How to Use APA Format in Google Docs

Being a state-of-the-art editor, Google Docs provides multiple writing formats to write the content. Each format has pre-defined standards used in multiple fields, i.e., academia and business. An APA format is a style for writing research papers, a thesis, or business documents. Therefore, the purpose of this guide is to demonstrate the APA format and its implementation in Google Docs.

The content is listed below:

Let’s start this guide!

How to Use APA Format in Google Docs?

Google Docs provides the built-in templates of APA format documents for user ease. One of them, the APA format, is famous for writing academic documents by following the standard rules. In this document, the user adds content according to their needs and finalizes it. 

The step-by-step guidelines are described here to access the APA format in Google Docs.

Step 1: Open the Google Docs

Firstly, select the “Docs” icon in the browser by pressing the dots located at the top right of the screen:

Step 2: Open Google Docs Settings

For accessing the Google Docs setting, hit the three-bar icon that can be seen at the top left of the screenshot:

By pressing three-bar icon, select the “Settings” option in the dropdown list:

Step 3: Enable the Display of Recent Fonts

It navigates to the “Settings” window where the user can mark the checkbox by accessing the built-in templates of Google Docs on the home screen. After that, press the “OK” button:

Step 4: Access APA Format

To access the APA format document, follow the below-mentioned steps:

  • First, type “CTRL+F” to enable the search box and search the “APA” in the search box.
  • Pick the template of the APA format on the home screen.

Finally, the APA format on Google Docs is ready to use. Now, users can paste their content in this format:

How to Manually Use APA Format in Google Docs?

In the first method, the APA format is applied from the “Template” gallery of Google Docs. In this method, we have provided detailed guidelines to add an APA format to any document (or an empty document).

  • Margin: 1-inch margins from left, right, top, and bottom sides.
  • Paragraph Spaces: double-spaced lines.
  • Font: Time New Roman (12-points), Calibri (11-point), Arial (11-point).
  • Header: It refers to the paper title on the Top left of the paper.
  • Page Numbering: Located at the top right of the page.
  • Title Page: It contains the Name, paper title (bold), and affiliation (center align).
  • Reference Page: It refers to the document’s citation in alphabetic order and with one hanging indent.

That’s all from this informative guide!

Conclusion

In Google Docs, users can access the APA format from the template gallery, or they can apply the provided settings to a specific document. The APA format contains a title page, body, and reference page with a specific style. It can be accessible from built-in templates Google Docs on the home screen. Moreover, users can meet the APA format requirements in an empty document by following the standard rules. This article has explained the step-by-step guidelines for accessing and using APA format on Google Docs.