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How to format APA page numbers

In an APA style paper, page numbers generally appear in three places:

• On every page in the upper right corner (pagination for the paper)
• APA in-text citations
• The reference list

Let’s review all three.

1. Pagination for the paper

Every page written in APA style needs to have the page number listed at the top right corner of the paper . It also needs to appear on every page. It should also appear on the title page of the paper, as well as every page of the appendices, footnotes, and other supplemental sections.

The page number should be in the same font and size as the rest of your paper. APA provides different font point sizes depending on the font. For example, 12-point for Times New Roman or 11-point for Arial.

To summarize, your APA page number needs to be:

• At the top of every page (including the title page, body, appendices, etc.)
• Placed in the header
• Flush against the right margin
• In the same font and size as the rest of your paper

It’s recommended that you use autogenerated page numbers in the “header” section of your paper. These features are available in most popular word processors.

2. In-text citations

APA style, page number are recommended (but optional) for paraphrasing, and required for direct quotations from sources with page numbers. When citing a website in APA , or other sources without page numbers, you can use paragraph numbers to mark the quote’s location instead.

In-text citation structure and example for one page:

Text (Author Last Name, Year Published, p. #)

“And in our heart—strange are the ways of evil!—in our heart there is the first peace we have known in twenty years.” (Rand, 2019, p. 32)

In-text citation structure and example for a page range:

Text (Author Last Name, Year Published, pp. #-#)

“It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them” (Rand, 2019, pp. 12-13)

Reference list entry for both examples:

Rand, A. (2019). Anthem . Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1250 (Original work published in 1938)

Notice that unlike the in-text citations, the example reference list entry does NOT include page numbers. Whether a reference includes page numbers is not dependent on the in-text citation; it depends on the source type.

3. Reference list

Page numbers are only included in reference list entries when the following happens:

• The source has page numbers.
• The cited source is a smaller, complete work within a bigger work.

Common example sources:

• A journal article (smaller work) from a journal (bigger work)
• A newspaper article (smaller work) that was printed in a newspaper (bigger work)
• A magazine article (smaller work) in a printed magazine (bigger work)
• A chapter (smaller work) in an edited book (bigger work) where each chapter has a different author

Periodical/Article page numbers

Articles in periodicals (e.g., journals, newspapers, magazines, etc.) include page numbers in their references. The page number or page number range are formatted as the following:

Template and examples:

Notice that unlike in-text citations, there is no “p.” or “pp.” preceding the page numbers.

Example reference (journal article):

Gunn, R., Whear, R., & Douglas, L. (2012, June). A second recent canine burial from the Arnhem Land Plateau. Australian Archaeology , (74), 103-105. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23621527

Chapter in an edited book page numbers

Similar to in-text citations, page numbers are indicated by “p. #” or “pp. #-#” in the reference.

Example reference (chapter in an edited book):

Lisi, G. (2012). Uncalculated risk. In J. Brockman (Ed.), This will make you smarter (pp. 68-73). Harper Perennial.

Published October 28, 2020.

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

You need not include page numbers in in-text citations unless you want to cite a particular page or page ranges of the source being cited. In such cases, you need to include the page information after the publication year.

If you want to cite a direct quotation, you do need to include the page information. To indicate you are quoting directly from a single page, use the abbreviation “p.” To indicate you are quoting from a continuous page range, use the abbreviation “pp.” and use an en dash between the page range (e.g., pp. 1-2). If the pages are discontinuous, use “pp.” but separate the page numbers with a comma, not an en dash (e.g., pp. 1, 3).

Below are examples of how to include page numbers in in-text citations when using direct quotations:

Narrative:        

Jones (1999) states, “It is important to study all children” (p. 47).

Neer et al. (2014) agree with his argument that “the behavior of working women changes drastically” (pp. 47, 49).

Blake and Garger (2002) assert “Humans fight for rights” (pp. 32–34).

Parenthetical:

The study performed in Alaska showed that “it is important to study all children” (Jones, 1999, p. 47).

According to the study, “The behavior of working women changes drastically” (Neer et al., 2014, pp. 47, 49).

“Humans fight for rights,” says the study (Blake & Garger, 2002, pp. 32–34).

The abbreviation “p.” refers to a single page, and “pp.” denotes multiple pages. When you want to cite a single page, use “p.” You can use “pp.” if you want to include a page range (e.g., pp. 45–57) or multiple pages that are not in a range (e.g., pp. 37, 39).

APA Citation Examples

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Honors Guidelines: Page Numbering/Thesis Organization

• General Submission Guidelines/Approvals
• Page Numbering/Thesis Organization
• Support and Questions

Page Numbering Tips

There is no prescribed page numbering style for all honors project. We only ask that you do not print the page number on the title page.    The easiest way to format page numbers for different sections, for example using roman and arabic numbers, is to create section breaks in your document. Instructions for Word users.   . If you have difficulty with the page numbering appearing as would like, please do not hesitate to con tact us for help .

You may use the formatting style recommended by your discipline's style manual, or whatever style is acceptable to your advisor and department .  (For a list of print & online style manuals, see Style and Citation Guides, by Title or Subject .)  

You may also wish to view theses submitted by others in your department in previous years to get some ideas for formatting.

Below is an example of the order of pages, and the Roman or Arabic page numbering, as recommended in one of the style guides, Turabian’s  A Manual for Writers of Research papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 8 th  ed. 

Not every thesis will contain all the parts listed below:

1.    Front Matter (preliminary pages):  use lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.) in this order:

Title Page (required):  counts as page i, but  the number is not printed on the page .  Title Page is  not  listed in the Table of Contents.

Dedication; Epigraph  (both optional): these count in sequence of Roman numerals, but the number is not printed on the page.  These are  not  listed in the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents (required for all papers divided into chapters; recommended for all)  Your Table of Contents would list all items shown below, IF your thesis includes them. (See  Chicago Manual of Style  for more about Tables of Content )

List of Figures, Tables, or Illustrations  (optional, but recommended if appropriate): should be listed in Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations or Glossary; Abstract  (all optional):  should be listed in Table of Contents

2.     Text:  includes everything between the front matter and the back matter; begins a new numbering sequence, using         Arabic numerals.   (Introduction, chapters and/or major sections typically are listed in the Table of Contents.)

Introduction  (optional): if included, this is page 1.

Chapters or Sections :  if no Introduction, Chapter 1 would be page 1.  Begin each new chapter on a new page.  Continue sequence of Arabic numbering.

 3.     Back Matter: continues numbering with Arabic numerals.   (List these parts in the Table of Contents.)

Illustrations  (optional)

Appendixes  (optional): this is where you could put black & white copies of color images from the body of the text.

Endnotes, Bibliography, or Reference List  (required in most papers): One of these lists will be the final section of the paper.

If you have difficulty with the page numbering appearing as would like, please do not hesitate to con tact us for help.

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• Last Updated: Mar 8, 2024 11:23 AM
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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Microsoft Word for Dissertations

• Page Numbers
• Introduction, Template, & Resources
• Formatting for All Readers
• Applying a Style
• Modifying a Style
• Setting up a Heading 1 Example
• Images, Charts, Other Objects
• Footnotes, Endnotes, & Citations
• Cross-References
• Appendix Figures & Tables
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures/Tables
• Chapter and Section Numbering
• Landscape Pages
• Combining Chapter Files
• Commenting and Reviewing
• The Two-inch Top Margin
• Troubleshooting
• Finalizing Without Styles
• Preparing Your Final Document

Page Contents

If you're having problems with page numbers restarting at 1 for some chapters, see our Troubleshooting section .

This page will inform you about page numbers, including:

• Adding page numbers general information
• Using sections to control page numbering
• Breaking the connection between sections
• Adding the page numbers

Adding Page Numbers

Again, please remember that our template (available on the Main Page of this Guide ) has all of this already built in.

Page Numbers are placed in the footer of your document, which is a shared space among all your pages. Anything you put in the footer will appear on all pages of your document, though you can also control the style or number scheme with the use of Sections. This is how we get small Roman numerals in the front matter, and Arabic numerals in the rest of the document, for example.

You edit the headers and footers by double clicking in the space in which they appear on the document. When you are finished editing, you can get back to the rest of your document by clicking the  Close Header and Footer button in the  Header Design  Ribbon.

Microsoft Word provides you with the option of selecting a numbering style (e.g. “Roman Numeral”, “Arabic”) and gives you the option of selecting the “starting at” number.  You can set the page numbers for your entire document, or if you need more control, you can do it section-by-section as well.

If you want continuous pagination that is all in the same format, go to the Insert Ribbon, and in the Header & Footer Group , click on the Page Number icon. Choose the appropriate placement of the number and a style.

If you are writing a Rackham dissertation, you have somewhat more complicated pagination. For example, Rackham’s guidelines require that the page numbers begin on the third or fourth page of your document (depending on if you include a graphical frontispiece) and the page number on that page should be Roman numeral “ii”. Page numbering should continue on in Roman numerals until the first page of Chapter 1 is reached.  At that point, the numbering should restart in Arabic (“1, 2, 3…”). Rackham requires that all of your page numbers be placed at the bottom center of your pages.

View this video  (despite the Word 2010 references, it's still accurate), or read below on how to achieve this.

Step 1: Using Sections to Control Page Numbering

Using Sections to Control Page Numbering

The following instructions demonstrate numbering a dissertation document according to Rackham’s guidelines.  These steps assume you are including a title page, a copyright page, dedication and acknowledgements and other front matter, and then the body of your dissertation.

• Put your cursor before the first letter of “Dedication” or whatever is the first thing that comes after your copyright page.
• On the Page Layout Ribbon, in the Page Setup Group , click on the arrow next to the Breaks icon () and select Next Page under the Section Breaks section.
• If you turn on the paragraph markers, you should now see a section break on the previous page.
• Put your cursor before the first letter of your first chapter and repeat steps 2 and 3.

You have just separated your dissertation into sections. If you want to see what section you are working in, on the left end of Status Bar (at the bottom of your Word document), Word tells you what page you are on, how many words are in your document, which section you are in, and so on.

If you don’t see the section information, right-click on the Status Bar, and select Section in the menu that appears.

Step 2: Breaking the Connection Between Sections

Breaking the Connection Between Sections

By default, the headers and footers of each section are connected to those of the sections before and after it.  Therefore, if you want different page number styles to vary from one section to the next (such as Roman or Arabic), you’ll need to break the connection between the sections. Particularly with landscaped pages, it is often helpful to break the connection in the header as well as in the footer.

• Put your cursor on the first page that needs the Roman numeral.
• On the Insert Ribbon, in the Header & Footer Group , click on the arrow under the Footer icon and select Edit Footer .
• You should now be in the footer of that page; in the Header & Footer Tools Design Ribbon , in the Navigation Group , unlink this section’s footer from previous sections’ footer by clicking the highlighted Link to Previous icon.
• Put your cursor in the header area, and again click the highlighted Link to Previous icon.
• Scroll down to the first page of the body of your dissertation (the chapters), make sure your cursor is in the footer, and click the highlighted Link to Previous icon again.

You have now successfully unlinked footers of these sections. Any page numbers you put in the body of your document will not affect the page numbering of your front matter, and vice versa.

Step 3: Adding the Page Numbers

Adding the Page Numbers

• Scroll up to the section that contains your front matter and click in the footer of any page (don’t do anything for your title page and other pages that don’t require a page number).
• On the Insert Ribbon, in the Header & Footer Group , click on the arrow next to the Page Number icon and select the positioning you’d like.  Generally, Bottom of the Page is the choice, and either Plain Number 2 (centered) or Plain Number 3 (right aligned).
• To change to Roman Numerals, on the Insert Ribbon, in the Header & Footer Group , click on the arrow next to the Page Number icon and select Format Page Numbers… to set the “start at” number and the style of numbering.
• Scroll down to the first page of the next section (where your chapters start) and click in the footer.

Q. How do I format the headers, title, and page numbers for my research paper in APA style using Microsoft Word?

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Answered By: Jeffrey Orrico Last Updated: Jan 24, 2019     Views: 126312

Use Microsoft Word's automatic Header and Page Number functions rather than inserting them into the text of your paper manually. 

To create Flush Left first page running head and page number:

• On your title page, the Header is in the form "Running Head: SHORT TITLE OF PAPER". Click on the "Insert" tab in the ribbon at the top of the Word program, then choose the Header tool.
• Choose the "Blank" style from the drop-down menu.
• Check the box labeled "Different First Page."
• In the Header space, type your first page style header "Running Head: SHORT TITLE OF PAPER"
• Move cursor to the end of your title. Then, with the Design Tools displayed, click the "Insert Alignment Tab"  and select the Alignment option "Right." Click OK.​
• Click on the Quick Parts tool and click on Field in the menu.
• In the Field pop-up menu, scroll down to Page and click on that.
• In Field Properties: Format, choose the page number style [1, 2, 3, ...] and click OK.

To create Flush Left running head and page numbers the following pages:

• Scroll down to the second page to repeat process for the rest of your paper.
• Click in header area above line; if line is not visible, double-click in space at top of page to activate header space.
• Enter SHORT TITLE at left. While the Header area is active, mover your cursor to the end of your title. Then, with the Design Tools displayed, click "Insert Alignment Tab" and select the Alignment option "Right." Use Quick Parts tool to create page numbers (will automatically start at “2”).

To start page numbering after title page: 

• In first page header area, delete page number; the second page will still be numbered "2".
• To start numbering on second page with number "1", click on the Insert tab, in the Headers & Footers group, click Page Number, and then click Format Page Numbers.
• In the Page Number Format pop-up box, choose "Start at 0" and click OK. You can also change the style of the page numbers from this menu.

See the attached file for screenshots of the process.

If you have any more questions, feel free to contact us at the reference desk!

For more information about formatting papers in APA style, consult the APA Manual. A copy is located behind the reference desk.

The preferred font in APA is Times New Roman with 12-pt font size. Double-space between all text lines of the paper/manuscript. Leave margins at least 1 inch all around and on each page. Do not justify lines. 

The APA rules for "running heads" are on pages 229-230 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (§8.03):

• a maximum of 50 characters, counting letters, punctuation, and spaces between words;
• flush left;
• all uppercase letters;
• at the top of the title page and all subsequent pages;
• do not use your name to identify each page

You can find the requirements for the Title and Byline in §§ 2.01 and 2.02 (pp. 22-23) of the APA manual. In general, the title should summarize the main idea of the paper and, if possible, with style. It should be a concise statement of the main topic.

The text formatting is detailed in §8.03; examples of a formatted manuscript are shown on pp. 41-59.

Links & Files

• Formatting papers in APA style.pdf
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Comments (8)

• I've got the 1st page numbered as 0 and my Header is established. Now how do I get out of it to start typing my docement? Also the font and size keeps changing from Times Roman 12 . Please help. by Ann Newton on Oct 06, 2015
• It sounds like you are in the special "Headers & Footers" tool bar. Click on the big X at the right end of the tool bar to close it. Then you will be able to edit your primary text, print, etc., as a regular Word doc. The typeface for headers, footers, footnotes, etc. it normally smaller than the one used in the main body of the paper. You want the number to start at 1 on the second page, with no number on the first page. Click on the HELP ? symbol (top left of screen) and search "start page numbering on page 2". The Help window gives a good step-by-step for making this change. Call the Reference Desk if you'd like more help (203-371-7726). by Barbara Hampton on Oct 06, 2015
• I have tried to number my research proprosal with different formats but I failed, what can I do? Roman numerals & numberings by Henry Am on Jan 02, 2016
• See second PowerPoint which shows the location of page number formatting tools. by Barbara Hampton on Jan 02, 2016
• How many times can I say "THANK YOU". One hundred times is not enough, THANK YOU. I have been wrestling with this for weeks and just could not get it right. Thank you. by Clyn on Jan 19, 2017
• This was incredibly useful even though I have the newest WORD version. You saved the day on my PhD dissertation. Love it! Love it!!! Keep up the good work. Thanks for all you do and blessings always. Joycelyne by Joycelyne on Jan 13, 2018
• According to the APA Manual, 6th edition, the title page is page number 1. If you have the APA manual you can research this fact on page 229. The exact quote from the manual is "Identify the title page with the page number 1. The remaining pages should be numbered consecutively" Hope this helps everyone. by APA Researcher on Jan 15, 2019
• I want to give different page formats but I could not? by Gadissa Terecha on Apr 27, 2022

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