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Tips for Formatting Your Paper in Word

Hanging indents, changing margins, running headers--get tips for the top formatting questions.

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!

Save in RTF Format

You'll just need to save your paper in a different format in Word. Here's how:

  1. Open your paper in Word.
  2. Click the File tab.
  3. Click Save As.
  4. In the Save as type list under the file name, use the pull down menu to select Rich Text Format.
  5. Click Save.

Now you have a copy of your paper in RTF format!