Setting MS Word Defaults for APA 7 Guidelines
Font:
APA recommends a consistent font throughout your paper. Recommended fonts include:
-
a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode
- serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal 10-point Computer Modern
APA 6 recommended 12-point Times New Roman as a preferred font, and Walden University followed this recommendation as a requirement for course papers and doctoral capstone studies.
Step 1:
Use the dialogue box launcher icon 
in the Font section of the Home ribbon to open the Font settings.
Step 2:
Select Times New Roman as the font, and 12pt as the Font Size. Then click "Set as Default."
Step 3:
Select "All documents based on the Normal template" to set your font to Times New Roman, 12 pt. All new documents you create will have Times New Roman, 12pt font set as the default.
Line and Paragraph Spacing
APA guidelines are to double-space all text, including the reference list and block quotes.
Step 1:
Open the Line and Paragraph Spacing settings by clicking on the dialogue box launcher icon in the Paragraph section of the Home Ribbon.
You can also right-click in your document and select "Line and Paragraph Spacing"
Step 2:
In the "Spacing" area of Indents and Spacing, select 0 pt for Before and After (this will remove the default "spacing after paragraph), and select "Double" for line spacing. Then click "Set as Default."
Step 3:
Select "All documents based on the Normal template" to set your paragraph spacing to 0pt and line spacing to double. All new documents you create will have these spacing options automatically.
Download these instructions as a PDF:
Setting MS Word (2016) Defaults for APA 7 Guidelines (PDF)
Office 365/MS Word 2016
Walden students have access to both Office 365 and the desktop version, MS Word 2016. Office 365 does not offer the full functionality of MS Word so we recommend students use the desktop version of MS Word (Word 2016). The Customer Care Team offers Technology Support for Office 365 and instructions for downloading Office 2016 to your computer.
For more on general APA 7 Guidelines for paper formatting review the Writing Center's APA Guidelines: Overview
For more help:
- In addition, the Writing Center provides Walden Templates that are pre-formatted for you.
- If you are having issues formatting the coursework template, or for any other MS Word questions, Ask OASIS.
- If you are having issues formatting the doctoral capstone template, email [email protected].