Close all open documents in Word for Mac, and then open a new blank document. Select the word Test. On the Edit menu, click Copy. On the File menu, click New, and then open a new blank document. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special. In the Paste Special dialog box, click Paste Link. In the As box, click Formatted Text (RTF), and then click OK. I cannot select text with my mouse in Word and Outlook. I can for a little while, then I can't, so, I close and restart the applications again and all is well. This also means that I can't drag anything like text that I have selected with the keyboard or table widths or tabs in the ruler bar. You can use the Text to Speech feature to hear selected text read aloud in a Microsoft Office for Mac file. If you have not already done so, set up the Text to Speech feature. On the Apple menu, click System Preferences.
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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.
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.
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).
So here is my guide:
1) Get the basics in order.
- Authors are listed Surname, Initials: “Rathbone, M.A.”. Comma separate multiple authors.
- Then you put the year of the paper in parens (1994)
- Then the title of the paper. Not every word is capitalized: “How to format references”
- Then the journal in Italics “Harvard Educational Review”
- Then the issue, and the page number.
https://ourtree150.weebly.com/text-editor-for-mac-default.html. Here’s the complete example:
Rathbone, M.A. (1994). How to format references. Harvard Educational Review, 33(1) 1-20. https://ourtree150.weebly.com/text-direction-in-table-ms-word-for-mac.html.
2) Tricky line formatting stuff
APA requires that all lines other than the first be ‘hanging’, that means indenting them by 1/2 inch. And unlike the rest of your paper they should be single spaced.
Do NOT add tabs to do this, there’s a better way:
A) Select all your references by dragging over them with your mouse.
B) Navigate to Format -> Paragraph
C) In indentation, select Hanging
D) In Spacing ensure line-spacing is ‘Single’, and enter ‘16pt’ in the field labelled ‘after’. This is the amount of space to leave between paragraph blocks. Click ok.
E) Set your font to Times New Roman, size 12.
That’s it! Your references should be in good shape.
Bonus tip:
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. Thankfully this is pretty easy:
select a reference that you just formatted by dragging over it with your mouse
Go to Format -> Style
Now select ‘New’
The selection will default to the format of the text you have selected (your reference), which is correct. Name this something like ‘APA Reference’, ensuring ‘Add to Quick style list’ is also selected, and click ok.
Now you can select unformatted references and simply select the style from the Home Ribbon: How to bold text in indesign for a mac.
Enjoy.
APA Formatting Book
APA: The Easy Way
While not specific to writing APA papers in MS Word, this books is super clear and provides a great guideline to the APA style.
While I recommend 'The easy way', The official APA publication manual is also worth a buy.
WindowsMac
Sometimes, putting a border around text will work better in your document than inserting a text box or a one-cell table, to achieve a similar look.
![For For](https://www.techonthenet.com/word/formatting/images/indent2011_001.gif)
- Select a word, line, or paragraph.
- Go to Home > Borders, and then open the menu of border choices.
- Choose the type of border you want:
Customize the border
- After you’ve selected your text and found the basic type of border you’d like, open the Borders menu again, and choose Borders and Shading.
- Make your choices for style, color, and width, and then apply the choice with the buttons in the Preview section of the dialog box. When the preview is the way you want it, click OK.Note: Make sure that the Apply to box has the correct setting: Text or Paragraph.
See also
You can add a border to an individual word, a line of text, or an entire paragraph. You can make borders as plain or fancy as you want.
You can also add a border to a picture, put a border around a table, add a border to an individual page, or remove the text border altogether.
How To Merge Selected Text In Word
Add a border to selected text
- Select a word, line, or paragraph.
- On the Home tab, click the arrow next to the Borders button.
- In the Borders gallery, click the border style that you want to apply.
Customize the text border
- After you’ve selected your text and found the basic type of border you’d like, click the arrow next to the Borders button again, and then click Borders and Shading.
- In the Borders and Shading dialog box, change Setting, Style, Color, and Width to create the border style that you want.Note: To make sure the border style is correctly applied, set Apply to to Text or Paragraph. If you haven't selected any text, you can only set Apply to to Paragraph.
- Click OK to apply your selected border styles.
Double Space Selected Text In Word
Tip: You can also fill the area of your selected text with color. In the Borders and Shading dialog box, click Shading to select a color and patterns. The color you pick in the Fill list fills the rectangular area; the color you select from the Color menu is applied to the rectangular area in a pattern you select from the Style list.