APA 6th Edition Paper Template for Apple Pages (iWork)

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This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on October 28, 2010). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

As I’ve been writing papers for my class assignments, I’ve been working on fine-tuning an APA 6th Edition template for Apple’s Pages. I based my template on a Microsoft Word template provided by Dr. Paul Rose of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

For Pages ’09 (v.4.0–4.3)

Feel free to download and use the template (314k .template file) for your own papers. Just download, decompress, and then (for easiest use), place in your ~Library/Application Support/iWork/Pages/Templates/My Templates folder.

For Pages ’13 (v.5.0+)

An initial cursory check seems to indicate that the template works just fine under Pages 5.0, so feel free to download and use the same template file. If anyone does note any problems with the template under Pages 5, please leave a comment here and I’ll look into making corrections.

The easiest way to add the template to Pages 5, according to Apple, is to open the template file, then click Add to Template Chooser.

For the more technically-inclined, Apple has changed where template files are stored. If you want to dig down to add or remove them manually, the new location is ~Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.Pages/Data/Library/Application Support/User Templates. Note that com.apple.iWork.Pages is a package, not a directory; to continue along the path you’ll need to right-click on the package and choose the “Show Package Contents” item.

For Microsoft Word

I’ve also created versions of the template file for Microsoft Word in both .dotx (for Word 2007 or later) and .dot (for earlier versions of Word). Feel free to download both in one .zip file (35k .zip file) or individually (.dotx for Word 2007+ (36k) or .dot for Word 2003 (55k)).

For easiest use: On a PC, place the templates in your C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates folder; on a Mac, place the templates in your ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/My Templates folder.

Version History

  • 2010.10.28: First upload.
  • 2010.10.29: Corrected double-spacing of reference page, added appendix, table, and figure pages. Added Word versions.
  • 2010.11.9: Corrected third-, fourth-, and fifth-level headings to use standard sentence capitalization and to be paragraph-level headings.
  • 2010.11.29: Corrected first-level headings to be truly centered.
  • 2013.10.25: No change to the template; updated blog post to include Pages 5 information.

159 thoughts on “APA 6th Edition Paper Template for Apple Pages (iWork)”

  1. I think that the References might need to be double-spaced, but everything else looked great. Thank you so much!

  4. Nice. Thank you for your work, I was getting frustrated with the small formatting oddities that I kept glossing over on review.

    Thank you for your work. You may want to submit this to http://www.iworkcommunity.com/ though it will limit your ad revenue.

    Screw it, I have added a link to this website via the iworkcommunity comments on the current (out of date) APA template.

  7. Thanks, just a question, i have problem to install the template in iWork 09, is there any way to open it just like an “normal” pages document?

  8. Hi Tommy. Yes: just double-click to open, like any other file.

    You should be able to put the template file anywhere you want, and just double-click on it to open it. When you do that, Pages will create a new document with everything in the template, but it leaves the actual template file alone, so you can use it over and over.

  10. Awesome. You’ve saved me a great deal of time!

    One very small tweak: Your level 1 headings are not truly centered, but are pushed half and inch to the right due to the paragraph settings. An easy fix for me, but I have to do it each time I start a new document (since I don’t know how to edit templates).

    Thanks again!

  14. Hi Michael,

    Can I import an already existing document that I have written in this format? Will it make corrections? I am trying to submit a dissertation and have issues with apa 6th edition (semicolon spacing, the appropriate amount of spacing for periods etc.)

  15. Hi Bridgett,

    Unfortunately, I don’t really know of a way to import an already written document into the template. I suppose you could try simply copying the text of your document and pasting it into the template to see if that works. If you do that, I’d recommend going section by section, instead of the whole thing in one fell swoop, so you can check the results as you go along. It wouldn’t be a difficult experiment, and you’d still have your original document, so there’s no harm in trying!

    I’m not sure what to tell you about semicolon spacing, other than that they’re the same as any other standard punctuation; there is no space before the semicolon, and one space afterwards.

    As far as spacing after periods, here’s what the APA says in one of their weblog posts (the emphasis in these quotes is mine):

    The new edition of the Publication Manual recommends that authors include two spaces after each period in draft manuscripts. For many readers, especially those tasked with reading stacks of term papers or reviewing manuscripts submitted for publication, this new recommendation will help ease their reading by breaking up the text into manageable, more easily recognizable chunks.

    Although the usual convention for published works remains one space after each period, and indeed the decision regarding whether to include one space or two rests, in the end, with the publication designer, APA thinks the added space makes sense for draft manuscripts in light of those manuscript readers who might benefit from a brief but refreshing pause.

    So, for draft or proof documents, the APA prefers two spaces, but as final publication requirements may ask for a single space after a period, it’s really up to you (or whomever will be reading your dissertation, I suppose) as to which convention you’d like to follow.

    Good luck, and I hope this helps!

  16. Michael:
    Awesome resource and super attention to detail.

    How can I make it work for Word on my PC? Or, where has anyone spent the time and effort required for building an APA .dot template for Word?

    Thanks!

  19. Michael,

    Great template, except for one point, the running head on pages 2 etc should not contain the words “running head”. Do you have any way to do this? Per OWL his is the way it should work.

    Title Page

    The title page should contain the title of the paper, the author’s name, and the institutional affiliation. Include the page header (described above) flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page. Please note that on the title page, your page header should look like this:
    Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

    Pages after the title page should have a running head that looks like this:
    TITLE OF YOUR PAPER

    After consulting with publication specialists at the APA, OWL staff learned that the APA 6th edition sample papers have incorrect examples of Running heads on pages after the title page. This link will take to you the APA site where you can find a complete list of all the errors in the APA’s 6th edition style guide.

  20. Hi James,

    I just double checked the files I have on my computer, and re-downloaded the files linked to in this post, and all of them (Pages and the Word templates alike) have the correct running headers, as specified by the APA. The title page has “Running Head: SHORT TITLE”, and the 2nd page on just has “SHORT TITLE”.

    If you downloaded the templates from this post, could you double-check them to make sure they’re incorrect on your system? From everything I can tell, they should be correct.

  23. Thank you so much! I might have to make a few adjustments to fit my professor’s requests, but from what I’ve seen this will make my research paper so much easier!

  24. I don’t know who you are but the few seconds I’ve been on your web site IT looks awesome. Thank you so so much, paper due in 4 hours, I’ll be back!!!

  25. Thanks for the explanations in the paper and not just formatting it is helping me to better understand APA.

  26. Thank you for doing something that Apple should have done from the beginning! One question though, the font is Hoefler Text, is this similar to Times New Roman or Courier?

    • Hoefler Text is similar enough to Times New Roman that it shouldn’t be a problem for any instructor, unless they’re really picky about requiring Times New Roman (most really just want a readable serif font). I used Hoefler Text because everyone uses Times New Roman, and I wanted something that worked within the specifications, but was less overused.

      Courier is different, though — while it’s also a serif font, it’s monospaced (every character takes up the same amount of horizontal space) rather than proportionally spaced. I find Courier to be very difficult for most long-form documents, and prefer only using it for short, specific needs (like the filesystem paths in the original post up above).

  27. Love your template but I still have a problem listed earlier in the comments. The template looks great before I input. I fill out title page with short title, long title, etc and delete author’s note. I haven’t needed an abstract so I delete that page. Once I do that the headers put “Running head” back in the header on page two and throughout. I spend hours battling this – trying to make the title page look one way and the rest of the pages look the other way. I just re-downloaded your file in case you updated it, but it is still doing that same thing to me. I’ve tried not deleting the abstract page and just deleting the typing, but that gets me the same results. Any ideas? Thanks for this beautiful template.

    • Hi Jennifer,

      It took me a couple moments, but I figured out what’s going on. I’m not sure it’s something that I can really “fix” in the template, though, as fixing it in this instance would create another issue.

      To fix it for your case, go to the “Section” tab in the Layout Inspector (the second tab of the Inspector window) and look towards the bottom for the “Use previous headers & footers” option (example).

      In the template, that box is unchecked for the Abstract page (so that its header is different from the title page), but checked for all the following sections. That’s on purpose, as it means that you can just change the header on the Abstract page, and that fixes the header on every page except the title page.

      However, when you remove the Abstract page, the title page header is now copied over onto every other section in the document, which is what’s causing you headaches. All you need to do is uncheck that option for the body section after you delete the Abstract page. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to change the header.

      If I were to change that setup in the template, then you’d have to change the header for every section after the title page, instead of just having to change it once.

      I hope that all makes sense. Thanks for detailing what you were doing, that made figuring out what was happening much easier!

      • I just experienced the exact same problem in Pages as I too did not need the Abstract page. I was concerned on how to handle it but I was quickly guided with your great explanation above. Thank you!

  28. Best template!! Just wanted to let you know that the heading of 3, 4 and 5 should be all lowercase. Also I wanted to know how to stop it from selecting (highlighting) everything at once?

    • nevermind about the very first letter being uppercase in the 3, 4 and 5 heading, but I still was wondering how you stop everything in the body being highlighted at once?

      • Hi Tammy! The template automatically selects all the text in a section on purpose, so that you don’t accidentally forget to delete any of my placeholder text and end up including it in your paper.

        If you do want to change that, you can go to the Format menu, go down to the Advanced > option, and choose Enable Placeholder Text Authoring. All the text blocks that I’ve defined as placeholder text will be outlined in blue, and you’ll be able to work with them directly.

        I’m glad you like the template!

  29. Thanks for this! It is fantastic to have a template for this for Pages and Word! If only there was an easy template to proofread and edit papers/articles.

    Cheers,
    D

  30. If I only have MS Works can this template still be used?
    And if I can will the format stay the same once I SAVE AS to change it to .doc file instead of .wpd ?
    Yes I know I can dwnld “OpenOffice” but my notebook will not hold that due to ram issues.

    Thank you
    Elizabeth

  31. Do you have to keep the running head: part when i do my actual paper. Or do i delete it and just put the short title

  33. This has truly been helpful and helped me get better grades in school. I have been wrestling with formatting.
    Thank you!!!

  34. This is by far the best APA template for Pages that I’ve seen–practically elegant! The single change I’ve made to it is to add a non-indented body style for use after long quotes. Thank you for making this available.

  36. I am running Pages 2.0.1. I get this message when trying to open the template: “The document “APA 6th Edition.template” couldn’t be opened.”

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks

    • I think it may be time to upgrade to a more recent version of Pages. I’m currently running Pages 4.1, so my guess is there’s simply been enough changes over the two major revisions that your older version can’t read the new version’s files. Sorry!

  37. Just wondering if there is an easy way to insert a table of contents?
    Otherwise, your hard work is greatly appreciated!

    Nathan

  39. Hey ..

    Just adding to the idea of the table of contents. I found your template, which is great by teh way, after writing a full thesis and setting up my template too…

    The problem is including level 3 and lower headers in the TOC… have you managed to come up with any amazing ideas of how to do so… Also pages doesnt seem to want to include pages that are in the document before the TOC???

    If you have suggestions, it would be great to hear..

    • I would like a template with a table of contents. I think my wife needs three levels, but I’ll work with anything I can get.

      Sorry I’m not offering any solutions, I’m a beginner.

  40. This is awesome – thank you so much! One question – how did you do the Running head on the first page and eliminate it on all the next pages. I tried to set that up on my own and couldn’t do it.

  42. You have saved my graduate school career! I have never worked with APA before and have been banging my head on a wall trying to figure out how to format Pages for my new Mac. You are a genius and if I ever meet you or make it big in higher education I will dedicate a speech to you as the man who got me through Grad School! Thank you!!!

  44. Sheer panic occured as I dumped my PC last week and began using my shiny new MacAir to write my thesis, only to discover ****THERE’S NO TEMPLATE IN PAGES FOR APA,,,, OMG!!!” Crap, crap crap, this is not going to be good! What am I going to do now?

    Then I found your website.

    You my good friend, are truly a lifesaver.

    Thank You.

  47. I have been struggling with APA proper formatting all semester! I am so thankful to have finally found your website as it has eased all my frustrations with APA. Thank you for supplying it in both Mac Word and Pages! I downloaded them both so now I have a choice. Thanks a million!

  50. Fantastic! This is great work and very helpful! My department issued the template for Word but Mac users were left to hang…..No More!

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