A quick guide to creating a basic table in APA format using Excel

While APA formatting can seem difficult and unfriendly at first the great news is it is often very easy to implement and is very well defined. APA formatting provides a consistent, systematic structure to references, figures, and tables helping to ensure that articles are easier to read.

When it comes to formatting tables the APA guidelines are fairly easy to follow.

You want to:

- Avoid Vertical Lines

- Minimise Horizontal lines

- Include a Table Caption at the top

And they're even easier to follow if you're working with the microsoft office suite.

While you can use MS Word to create an APA formatted table the easiest way to format your table using APA guidelines is to use MS Excel.

Simply enter your data in an excel spreadsheet, ensuring that the headings are in the top rows

Once you have done this highlight the top Row and right click

Select Format Cells

Go to the Border tab then select the top border and bottom border

Now select the bottom row and right click

Select Format Cells

Go to the Border tab then select the bottom border

Now highlight your table, copy it and then paste it into a MS word document.

Enter a title above the table using the following format:

Table 1: The title that you want for your table should replace the words you are reading now, the ones that come after the colon.

By this stage the hypothetical example should look something like that below:

Table 1: The title that you want for your table should replace the words you are reading now, the ones that come after the colon.

Easy!