Microsoft Word APA Formatting Issue

Question

I have an issue when using the in-build citation & reference of Word. For some reason, when using APA 6th, the date format is (Day Month, Year) instead of the correct APA 6th of (Year, Month Day). My friends and family have no issue regarding this. I have also tried changing my Windows Time & Language, region format but I cannot seem to find what is causing this formatting issue.

Answer 1

Hello @Efrem Lim

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Community! 

Thank you for contacting us and for sharing the screenshot.  

I understand that Word’s built‑in APA 6th style is formatting bibliography dates as “Day Month, Year” rather than the APA‑compliant “Year, Month Day.” This behavior typically occurs when Word applies a regional date pattern from the Office authoring language or from a cached bibliography file, rather than the formatting embedded in the APA 6th style.  To resolve the issue, kindly follow these steps: 

Step 1. Confirm and set Office authoring language to English United States 

This setting is inside Word and is independent of Windows Region. 

1. Open Word. 
2. Select File, Options, Language. 
3. Under Office authoring languages and proofing, set English United States as Default. 
   1. Move any other authoring languages below English United States or remove them temporarily. 
4. Close all Office applications and reopen Word. 
5. Insert a test citation and regenerate the bibliography. 

Step 2. Refresh the bibliography fields 

1. Click anywhere inside the Bibliography or References list in the document. 
2. Press F9 to update the field. Alternatively, right click and choose Update Field. 
3. If you maintain sources through Manage Sources, confirm the Date is entered as a proper date using the dedicated fields, not as free text with embedded commas. 

Step 3. Clear Word’s local bibliography cache 

This resets the local sources cache without removing citations embedded in existing documents. 

1. Close Word. 
2. In File Explorer, paste the following path into the address bar and press Enter: %appdata%\Microsoft\Bibliography 
3. Delete Sources.xml. 
4. Reopen Word, insert a new citation, and regenerate the bibliography. 

Step 4. Toggle the citation style to force a style reload 

1. In the References tab, change Style to APA 7th. 
2. Update the bibliography. 
3. Switch back to APA 6th. 
4. Insert a new citation and verify the date formatting. 

Step 5. Repair Office to refresh style files 

1. Open Control Panel, Programs, Programs and Features. 
2. Select your Microsoft 365 or Office installation, then choose Change. 
3. Run Quick Repair. 
4. If the behavior persists, run Online Repair. This per forms a deeper reset of Office components, including bibliography style files. 

For reference: Repair an Office application - Microsoft Support 

Then, kindly perform a test and let me know the result: 

1. Validate source records  Go to References, Manage Sources. Select the affected source and choose Edit. Confirm that Year, Month, and Day are in the correct fields. Avoid typed commas or free text in the Date fields. 
2. Update all fields in the document  Press Control A to select all content, then press F9 to update fields across the document. 
3. Test in a new blank document  Create a new document, insert a new citation and bibliography, and verify the format there. If the new file is correct, the original document may carry embedded locale metadata. In that case, copy your content into a new file and rebuild the bibliography. 

I look forward to your updates. 

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Answer 2

Thank you for the help! Although the solution does not work on older documents. New documents will have the correct format for APA 7th edition.

No! They will have the format for APA 6th edition! That is all that comes with Word.

You can get the file provided by another user.

The bibliography file has been done for APA 7th and is available for free download. https://github.com/briankavanaugh/APA-7th-Edition I and many other users have used this in the years since it was first put out there.