Online Learning Support

Often class presentations require you to include references and citations in your PowerPoint slides. This can be done, but sometimes the formatting is a bit tricky.

As a rule, follow the same rules for documentation like you do in your papers. For example:

• If it requires a citation in a paper, put it in the PowerPoint as well.
• Include a reference slide at the end of your presentation and an in-text citation on the slide where you use the information.
• Neither APA nor MLA give any guidance on formatting references and citations in PowerPoint presentations. Unless your instructor says differently, it's usually best to format your references and citations following the PowerPoint template you are using. However, make sure to ask your instructor whether this is correct.

Refer to figure 1 and follow the steps below to format your reference slide:

1. Click on the paragraph settings launcher on the Home ribbon
2. Set the spacing "before" and "after" to 0 pt
3. Set the line spacing to "double"
4. Set the "special" indentation to "hanging" (see figure 1)
5. If step 4 does not work, go to the View menu item and then click on "Ruler" 
6. On the ruler, slide the top slider to the left margin, and slide the bottom half an inch to the right (see figure 2).

Figure 1: Paragraph settings in PowerPoint

Figure 2: The ruler and slider in PowerPoint

The video below illustrates this process. Even though, the examples are in APA style the formatting process is the same for MLA style. Closed captioned with a running time: 3:25.