APA wants you to put a "running head" with an abbreviated title on the title page of manuscripts. That term confuses a lot of people, especially since you are also supposed to have an abbreviated title in the page headers. Those are two different things, and the running head doesn't "run" anywhere, but the page header does. While this may not be the only confusing thing about APA, it is certainly one that trips up students.
The running head appears
only on the title page,
not on any other pages in the document. It is a shortened version of the title, usually the first four or five words (but not always). The running head should not be longer than 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation. To check this, after you type the running head highlight it and click on Tools--Word Count. A box will pop up showing you the number of characters with and without spaces.
Type the running head on the top line of the title page, flush against the left margin, in all uppercase letters. When I say "the top line," I mean the first line below the 1" margin, which means it is below the page header that we will talk about later. Precede it with the words "Running head:" typed just like I did but without the quotation marks--capitalize the word
Running, don't capitalize
head, and follow it with a colon. Then type your shortened 50-characters-or-less title in all capital letters. This is the only place in your document that this will appear. If your article is published, the publisher will print this shortened title at the top of the printed article pages. See my example, which is the running head for an article entitled "Ten Reasons to Require APA Style in Baccalaureate Nursing Papers."
Running head: TEN REASONS TO REQUIRE APA STYLE
Now, on to page headers. APA even tells you, on page 288 of the
Publication Manual, "The manuscript page headers should not be confused with the running head for publication, which goes only on the title page and appears on the published article." The purpose of the manuscript page headers is to identify each page of the document in case the pages get separated. A page header consists of the first two or three words of the title, followed by five spaces, and then the page number. This is typed into the header of the page, which is the top 1/2" of the paper. When done properly, you only type the page header one time. Microsoft Word's automatic header repeats the page header on every page in the document.
To type the page header using Word's automatic feature, go to View--Header and Footer. When you click on "Header and Footer," a dotted line will appear around a rectangle at both the top and the bottom of the page. Your cursor should automatically be set within the top dotted-line box. You are in the header. On your toolbar, click the icon to align your typing with the right margin, or hit the Control key plus the R key (Ctrl+R). Your cursor will go to the right side of the box. Start typing the first two or three words of your title, and don't worry if it doesn't make sense. In my example, I would type "Ten Reasons" (without the quotation marks). Type this shortened title in title case, which means you capitalize all words of four letters or more.
Next, hit the space bar five times. Now, hit the Alt key plus the Shift key plus the P key (Alt+Shift+P). This inserts an automatic page number in the header, which means the page number will now be automatically calculated correctly and inserted into the header of each page in the document. Another way to insert an automatic page number is to hit the page number icon, which looks like a page with a number sign on it (#), on the header/footer toolbar. So, now you have the first few words of the title, followed by five spaces, followed by the automatic page number, all located in the header and aligned on the right side of the page.
You're done with running heads and headers, thank goodness. APA style does not put anything in the page footers. To get out of the page header, double-click anywhere in the document outside the header. Now you're back to normal and can get on with writing your paper.
