A hanging indent is a formatting style used with references in most formats, including APA and MLA. For a hanging indent, the first line of text is aligned at the left margin while the second and following lines are indented a half inch. See the instructions below for help setting this up in Google Docs or Word.
Google Docs
When creating your hanging indents, you can either start with a blank page or you can highlight the text you have already type. Don't forget to type Works Cited or References on the first line of your citation list.
When starting with a blank page, just follow the steps below in order. If you have already created citations, highlight them and proceed with the steps below.
Start by clicking Format (step 1), then select Align and Indent (step 2), then select Indentation Options (step 3).
Now, select Hanging (step 1) under Special and apply changes (step 2).
Microsoft Word
To set up your hanging indents, you can either start with the cursor on the left margin of a blank page or highlight existing text to create the hanging indent.
- Click on Home on the ribbon, then launch the Paragraph dialog box (step 1).
- Set Indentation in the drop-down menu under Special to Hanging (step 2). Make sure that 0.5” is selected in the By drop-down box.
- Set Spacing in the drop-down menu under Line Spacing to Double. Make sure that the boxes in the spacing Before and After are set to 0.
- Click on the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box to save your settings (step 3).
Now, you can start typing your citations, or if you were formatting existing citations, the first line should now start on the left margin with all lines after that indented half an inch. When you hit Enter to go to the next reference, your cursor should automatically return to the left margin.
Please contact one of our Librarians in person or through our Ask a Librarian if you have questions.