Bibliography in MS Word

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W r i t i n g C e n t e r L e w i s & C l a r k C o l l e g e

DOING NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIESUSING MICROSOFT WORD

What follows are procedures (and advice) for creating notes and bibliographies using theMicrosoft Word program. The term note here is used for both footnotes and endnotes; thedistinction simply has to do with their placement. Footnotes are printed at the bottom of pagesof the paper; endnotes are printed on a separate page (or pages) at the end of the body of thepaper.

This handout does not cover matters of documentation style. That is, we do not talk about whatkind of information you must include in a note or bibliographic entry, nor do we cover howsuch information must be represented. The two classic documentation styles that use notes andbibliographies are the MLA and the Chicago Humanities styles. For information about theChicago style, see Susan M. Hubbuch's Writing Research Papers across the Curriculum,

Appendix B, or Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, andDissertations. For further information about the MLA style, see Hubbuch, Appendix A, or theMLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. All these texts are available in the WritingCenter; they are also on permanent reserve in the library.

FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES

CREATING FOOTNOTES OR ENDNOTES

1. Position the cursor where you want the note number in the paragraph.

2. In the Insert menu, choose Footnote.3. In the dialogue box choose footnotes if you want your notes to print at the bottom ofeach page, or endnotes if you want all notes to print at the end of your document.

4. Under Numbering, ALWAYS click on AutoNumber. You can cut and paste text, youcan add and delete notes, and Word will automatically keep track of your original notes,renumbering them and shifting them to the proper places.

5. Then click on the Options box. Click the appropriate tab for Endnotes or Footnotes.6. Under Number format, select the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3.7. If you have chosen Endnotes, in the Place at option select End of Section.8. Click OK in the Insert Footnote dialogue box to open the footnote window at the

bottom of the screen, and type your note text at the reference mark in the footnotewindow.

9. You can close the footnote window by clicking on Close at the top of the footnote

window, or you can leave the window open. If you choose to leave the window open,click in your paper text to continue your work.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND SOME WARNINGS

Be careful not to hit the enter key after you have typed the text of a note. Doing so willadd a line of space that can be difficult to remove. If you want a line of space betweennotes, you'll want to add the space by using formatting commands (see Formatting Notesbelow).


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Doing Notes and Bibliography 2

It would be wisest to type in all your notes first, maintaining the default format. Then if youwant to change the appearance of your notes, you can do that all at once (see FormattingNotes below).

To view your notes at any time, on the View menu select Footnotes. You can convert footnotes to endnotes (and vice-versa) easily.

Choose Footnotes from the Insert command. Choose Options. Click on Convert at the bottom of the box. Choose the conversion you want, then click

OK. In the other dialogue boxes, clickcancel (or else Word will create another note).

ADDING, DELETING, MOVING NOTES

Once you've chosen the AutoNumber option, you can add, delete, and move notes around andWord will automatically take care of renumbering them and moving the contents as required.This will be accomplished by working with the note numbers in the body of your paper.Unless you really want to screw up your notes badly, never attempt to make such changes in theFootnote Window.

To add a note, simply place your cursor where you want the note number to appear in thebody of your paper, and choose Footnote from the Insert menu. Then click OK (sinceyou will have already made your formatting choices).

To delete a note, highlight the note number in the body of your paper, and press the deletekey.

To move a note, highlight the note number in the body of your paper and use the cut andpaste commands. DON'T use the delete key; it will permanently remove the note contents.

EDITING NOTES

You may go into the Footnote Window at any time to make changes in the text of your notes.Such editing would include adding, deleting or moving words, italicizing titles, correcting

spelling and punctuation.

To open the Footnote Window:Double click on the footnote number of the note you wish to edit. Word opens theFootnote Window and takes you to that footnote.

(or)From the View menu, select Footnotes.

A couple of other procedures will making working in the Footnote Window easier.

To enlarge the Footnote Window: move your cursor into the right-hand scroll bar. Then move the arrow up to the very

top of the Footnote Window.

when the arrow turns into a symbol composed of two parallel lines with arrowspointing up and down, you can drag up and down the scroll bar, making the windowlarger or smaller.

To "blow up" the type in the Footnote Window so that text is easier to see: place your cursor in the opened Footnote Window; go to the Zoom Control box on the standard toolbar at the top of your screen (it will

currently read 100%). Pull down the arrow to 125% or 150%.


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FORMATTING NOTES

A few words about the format of notes: Footnotes and endnotes must be in the same font as the body of your text. Footnote format should not be changed from Word's default settings: 10 pt., single-

spaced, no space between notes. Endnotes would probably be more pleasing to the eye if they were set in 12 pt (whichshould be the size of type in the body of your paper). A line of space between notes

would probably also be appealing. Here's another academically-appropriate change you could consider making to the

appearance offootnotes or endnotes to make them easier to read. You could indentthe first line of the note, so they would look like this:

1. John Adams, Peru in Crisis: A Discussion of the Shining Path (SanFrancisco: Nonesuch Press, 2010), 43.

Or you could format them as hanging indent paragraphs so that the number of the notestands out, like this:

10. John Adams, Peru in Crisis: A Discussion of the Shining Path (San Francisco:Nonesuch Press, 2010), 43.

Any changes you make in the physical appearance of your notes is a formatting change.Formatting changes include changing font, font size, double-spacing notes, adding a line ofspace between notes, indenting the first line of notes, and the like. To prevent any possiblesnafus, you are going to make all such changes electronically--that is, you'll be using commandsin the Font and Paragraph sections of Word's Format menu.

If you decide to made any formatting changes in your notes:

1. Make the format symbols visible on your screen so that you can "see" the formattingthat you are doing. Go to the Standard Toolbar, click on the paragraph icon . This is atoggle switch, so you can turn it off simply by clicking on the icon again. The younow see on your screen indicate paragraphs. Commands in the Paragraph section ofthe Format menu affect the unit of text between two .

2. With your cursor in the opened Footnote Window, go to the Edit menu and chooseSelect All. This allows you to change all notes in one operation.

3. Go to the Format menu, and choose Font for changes in font style or size. ChooseParagraph for all other changes.

To indent the first line of notes:Click on Indents and Spacing; pull down the menu for Special under Indentation.Select First Line.

To turn notes into hanging indent paragraphs:Click on Indents and Spacing; pull down the menu for Special under Indentation.Select Hanging . You can adjust the amount of indentation so that the texts of yournotes align on the left. Hint: If your note numbers go into double-digits (10 andhigher), do your alignment in one of the double-digit notes. In notes 1-9, you'll have toadd a space after the note number with the space bar.

To add a line of space between notes that are single-spaced:


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Choose Indents and Spacing. In the Spacing section of this box, you will see boxesfor Before and After. In the After box, enter the size of the font of your notes (10 pts.or 12 pts.).

SOME SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT ENDNOTES

If you have chosen to do endnotes, there are a couple of other changes you'll need to make sothat your note page conforms to academic style.

1. When you've finished typing the body of your paper and all your notes, go to the end ofthe body of your paper. After the last paragraph of your paper, add a page break. Fromthe Insert menu, choose page break.

2. At the top of the new page, type the word Notes and center it, adding a line of space afterit.

3. Word automatically prints lines between the body of the paper and notes. You need toget rid of these lines. From the View menu, choose Footnotes.

4. At the top of the note window, drag the arrow down to Endnote Separator. A line

should show up in the note box. Highlight this line, and press the delete key. Thewindow should be empty.5. Get rid of the Endnote Continuation Separator by following the same operations

outlined in step #4.6. Close the Footnote Window, go to the last page of the body of your paper, and in the

View menu, choose Page Layout. Makesure that the separator lines are gone and thatthe notes are positioned under the Note heading on a separate page.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

TO CREATE A BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE

If you have footnotes:1. Highlight the paragraph mark immediately after the final paragraph of the body of

your paper and choose Page Break from the Insert menu.2. At the top of the new page, type Bibliography and center.

If you have endnotes:1. After the heading Notes at the end of your document, insert a section break. Go to

the Insert menu, choose Break; under section break select next page.2. At the top of the new page, type Bibliography and center.

TO FORMAT THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

The style for entries on your list is what is called a hanging indent, a paragraph in which thefirst line is flush with the left-hand margin, and subsequent lines are indented, in this case fivespaces. Here's what the hanging indent looks like:

Adams, John. Peru in Crisis: A Discussion of the Shining Path. San Francisco: NonesuchPress, 2010.


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1. Type in all entries in your bibliography in the style required by MLA or Chicago.HOWEVER, do NOT format these paragraphs, and don't add a line of space betweenthem. Just type in an entry, and press the return key at the end of the entry. If you like,Word will alphabetize the list for you (see below);

2. When you have typed in all entries, highlight all entries on the list;3. Go to the left-hand margin marker on your ruler. Grab the lower triangle (hanging

indent marker) and move it to the one-half-inch mark. The top triangle (first line indentmarker) should remain at the left-hand margin.4. If you want to double-space entries, make this selection in the Paragraph section of the

Format menu.5. If you want your bibliography entries to be single-spaced, but you want to add a line of

space between entries, go to Paragraph in the Format menu. In the Spacing section ofthis box, type 12 pt. in the After box.

TO ALPHABETIZE YOUR LIST

Bibliographies are set up in alphabetical order according to the last name of authors. Once youhave formatted entries in your list as hanging indents, Word will alphabetize your list for you.After you have typed all the entries on your bibliography, highlight the complete list. Go to the

Table menu, and choose Sort. In the first Sort by line, Paragraphs, Texts, and Ascendingshould be selected. Click on OK. There will be cases where Word's sorting will not conform todocumentation style guidelines. After Word has done its sort, double-check the list to make allentries are where they are supposed to be, and make any changes necessary.

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Bibliography in MS Word