In this short video, you will learn how to quickly and properly format a bibliography page for your paper using Microsoft Word.
Whether you are building an annotated bibliography or putting together a works cited page at the end of a paper, it is important to know how to properly format bibliographic entries.
To set up formatting for your bibliography, you need to utilize what is called a hanging indent. To set up a blank page, find the Paragraph section on the Home ribbon and select the arrow on the lower right-hand corner for Paragraph Settings.
In the Indents and Spacing tab, find the Special drop-down menu and select Hanging. In the Spacing section, make sure that the Before and After fields are both set to 0. For line spacing, select Double. After making these selections, click OK.
Now you are ready to start entering the citation information. If, for example, you are copying and pasting automatically generated citations from a database or ZoteroBib, select the Merge Formatting option when you paste to make sure the citation follows the hanging indent formatting you just set up.
If you have already entered citation information and need to change the entries to a hanging indent, just highlight the entries, right click on your mouse, and select Paragraph from the menu.
Just like when pre-formatting your page, find the “Special” drop down menu in the Indents and Spacing tab and select “Hanging”. In the Spacing section, make sure that the Before and After fields are both set to 0. And for line spacing, select Double. After making these selections, click OK, and your entries now have a hanging indent. (See image of the Paragraph dialog box above.)
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at the library!
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