches from the margin, double spaced without quotation marks, essentially a block quote. Here's how:

  1. Hit enter before the first word of the quote, and after the last word of the quote
  2. Highlight the text
  3. Right click and select paragraph
  4. Under indent change left to .5"

MLA

MLA requires that any quotation over 4 lines (or 3 lines of verse) be started on a new line, indented 1 inch from the margin, double spaced without quotation marks, essentially a block quote. Here's how:

  1. Hit enter before the first word of the quote, and after the last word of the quote
  2. Highlight the text
  3. Right click and select paragraph
  4. Under indent change left to 1"

Spell & Grammar Check

Word cannot catch all mistakes and does not replace reading your paper, but using the spelling and grammar tools in Word can really save you time! Here's how:

  1. In the Ribbon, click on Review and select Spelling & Grammar.
  2. Word will now review your paper for spelling and grammar. If the program finds spelling mistakes, a dialog box or task pane appears with the first misspelled word found by the spelling checker.
  3. After you resolve each misspelled word, the program flags the next misspelled word so that you can decide what you want to do.
  4. After the program finishes flagging the spelling mistakes, it shows you the grammar mistakes. For each mistake, click an option in the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.
  5. You're done!

Double Space

Here's how to double space in Word:

  1. Highlight the text you want to double space.
  2. Right click
  3. Select Paragraph
  4. Under Line spacing, use the pull down menu to choose Double.

If you want single space, use the same technique but choose single.

It's that easy!

Alphabetize a List

This technique can be used to alphabetize the sources on your Works Cited or References page.

  1. In your Word document, highlight your list.
  2. In the ribbon, go to the Paragraph group and select AZ Sort.

sort

  1. In the dialog box, under Sort by, Paragraphs and Text, select Ascending to sort alphabetically, A-Z and hit OK. It's that simple!

Create a Running Header

For an APA header you need the title of your paper on the left, and the page number on the right. The header on the first page is a little different -- you need the words Running head: before the title on the title page. Here is how to do it in Word. For Office 365 the instructions are a little different. If you are on a small screen, you may need to rotate your device to landscape mode to see all options in Word. 

  1. Go to the Insert page in Word. Select Header from the Header & Footer section.
  2. From the ribbon select the header pull down menu and select the Blank (Three columns) option.
  3. You’ll put your title in column one, delete column 2. Highlight column 3 and from the ribbon select current position> plain number.
  4. Type the title of the paper in all caps. If it is over fifty characters, use a shortened version of the title.
  5. After typing the title, place the cursor immediately to the left of the page number. Press page until the page number is on the right of the page.
  6. Select the Different First Page option at the top center.  Make sure you are on the first page and repeat steps 3-5, but include the words 'Running head:' before entering the title.

For Office 365:

  1. From the ribbon select insert> Header & Footer.
  2. By default the Blank (Three columns) option is you header.
  3. Put your title in column one, nothing in column 2.
  4. In column 3 select Page Numbers from the ribbon and select the correct number position, with the number showing in the upper right corner. 

Add Page Numbers

You can quickly add a page number using Word's gallery. Here's how:

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Page Number.
  2. In your document, click where you want to place the page number.
  3. In the gallery, scroll through until you find the page number format that you want and click it.
  4. You'e got your page number! 

Change the Margins

You can change the page margins in Word by choosing from one of Word’s predefined settings or by creating custom margins. Here's How:

  1. On the Page Layout tab, click Margins.
  2. Click on the margins that you want. If you don't see the margins you want in the predefined styles, click on Custom Margins and type in the margins you want.
  3. You're Done!