APA 7th Edition in MS Word

Question

Moderator's Note: You may want to use the updated version posted in this thread.

I am writing this post because I am currently a Doctoral student and have figured out how to modify MS Word to include APA 7th formatting.  I am only providing this file and the necessary location for it for education purposes.  If any installations of MS Office are corrupted as a result of using this file, I am not responsible to address or repair any issues. 

That being said, I have been using this on my Office 2016 installation for just over a year.  It is not complete, but is a start.  I mostly use Journal Articles as references, but I am working on getting the rest of the common publication types up to the APA 7th standard.  I also recommend that students and professionals use the APA 7th Ed. Publication Guide to check their work for accuracy before submitting for grading.

The following file will need to be placed in this location: C:\Users<your_login_name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography\Style

File URL: APASeventhEd.xsl 

Once it is placed in the folder, restart MS Word and the style selection under the References tab should show APA7. I cannot verify this functionality for any other versions of Word.  Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions and I can help where possible. I know there are many students out there struggling because MS Word is behind on this standard.

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Moderator's Note: This should be fixed by Microsoft, but nothing written here or on other forums is even seen by the people who can fix it. Use the feedback mechanisms to let them know that this is a problem, even if you can work around it. See https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/giving-feedback-on-microsoft-word-or-other/8df81a9b-84aa-46ef-bf88-24fb7fec96ba.

Answer 1

Microsoft should be paying this man!

Although I know how to reference my work manually, it is more of a quality of life feature that is simply a must-have - especially since Office 365 is subscription-based.

Answer 2

I notice that this citation style still uses an ellipsis when displaying a source with 6 or more authors (as in APA6) rather than using an ellipsis only when there are 20 or more authors (as in APA7). 

For example, a citation with 19 authors gives:

test, a., test, b., test, c., test, d., test, e., test, f., . . . test, s. (2021, April 4). Test Article Title. Test Journal Name, 1(5), 1-5. https://doi.org/not-real-doi

...Instead of:

test, a., test, b., test, c., test, d., test, e., test, f., test, g., test, h., test, i., test, j., test, k., test, l., test, m., test, n., test, o., test, p., test, q., test, r., test, s. (2021, April 4). Test Article Title. Test Journal Name, 1(5), 1-5. https://doi.org/not-real-doi

Is this something that can be changed?

Open the file in Notepad (right click the file - open with... Notepad)

Look for this line of code

<xsl:variable name="maxBibAuthors" select="7"/>

Replace 7 with 21, save the add-on file in Notepad, then reopen your document and update your citations/bibliography

Answer 3

I have posted in the moderators forum asking that others who use APA 7th take a look at your file and perhaps suggest improvements. That does not mean this will happen.

(As a lawyer, I use the Harvard Blue Book, not APA.)

Answer 4

I notice that this citation style still uses an ellipsis when displaying a source with 6 or more authors (as in APA6) rather than using an ellipsis only when there are 20 or more authors (as in APA7). 

For example, a citation with 19 authors gives:

test, a., test, b., test, c., test, d., test, e., test, f., . . . test, s. (2021, April 4). Test Article Title. Test Journal Name, 1(5), 1-5. https://doi.org/not-real-doi

...Instead of:

test, a., test, b., test, c., test, d., test, e., test, f., test, g., test, h., test, i., test, j., test, k., test, l., test, m., test, n., test, o., test, p., test, q., test, r., test, s. (2021, April 4). Test Article Title. Test Journal Name, 1(5), 1-5. https://doi.org/not-real-doi

Is this something that can be changed?

Answer 5

It worked fine for me! Thanks Mike!