Tutorial - Running Headers in MS-Word

Apologies for no regular blog posts this week!  I started a new job as a tutor at a vocational college, and it has kind of turned our schedules upside down, inside out, and all around!  I'm tutoring in the "LRC" - learning resource center - of a school for Allied Health (think dental assistants, medical assistants, etc), and all of my students are required to use APA formatting in their writing.  I'm used to MLA, so some elements such as a "running header" were totally foreign to me!  Turns out the running header is pretty foreign to most of my students too!

After doing some research, and playing around a bit with MS-Word, here is what I figured out...(note, these instructions are primarily for Word 2007 and 2010).

1. Double click in the very top portion of your document (this area is the “header”).  A dashed blue line will appear, separating the top from the rest of the page. 

2. In the command options, click on Insert.  Then click on Page Number.  Then, hover over Top of Page.  Click on the option for Plain Number 3. 

3.  Check the box for Different First Page.

4. Insert your page numbers.  This is almost a repeat of Step 2.  Again, click on Page Number, but note that it is now in a different location!  Hover over Top of Page.  Click on Plain Number 3.

5.  DO NOT delete the page number!  DO NOT add spaces.  Just type “Running Head: AND THEN THE NAME OF YOUR PAPER”.  Follow the formatting – “Running Head” should have only the R and H capitalized, and then be followed by a colon.  The title of your paper should be in all capital letters.  On the keyboard, hit the Tab key twice to reposition the words that you just typed for your header.

6.  Scroll down to the top of page 2.  DO NOT change the page number!  TYPE YOUR TITLE.  Do not type "Running Head" on any page other than the first page.  Then, on your keyboard, hit the Tab key twice to reposition the title.

7.  Scroll down to verify that the page numbers and title are correct on every page. 

8.  Double click in the body of any page to get out of the header, and back into your paper.