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Create a bibliography, citations, and references

Put your cursor at the end of the text you want to cite.

Go to References  >   Style , and choose a citation style.

Select Insert Citation .

Choose  Add New Source  and fill out the information about your source.

Once you've added a source to your list, you can cite it again:

Go to References  >  Insert Citation , and choose the source you are citing.

To add details, like page numbers if you're citing a book, select Citation Options , and then Edit Citation .

Create a bibliography

With cited sources in your document, you're ready to create a bibliography.

Put your cursor where you want the bibliography.

Go to References > Bibliography , and choose a format.

Tip:  If you cite a new source, add it to the bibliography by clicking anywhere in the bibliography and selecting Update Citations and Bibliography .

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Word Tips  - How to Create a Bibliography or Works Cited Page in Word

Word tips  -, how to create a bibliography or works cited page in word, word tips how to create a bibliography or works cited page in word.

Word Tips: How to Create a Bibliography or Works Cited Page in Word

Lesson 16: how to create a bibliography or works cited page in word.

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How to create a bibliography or works cited page in Word

If you need to write a research paper, chances are you'll also be required to include a bibliography . Or you might be asked to include a works cited page or a list of references . These are all just different names for the same thing: a list of sources —such as books, articles, or even websites—that you used to research and write your paper. A bibliography makes it easy for someone else to see where you found your information. A short bibliography might look something like this:

You could create a bibliography manually, but it would take a lot of work. And if you ever decide to add more sources or use a different reference style, you’ll have to update everything all over again. But if you take the time to input your sources into Word, it can create and update a bibliography automatically. This can save you a lot of time and help ensure your references are accurate and correct.

Step 1: Choose a reference style

When you're creating a bibliography, you'll need to follow the guidelines of the required style guide . Different academic disciplines use their own styles guides, such as MLA , APA , and Chicago . Fortunately, Word comes with several built-in style guides; all you need to do is select the one you want to use, and Word will help you format your bibliography correctly.

To do this, click the References tab, then select the desired style in the Citations & Bibliography group.

You can use this same method to change the reference style at any time.

Step 2: Add citations and sources

Whenever you use information from one of your sources, you'll need to give credit—or cite them. This is known as making a citation. You'll include citations whenever you use information from a source or when you quote a source directly.

To add a citation, select the desired location for the citation in your document, click the Insert Citation command on the References tab, and select Add New Source .

A dialog box will appear. Enter the requested information for the source—like the author name, title, and publication details—then click OK .

The citation will appear in the document, and the source will be saved. You can quickly add another citation for the source by clicking Insert Citation and selecting the source from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: Insert the bibliography

Time for the easy part! Once you've added all of your sources, you can create your bibliography in just a few clicks! Just select the Bibliography command, then choose the desired style.

The bibliography will appear at the end of your document. Your sources will already be formatted to match the selected style guide. You should still double-check each of your sources against your style guide to make sure they're correct. If you need a quick reference for MLA, APA, or Chicago formatting, we recommend the Purdue Online Writing Lab .

If you add more sources to your document, you can easily update your bibliography—just click it and select Update Citations and Bibliography .

No matter how many sources you include in your document, Word's built-in tools make it easy to create and organize a bibliography. If you want further guidance with the process, check out this tutorial from Microsoft on how to Create a Bibliography .

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How to add a bibliography to a Word document

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A bibliography is a list of sources referred to in a document. Many scholarly documents require one, and you probably had to create a few while in school. The list comprises citations, which include the title, author, publisher, date of publication, and so on for each source. You’ll use a bibliography to credit quotes and other facts to lend legitimacy to your document. The technical process in Microsoft Word is similar to footnote/endnotes or indexing and has three steps: Adding the sources as a citation, citing the citation, and then generating the bibliography. I’ll show you how simple it is to add sources and generate a bibliography.

I’m using Office 365 , but you can use earlier versions of Word . When using the .doc format, you will lose some features. You can work with your own document or download the demonstration .docx and .doc files . Word’s browser edition will display existing bibliographies, but you can’t add or edit sources or generate a bibliography while in the browser.

How to add a source in Microsoft Word

Sources can be any kind of published work, from books to articles on the web. The information you include for a source will depend on you or the publisher. Word supports several styles, but the three most common are Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA) and Chicago. These styles determine the information needed and how that information is formatted. We won’t cover individual styles in this article–you will need to do a little research to determine what your publisher or recipient requires.

First, you need a source, so let’s run through a quick example.

• After entering the quote or fact that requires verification, click the Reference tab.
• In the Citations & Bibliography group, choose the appropriate style. APA is the default and, for our purposes, we’ll retain it.
• Click Insert Citation and choose Add New Source from the dropdown list.
• In the resulting dialog, enter the fields required by your style ( Figure A ). You can enter the name using first name lastname or lastname , first name format. Separate multiple authors with a semi-colon ( ; ).
• Click OK. As you can see in Figure B , Word adds a text reference to the citation. (Don’t worry if your results don’t match mine.)

Most of these fields ( Figure A ) are self-explanatory, though I want to call your attention to two options:

• Show All Bibliography Fields: When enabled, it shows a lot more fields. Most of us will never need those fields, but they’re available.
• Tag Name: This field is automated–it’s comprised of the author’s name and year. Word uses this tag internally to identify each citation.

Once the citation exists, you don’t have to enter the information again. When referencing that source again, click Inert Citation in the Citations & Bibliography group and choose it from the resulting dropdown ( Figure C ).

Note about the author name and tags: When entering author names, you should be consistent because of the tags. Word uses the first three characters of the first name you enter: Susan Harkins 2001 is Sus01 but Harkins, Susan 2001 is Har01.

Before we continue, enter a few more sources using the different types of sources (books, periodicals, etc.)–you’ll want more than one citation when you create the bibliography. Notice that the fields change with different source types. Although this tool is flexible, it can’t correct typos. Be careful with your case, spelling, and so on. Bibliographies are very difficult and tedious to proof after the fact.

How to add a bibliography in Microsoft Word

After you have added all your sources and cited (marked) all your text references, you’re ready to create the bibliography. It’s similar to adding an index or table of contents—Word does most of the work for you. To add the bibliography, follow these steps.

• Click where you want to insert the bibliography—usually at the end of the document.
• Click the Reference tab. Then, click Bibliography in the Citations & Bibliography group.
• From the resulting dropdown list, choose a bibliography. There are several, and I suggest you explore the options at another time.

That’s it! Everything you need is already in the document. Word will pull everything together for you. Figure D shows the results of choosing the first item in the dropdown list.

If you had chosen a style other than APA, the list would be formatted a bit differently, but Word knows where to put all the commas, periods, what needs to be italicized or in quotes, and so on.

Understanding sources

If you don’t get all the items you expected, you might need to take one more step. In the Citations & Bibliography group, click Manage Sources. If there are citations in the left list (which is the master list) that aren’t in the current list to the right but should be in the current document’s bibliography, copy them to the current list ( Figure E ). You can also see a preview of the APA style. Then, try again. This isn’t a bug–you control which citations go in the document and which don’t. Once you add a source, it’s available to other documents.

The Source Manager gives you access to all sources. You can search for a title or sort by author. You can edit a source. Sources are stored separately from the document, so you can cite a source that you created for one document in another. The master and current lists represent all sources and sources for the current document, respectively.

You can edit a source without using the Manage Sources dialog. You can do a lot from the citation at the document level because these “text” references are actually field codes. Simply click it and then click the dropdown arrow to display the available options shown in Figure F .

How to fix a known bug with the APA style

There is a known bug with the APA style (sixth), and fortunately, it has an easy fix. If you end up with multiple citations from the same author, Word might fill in the title when it isn’t supposed to. If this happens, try this quick fix.

• Click the citation (code)—the one in the document that follows the in-text reference.
• Click the dropdown arrow and choose Edit Citation.
• Click Title checkbox and click OK.

Share your experiences of creating a bibliography in Word

Creating a bibliography in Word is easy. You can create a custom style if necessary, but doing so requires specialized knowledge in .xml development. If you’ve had trouble with a complex document and worked through it, share your experience in the comments section below.

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How to create a bibliography in Word on Windows and Mac

A bibliography is an important part of any well-structured college essay, dissertation, article, or other researched writing sample. It lets your readers know what sources you used as building blocks for your work, and isn’t too difficult to make without a template tool. Still, if you’d like to skip a few steps, there’s a terrific bibliography generator built right into Microsoft Word .

Add a new citation in Microsoft Word

Manage your sources in word, create a bibliography in word, update a bibliography in word, what you need.

Microsoft Word

What’s a college paper without a bibliography? Here’s how to use Microsoft Word to build a quick and easy bibliography for your next assignment or presentation.

To add a new citation in Word for a source you’ve never used before, you’ll need the basic details for it, whether it's a book, article, website, or another source. So, make sure you have the information handy and then follow these steps.

Step 1: Go to the References tab and the Citations & bibliography section of the ribbon.

Step 2: Choose your writing format in the Style drop-down menu, which likely displays as APA by default. You’ll find the most common formats in the list, like MLA, Chicago, and others.

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Step 3: Select Insert citation in the same section of the ribbon and pick Add new source .

Use the Type of source drop-down box to pick the kind, and you’ll see the fields beneath update to accommodate the source type.

Step 4: Add the necessary details for your source. Optionally, you can check the box for Show all bibliography fields if the ones you want don’t display.

Step 5: When you finish, select OK to save the source, and you’ll see it added to your content in the format you selected.

After you add a source to your paper, you can make edits to it or reuse it. Plus, your sources are saved to a master list that allows you to use them in other Word documents.

Step 1: On the References tab, select Manage sources in the Citations & bibliography section of the ribbon.

Step 2: When the box opens, you’ll see the Master list of sources on the left. If you added one using the section above, you’ll see it in this list as well.

• To add an existing source to the current document, select it and pick Copy in the center. This moves it to the Current list so that you can easily insert it into your current document (explained below).
• To edit a source, select it and choose Edit . Then, make your changes and pick OK to save them.
• To add a new source, select the New button, enter the details, and pick OK to save the source.

Step 3: When you finish with the Source Manager, select Close .

With sources in the Current List in the Source Manager, you can quickly add an in-text citation. Select the Insert citation button on the References tab and pick the source from the drop-down list.

When you’re ready to insert a bibliography, Word automatically uses the sources you’ve added to the Source Manager list.

Step 1: Place your cursor in the document where you want the bibliography and go to the References tab.

Step 2: Confirm the writing format is correct in the Style drop-down box, whether you’re using APA, MLA, or another style.

Step 3: Select the Bibliography drop-down menu in the Citations & bibliography section of the ribbon. You’ll see a few built-in options you can choose from with different headings.

If you prefer one without a heading, choose Insert bibliography .

Step 4: Pick the option you want and it’ll pop into your document.

Because Word creates your bibliography automatically, you can update it easily if needed, just like when you include a table of contents . You might add more citations or edit the details for a source.

Step 1: Select the bibliography and then choose the Update citations and bibliography button on the top left.

Step 2: You’ll see the list of references update to include any additions or changes.

College is tough enough without worrying about how to create a bibliography for your paper. Hopefully, this how-to gets you off to a great start!

Now that you know how to create a bibliography in Word, take a look at how to double-space your paper or how to add page numbers in Word.

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How to create your own bibliography template in microsoft word.

Save your own formatted list of references to use again and again.

Quick Links

Create a customize bibliography in word, save a bibliography as a template, reuse your bibliography template, remove a bibliography template.

When you take advantage of Word's built-in bibliography , you may still need to edit it, whether for a requirement or personal preference. If you want to save that bibliography format and reuse it in future documents, create a template.

By saving the edited structure or font formatting, you can easily add that same bibliography to all of your Word documents and just swap out the details as needed.

You can certainly create a bibliography yourself, but if you have citations in your document , Word can build it for you.

Related: How To Automatically Add Citations And Bibliographies To Microsoft Word

Go to the References tab and Citations & Bibliography section of the ribbon. You can use either bibliography type below or one you create from scratch for your template.

• To create a titled bibliography, select the Bibliography drop-down arrow and pick the style you want to use from Bibliography, References, or Works Cited.
• For a non-titled bibliography, select "Insert Bibliography" instead.

You'll see your chosen style appear in your document.

From there, make any edits you like to the text, font, and layout. You can change the font size, style, or color, add more line spacing, or apply text effects.

When you finish creating and customizing your bibliography, you'll save it as a template .

Related: How to Create a Template in Microsoft Word

Drag through the text of the bibliography to select it all. Then, head back to the References tab and click the Bibliography drop-down arrow. Pick "Save Selection to Bibliography Gallery" at the bottom of the menu.

If the option is unavailable, make sure you've selected all of the text in the bibliography.

You'll see a pop-up window where you can enter the name you want to use for the template. Optionally include a description and pick a category. Leave the Gallery option set to "Bibliographies" and the Save In option set to "Building Blocks." Click "OK."

To reuse the bibliography template in future documents, close your current document, saving it first if necessary.

You'll receive a pop-up message telling you that you made changes to Building Blocks. Choose "Save."

If you've made changes to other Building Blocks that you don't want to save, pick "Don't Save." However, your bibliography template will not be saved or available in future Word documents.

To reuse your template in another Word document, place your cursor where you want it to appear. Then, go to the References tab and click the Bibliography drop-down arrow. You'll see your saved template appear in the list.

Simply select it and it'll display in your document.

If you use a theme in your Word document (Design > Themes), some formatting like font style may change.

If you no longer want to use a bibliography template you've saved, you can remove it using the Building Blocks Organizer.

Return to the References tab and right-click your template in the Bibliography drop-down list. Choose "Organize and Delete" in the shortcut menu.

When the Building Blocks Organizer opens, you should see your template already selected. Confirm and then click "Delete" to permanently remove it from the gallery.

You can also make edits to the name or description from the Building Blocks Organizer. Select your template and choose "Edit Properties." Click "OK" when you finish.

If you want to use the bibliography feature in Word but customize it to fit your taste or preferences, consider saving it as a template to use over and over.

For more, take a look at how to cross-reference in Word or how to use footnotes and endnotes .

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Erin Wright Writing

Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Insert Citations in Microsoft Word (Step-by-Step)

By Erin Wright

Managing citations for research papers, theses, dissertations, and other nonfiction works can be overwhelming. However, you can ease the process by learning how to insert citations in Microsoft Word using the software’s citation and bibliography tools.

This tutorial covers six topics:

• How to select a citation style
• How to insert citations for new sources
• How to insert citations for existing sources
• How to edit sources
• How to use citation placeholders
• How to insert bibliographies, reference lists, or works cited lists

Important Note: At the time this tutorial was published, Microsoft Word did not offer the most up-to-date formatting for several of our primary style guides , including APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian. Therefore, I encourage you to review the available styles before using the citation and bibliography tools. We will cover the steps to customize citation and bibliography styles in a separate tutorial.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 200 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel .

The images below are from Word in Microsoft 365. The steps are the same in Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016. However, your interface may look slightly different in those older versions of the software.

How to Select a Citation Style in Microsoft Word

• Select the References tab in the ribbon.

• Select your citation style from the Style menu in the Citations & Bibliography group.

How to Insert Citations for New Sources in Microsoft Word

• Place your cursor where you want to insert the citation.

• Select the References tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
• Select the Insert Citation button in the Citations & Bibliography group.

• Select Add New Source from the drop-down menu.

• Select the source type from the Type of Source menu in the Create Source dialog box.

• Enter the source information into the bibliography fields.

• (Optional Step) Select Show All Bibliography Fields if you need to add additional information.

• (Optional Step) Enter the source information into the additional fields.

• Select the OK button.

Your citation should appear in your text.

How to Insert Citations for Existing Sources in Microsoft Word

Once you enter a source, as shown in the section above, you can create additional citations for that source without reentering the information.

• Place your cursor where you want to insert the citation (see figure 3).
• Select the Insert Citation button in the Citations & Bibliography group (see figure 4).
• Select the source from the drop-down menu.

Your citation should appear in your text (see figure 11).

How to Edit Sources in Microsoft Word

When you edit an existing source, you will also edit any existing citations for that source in your current document.

• Select the Manage Sources button in the Citations & Bibliography group.

• Select the source you want to edit in the Master List or the Current List in the Source Manager dialog box.

Pro Tip: The Master List is stored in your computer and is accessible in all your documents. The Current List is part of your current file and is only accessible in that file. By default, Word stores new sources in the Master List and the Current List.

• Select the Edit button.

• Enter your edits in the Edit Source dialog box. (Select Show All Bibliography Fields , if necessary.)

• Select Yes or No in the alert box stating that you will be updating the source in both the Master List and the Current List. (Strongly consider selecting Yes to update both lists if you plan to cite this source in future documents.)

• Select the Close button in the Source Manager dialog box.

How to Use Citation Placeholders in Microsoft Word

You can use placeholders if your source information is not available.

• Place your cursor where you want to insert the citation placeholder.
• Select Add New Placeholder from the drop-down menu.

• (Optional Step) Change the name of the placeholder in the Placeholder Name dialog box.

Pro Tip : You can use the same placeholder in the future by selecting it from the Insert Citation drop-down menu (see figure 12).

• When you are ready to replace the placeholder with a source, complete the steps in How to Edit Sources above.

How to Insert Bibliographies, Reference Lists, or Works Cited Lists in Microsoft Word

These steps will only work if you inserted your sources using Word’s citation and bibliography tools.

• Place your cursor where you want to insert the bibliography, reference list, or works cited list.
• Select the Bibliography button in the Citations & Bibliography group.

• Select Bibliography , References , or Works Cited from the drop-down menu.

Your bibliography, reference list, or works cited list should appear in your document.

Related Resources

How to Create Hanging Indents in Microsoft Word

How to Insert Footnotes and Endnotes in Microsoft Word

How to Convert Individual Footnotes to Endnotes in Microsoft Word (and Individual Endnotes to Footnotes)

How to Create a Cover Page in Microsoft Word (Built-In and Custom)

How to Add Citations and a Bibliography in Google Docs

Updated May 21, 2023

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4 Easy Steps to Creating a Bibliography in Microsoft Word

The assignment's in front of you: Write a research paper and include a bibliography with properly cited sources. If you want to make the assignment as painless as possible, do what experienced academic writers do and go straight to Microsoft Word® to build your bibliography as you write.

With several options for online access to Microsoft Word , you'll find that the software offers a great way to streamline the process of creating a bibliography and proper in-text citations as you begin the research process. Doing this as you write—instead of waiting for the end to put all the citations together into a bibliography, references, or works cited list—makes writing a research paper so much easier.

Step 1: Choose a style from the References tab

For this first step in creating your bibliography in Microsoft Word, locate the References tab at the top of your screen. Next, look for the Citations & Bibliography group under the References tab. Click the drop-down box next to Style in the Citations & Bibliography group and choose the appropriate style for your paper. The available styles are listed in alphabetical order, and likely will include some styles you've never heard of before, such as:

• Gost – Name sort
• Gost – Title sort
• Harvard – Anglia
• ISO 690 – First element and date
• ISO 690 – Numerical reference

After completing this step, it's time to write your paper and add citations.

Step 2: Insert citations in the text of your document

At this point in the progress of your research paper, you'll need to insert a citation wherever source information is needed in the text. Whether this is a direct quote or paraphrasing the writing of another, citations are required for all research.

To insert a citation, click the References tab. In the Citations & Bibliography section, click the Insert Citation button to add a new source.

A window like the one in the image above should then pop up, allowing you to enter all the source information, including type of source, author, title, year, publisher and city of publication. The fields will change based on what type of source you choose. For example, if you choose to add a source that is a journal article—one of the most common types of sources used in research—the fields will be: Author, title, journal name, year, and page numbers (since these are the details required in a citation for a journal article). However, if you choose the type of source as sound recording, the fields will include: Composer, performer, title, year, city, state, and country.

This is one of the great benefits to using Microsoft Word to create your paper and accompanying bibliography. The software ensures that the unique details of each source—whether it's a website, piece of artwork, or journal article—are correctly collected on the front-end in the writing process. When you reach the end of your initial draft, your sources should be already included and managed, allowing you to create a bibliography at the literal touch of a button.

A note on placeholders

You'll notice that when you press the Insert Citation button, you're given two choices: Add new source and add new placeholder. You should choose "Add new source" if you have most of the source's information. However, if you don't have very much information about the source but know that you are writing a paragraph or sentence that needs to be cited, you can choose "Add new placeholder" to create a placeholder citation for the text.

Step 3: Manage your sources

After you input all your sources for citations within your text, you will be able to manage the sources and include some (or all) in a master list. Clicking on Manage Sources within the Citations & Bibliography section allows you to do this. Once clicked, this will take you to a list version of all the sources you have inputted thus far, allowing you to add them to (or subtract them from) a master list. It will also allow you to make any changes that are needed.

Now from this menu, you can add, delete, and edit your sources. You will also be able to preview the sources' bibliography format in the lower pane of the window that opens when you manage sources.

Step 4: Add the bibliography

Now that you've completed your paper and added all sources, creating the bibliography is the easy part. Simply place your cursor where you want the bibliography to be in your paper, click on the References tab, then click Bibliography in the Citations & Bibliography section. When you do this, a drop-down arrow will allow you to choose the correct title for your bibliography—either Bibliography, References, or "Works Cited." Once you've chosen the title, click Insert Biography and voila! Your bibliography is inserted and formatted exactly as it should be for the style you've chosen.

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Need an academic editor before submitting your work?

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• Works Cited Generator

Free Works Cited Generator

Generate a Works Cited page in MLA format automatically, with MyBib!

😕 What is a Works Cited Generator?

A works cited generator is a tool that automatically creates a works cited page in the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation format. The generator will take in information about the sources you have cited in your paper, such as document titles, authors, and URLs, and will output a fully formatted works cited page that can be added to the end of your paper (just as your teacher asked!).

The citations included in a Works Cited page show the sources that you used to construct your argument in the body of your school paper, either directly as references and quotes, or indirectly as ideas.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Works Cited Generator?

Students in middle school and high school will usually be expected to produce a works cited page to accompany their academic papers. Therefore, they will generally be the users of a works cited generator.

Alongside generating a works cited page, at middle school and high school level it is also important to learn why it's critical to cite sources, not just how to cite them.

🙌 Why should I use a Works Cited Generator?

Formatting works cited pages manually is time consuming, and ensuring accuracy is mind-numbing.

Automating this process with a works cited generator is a quick and easy way to be sure you are doing it correctly (and according to the MLA format!). Our generator also provides a backed-up location to save your citations to as you write each part of your paper -- just keep the MyBib website open in a browser tab while you work and add to your works cited page as you go along!

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Works Cited Generator?

Using our Works Cited Generator is so easy. Every time you cite a source in your paper, just come back to the generator at the top of this page and enter the source you are citing. Our generator can cite books, journal articles, and webpages automatically, and can cite over 30 other sources if you enter the source details manually.

Save each source to your bibliography, then when you have finished writing your paper just click the 'download' button and the generator will produce a formatted Works Cited page that can be copied and pasted directly to the end of your document.

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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