Add citations in Word 2016 for Mac

In Word, you can easily add citations when writing a document where you need to cite your sources, such as a research paper. Citations can be added in various formats, such as APA, Chicago-style, GOST, IEEE, ISO 690, and MLA. Afterwards, you can create a bibliography of the sources you used to write your paper.


Create a source

  1. On the References tab, click the arrow next to Bibliography Style and click the style that you want to use for the citation and source. For example, social sciences documents usually use the MLA or APA styles for citations and sources.

    On the References tab, the citation styles are highlighted.

    If the citation style you want isn't listed, you can add custom styles.


  3. On the References tab, click Insert Citation.

  4. In the Create New Source dialog box, next to Type of Source, select the type of source you want to use (for example, a book section or a website).

    Create New Source dialog box

  5. Enter the details for the source and click OK. The source is added as a citation at the place you selected in your document.

When you've completed these steps, the citation is added to the list of available citations. The next time you quote this reference, you don't have to type it all out again. You just add the citation (see the steps in the following procedure).

Add citations to your document

  1. Click at the end of the sentence or phrase that you want to cite, and then on the References tab, click Citations.

    On the References tab, Citations is highlighted.

  2. In the Citations pane on the right, double-click the citation you want to add.

    Citations pane with list of citations.


If you need to edit a source, click the settings button in the bottom right corner of the Citations pane, and then click Edit Source. Make the changes you want to the source and click OK.

Citations pane with Edit Source highlighted.

To manage your list of sources, click Citation Source Manager and then add new sources or edit or delete sources in the list.

Add custom citations to your document

In addition to the citation options that are included in Word by default, you can add custom citation styles, such as Vancouver, to create the bibliographies and reference materials you want.

The easiest approach is to download citation styles from sources such as BibWord.

By working with XML code you can also create your own custom styles. For details, see Create Custom Bibliography Styles.

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