Q: I am required to use APA style for a paper I am submitting. What is the easiest way to place a short title and the page number in the upper right corner of each page?
A: The use of headers and footers in Microsoft Word can really improve your efficiency when formatting research papers, books or lengthy documents with specific style requirements. With a few clicks, MS Word allows you to insert text fields (called AutoText) and Word will automatically keep these fields up-to-date.
For this particular situation, decide on a short title and also use this as your filename. Now you can use the AutoText feature of Word to add the short title (file name) and page numbers to the header.
Step 1. Choose View from the menu bar, then highlight and select Header and Footer.
Step 2. By default your cursor will be flashing in the header of the page.
Step 3. Click Insert AutoText on the Header and Footer toolbar. Select Filename from the dropdown menu. (Be sure that your file name is the same as your short title.)
Step 4. Insert a space using the space bar then click the Insert Page Number icon.
Step 5. Right justify your AutoText fields by clicking the Align Right icon in the Formatting toolbar.
On other occasions you may be required to use a different header or suppress the header on your first page.
Step 1. Choose View from the menu bar, then highlight and select Header and Footer. The Header and Footer toolbar will appear.
For Windows:
Step 2. Click on the Page Setup
icon.
Step 3. Click on the Different First Page checkbox then click the OK button.
For Macintosh:
Step 2. Click on the Different First Page icon on the toolbar.
View the first page and you will notice that header or footer text has been removed. Add alternate text to the first page if necessary.
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