Following MLA style in Microsoft Word can be challenging, especially in Word 2010. Many of the features new to that version interfere and contradict MLA style.

This style guide explains the major considerations, and how to format for them in Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010. Your professor may have more specific requirements, so remember to double check with special style requirements.

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

MLA Style Resources

The MLA Style Manual and Guide for Scholarly Publishing is published by the Modern Language Association of America.

You can buy the book at MLA.org

MLA Style Template from Microsoft

Word Training

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The Word 2007-2010 default Paragraph settings need to be formatted to MLA style standards. This includes reducing the spacing after a paragraph to zero, and changing line spacing to double spaced.

Both paragraph formatting and line spacing are controlled in the same window.

From the Home Tab in the Paragraph section

1. Click the Paragraph Dialog box launcher. This will open the Paragraph dialog box.
2. In the Spacing section, change the After: to 0 pt.
3. In the Line spacing: section use the drop-down menu to select Double.

Note: to permanently change the formatting to Spacing After 0 pt and Line spacing: Double for all future documents:

1. Select the Set As Default button in the lower right corner.
2. In the Microsoft Word dialog box, click All documents based on the Normal template? This will set the formatting for all future Microsoft Word documents to the paragraph settings you defined.
3. Click OK

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

The default page margin setting for Microsoft Word 2007-2010 need to be adjusted for an MLA formatted paper.

To format document margins to MLA style standards:

Click the Page Layout Tab and in the Page Setup section, click the dialog box launcher.

In the Page Setup dialog box in the Margins section apply the following settings:

Note: to permanently change the settings to 1" Top, Bottom, Left, and Right margins:

1. Select the Set As Default button in the lower right corner.
2. In the Microsoft Word dialog box, the question will appear, Do you want to change the default settings for page setup?
3. Click Yes

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

MLA Formatting requires indenting the first line of a paragraph one half-inch. The Microsoft Word First Line Indent feature will apply this MLA formatting automatically throughout your document.

To set First Line Indent to MLA standards:

1. Select all your text by pressing Ctrl + a.
2. From the Home Tab in the Paragraph section, Click the Paragraph Dialog box launcher. This will open the Paragraph dialog box.
3. In the Special: section click the drop down arrow next to (none) and select First line.
4. In the By: section change the number to 0.5".
   This will automatically indent the first line of every paragraph one half-inch for the entire document.
5. Click OK.

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

MLA Style require you to create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. Your instructor may ask also ask that you omit the number on your first page.

To create a Header in Microsoft Word following MLA style:

1. From the Insert Tab, in the Header & Footer group, click the down arrow below Header.
2. From the drop down menu select Edit Header. This will open the Header & Footer Tools Design Tab
   Note: You can also open the Header by double clicking in the Top Margin area.
3. Press the Tab key twice to right align your Heading
4. Type in your name and press the space bar
5. In the Header & Footer Group, click the down arrow next to Page Number. Move down to select Current Position.
6. Select the first option, Plain Number.
7. To change the header on the first page, in the Options group, check Different First Page
8. Click Close Header and Footer

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

The 2007-2010 default font setting for Microsoft Word is Calibri 11 . MLA style requires Times New Roman 12. To format font in Word to match MLA style requirements:

From the Home Tab in the Font section

1. Click the Font Dialog box launcher. This will open the Font dialog box
2. In the Font: drop down menu scroll to select Times New Roman.
3. In the Size: drop down menu, scroll to select 12.

Note: to permanently change the setting to Times New Roman 12pt for all future documents:

1. Select the Set As Default button in the lower right corner.
2. In the Microsoft Word dialog box, click All documents based on the Normal template? This will set the formatting for all future Microsoft Word documents to Times New Roman 12.
3. Click OK

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

With Microsoft Word, inserting endnotes to meet MLA standards is fairly simple.

To insert MLA Endnotes in Word:

1. Position the curser next to the text to be annotated.
2. Select the References Tab and in the Footnotes group click Insert Endnote
3. The curser will move to the end of the document where you can type in the information needed.
   Note: You can adjust the font by selecting the text and clicking the Grow Font button.
   


4. Click above the notes section and type "Notes" to title the page.
5. Position the curser above the "Notes" title and press Ctrl + Enter to insert a page break above the notes list. This will move your annotations to a second page.

MLA Style Topics

• Formatting font style and size
• Line and paragraph spacing
• Formatting document margins
• Endnotes
• Headers and page numbering
• Indenting in Word

Word Training

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced

Microsoft Word has a feature to quickly reformat similar text. For example, if you've decided that your headings should be green instead of blue, you can make that change for the entire documents with just a couple of clicks.

1. Select an example of the text with the formatting that you want to change. In this case, I'll choose "This is a heading" which is blue and larger than the body text.

2. Under the Home tab in the Editing group on the right, choose Select, then Select Text with Similar Formatting.

3. Then use the text formatting tools in the Font group of the Home tab to make your changes. The changes will be updated throughout the document.

Word Training in Denver

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Placing photos in Word can be notoriously difficult. One trick is to use tables to position images.

How to insert a photo into a table:

1. From the Insert Tab, in the Tables group, create a one column, one row table.

2. Click in the first row of the table.
3. From the Insert Tab, in the Illustrations group click Picture and select the image to be inserted.
4. Resize the image.
5. Resize the Table to fit the image.
6. Right click on the table and select Table Properties.
7. In the Table Properties dialog box select the Text wrapping Around.

8. Click on the Positioning button.
9. The Table Positioning dialog box will open. You can then determine exactly where you want the table with the image to be located on the page.

Word Training in Denver

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In Word 2007 and Word 2010, the spaces between paragraphs were taller than the spaces between each line within a paragraph. This looks more familiar to a web-native user as browsers usually handle text in a very similar way.

In some cases, however, a user might want to switch back to regular spacing because of a necessary style or preference.

Changing paragraph spacing in Word

Select the text with the paragraph spacing you want to change, or select the entire document with Control + A. Under the Home tab, click on Change Styles in the Styles group and choose Paragraph Spacing.

Hover over each style to preview the change. No Paragraph Space was the default in Word 2003.