Open a new document in Word and save it as a template. This will be the document in which you will create your APA formatting.
Set up the headings in the template. There are five levels of headings of the APA formatting guidelines (as of the Sixth Edition). The first level of heading is centered on the page, boldface, using upper and lower case letters. The second level is the same except flush left on the page. The third level is indented also boldface with only the first letter capitalized. The fourth heading is indented, bold and italicized, and the fifth level of heading is indented and italicized. Levels three, four and five all end with a period. Create these levels in your template.
Create some examples of in-text citations in your template. There are many different styles you may encounter in your writing and you may not want to include every example in your template. Instead, choose the ones you are most likely to encounter. For example, the work by a single author appears with the author's last name, a comma then the year of the publication in parentheses. For example: (Smith, 2002). Works by two authors always list the names of both authors: (Smith & Jordan, 2004). For three or more authors, you can use "et al" after listing all the names once. For example: (Solomon et al., 2010).
Enter the most common references you are likely to use in your research. There are many situations you may encounter when providing the complete list of references at the end of your paper. Some common examples you may want to include are journal articles, books, book chapters, Web pages, works in translation and media, such as video and sound recordings. If you are using the APA Publication Manual, you will want to check their additional sources at their website for more citation information.