How to Add an Appendix to a Word Document

If you've ever written a paper for school, you're likely all too familiar with appendices. An appendix is a section of a document that provides supporting information, including references that you used to write the content that the reader just enjoyed. To add an appendix to a Word document, you'll insert a page break at the end of your document text and insert the title "Appendix," centered, at the top of that page before beginning your appendices below it.

The word "appendix" comes from the word "append," which means to add something as an attachment or supplement. Whether you're writing an academic paper, business report, book or some other type of document, your appendix will go at the end. You can gather the information for your appendix as you go along, but it's probably easier to build your appendix as you go.

To add an appendix Word document, you'll first need to go to the "Layout" ribbon and choose the drop-down arrow next to "Breaks." Then choose "Next Page" to start your appendix. This page break will keep your appendix at the end of your document as you add more content above it.

As you come to an area of your document that needs supporting information, simply skip to the bottom of the document and add that information in, labeling the item Appendix A, B, C, etc. to correspond with the order in which it appears in the main text.

As with the rest of your document, an appendix in Word will need to be formatted in a way that's attractive and easy to read. If you've been given a requested format for your appendix by an editor, teacher or boss, follow that. Otherwise, you'll probably be expected to follow the APA's format for appendices.

The APA's formatting for an appendix document requires the following:

• Use title case for title and labels
• If you have more than one appendix, title them Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.
• Center the appendix title at the top of the page
• Figures and tables should have a title above them that is italicized
• Text should be double spaced
• Use a consistent font throughout
• All first paragraphs should be indented
• Page numbering must be consistent with the rest of the document

In addition to determining how to format your appendix, Word users will also need to know how to reference the appendix throughout the document. This directs readers to skip to the end for supporting information. To do this, you'll rely on the APA stylebook unless otherwise instructed.

Unlike footnotes, which require special formatting, an appendix would simply include, after the relevant text, the following: (See Appendix). If you have more than one appendix, you'll reference the specific appendix item that goes what you've written. A list of appendices example would be (See Appendix A). Later in the document, you'd insert (See Appendix B) and so on.

Unless you've been required to write an appendix document, you won't always need an appendix. Ideally, you'll include the information in the text itself since it doesn't require the reader to shift to a separate page of the document. As a general rule, you'll use the appendix for information that would distract too much from the content in the main body of the document.

If you look over a list of appendices example, you'll find they can contain everything from supporting information to tables, illustrations or graphs. You'll notice from any example of an appendix that it differs from references, which typically go in something called a bibliography. They can also be posted in footnotes.

It's important to note that if your document includes a table of contents, your appendix should be included there. Format it the same way you've formatted everything else in your table of contents. It should be placed after your content but before references.