apa 7th edition

We have no way of knowing WHEN MS will update to APA 7. Maybe if we are lucky when Office 2022 comes out.

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Yup MS finally, quietly let slip that Office VNext, no name yet probably 2022, will be coming out "second half" 2021

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice\_install-mso\_win10-msoversion\_other/office-vnext-2022-quietly-announced/ec96306c-1994-4c72-a0a9-59c9ce8c3723?messageId=45fc41dd-6b4d-4be1-9946-22199ef4e52f

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Be happy you are not using MLA.  They are also currently one version behind, and the MLA is releasing their next version in April ...

Do yourself a favor: Don't rely on / wait for the microsoft development team and use Citavi instead for citation purposes.

So why is my university insisting I use Microsoft Office if it's not up to date? New students might not realise and lose marks on assessments if they use the reference feature ( which the lecturers advise us to do). Hope it gets updated to APA 7th soon as it was released October 2019 but has now become mandatory. I will have to find an alternative software to use until then, unfortunately.

How old is your prof? 100, 200 year old.  They probably think 8-track Tapes are the cat's meow!

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Your university, providing 365 Education is one thing. They are just providing a tool, like access to the library. The prof teaching the class is a different thing. If they expect you to do APA 7 in Office 365, they should tell you how to do it! Bet you a donut they don't know (or care) that Word 365 does NOT support APA 7, they just "want" that format so they can say they are teaching current "standard".  Just be glad you are not using MLA, the are also 1 version behind, but another new version is coming out in the spring.

Submit feedback to MS asking for better bibliography support. Ask your prof to make it a class requirment (1% bonus?) for every student to vote and comment on the feedback. 

Hint: there are existing feedbacks for better bibilography support

Bibliography / References / APA next / Chicago next / MLA next

MLA 8 Bibliography Supporthttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/17821987-please-add-mla-8-support ****marked “planned” for a future update, back in June 2017 ... So they will “get around to it” eventually ... Maybe in time for “Office 2019” (which has been announced to be coming out some time next year, Academic year 2018? ). There are a number of other similar requests:

https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application?query=mla%208 

This is an ongoing problem with in Word and the various "Official" formatting Style Guides. Every time a Style guide is updated, it takes years for MS to catch up. But in the mean time there are millions of students who use Word and whose school expects them to use the newest version. But there is the disconnect between the teacher's (unrealistic) expectation and Word automation. Students have the option of:

.  *  using the out of date Word automation and losing marks, working faster

.  *  using the out of date automation and trying to manually tweak it (time consuming)

.  *  ignoring Word automation and doing all citations manually

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Frankly I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it. It may show up in Word 2022/2023 when ever the new version of Word comes out. That sort of thing is at the bottom of MS's priority pile.  It took 2 or 3 years for APA 6 to show up in Word.

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If you want to get it faster there are a few things you can do

.  *  (Fastest) learn the Style guide specific XML and code the changes yourself (I can provide a couple of learning links ... )

.  *  Submit a new feature request to MS via "Feedback"

.  *  get all students and staff to vote for it (ie make voting a class requirement!)

.  *  get the school IT department to put in an official support request for it

.  *  get the State / Provincial / Federal Bored <sic> of Education to submit the request

.  *  have a school official contact the APA, tell them to submit an official request to MS.

.  *  (Best) Suggest to the APA that they work with MS to make this happen faster

Yes, the "fastest" suggestion is least likely to happen. Learning and writing the XML to meet the rules in the style guide will not be fast or easy.

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I think the last suggestion is the "best" because the APA formatting rules are complex. It is unrealistic to expect MS to be enthusiastic about having one or more of their programmers learn the minutia of the new rule changes.  On the other hand, if the APA is willing to work with MS, providing an APA 7 expert to work with the MS programmer, then MS is more likely to do the project sooner. And if the APA is willing to pay MS expenses for the project it will happen even faster.

I’ve been in that situation. I wrote an in-house application. We had a bunch of updates that needed doing. The only way they were done was when we sold the application to an external company. The sale was contingent on us making those change, the sale price paid for the work to be done. It was a Win-Win-Win situation.

An alternative (that I as an individual have already suggested to the APA) is that they pay to hire a contractor to create the new XML code to their specifications. They could then either submit the new code to MS for review, testing and implementation, AND/OR they could provide the XML as a download on the APA website. Make it a free download, independent of buying the style guide so EVERYONE who needs to use it, at work in the "real world" and students would have soonest access to the newest iteration.

In an ideal world, after creating the Code, the APA would make it an ongoing project to keep the code up to date as the style is updated. That way, when the next major version of the style guide comes out, MS could release it as an update to Word AT THE SAME TIME as the new style guide is released. That would be cool for users. And a real advantage over other style guides, who would have to wait for MS ...