Formatting Issues

How to Remove Titles from APA In-Text Citations in Word

Maira Mehtab Sep 22, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants to suppress or remove the short titles that Microsoft Word automatically inserts into APA in-text citations when referencing multiple works by the same author.

Product: Microsoft Word
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Writing an academic paper and managing APA references for multiple sources by the exact same author.
Observed behavior: Word inserts a short title into the citation to distinguish between different sources by the same author, and does not offer a built-in toggle to hide this title.

Before you start

Review the official APA style guidelines before modifying your citations. In APA style, distinguishing multiple works by the same author usually requires adding suffixes to the publication year (e.g., 2020a, 2020b) rather than using short titles, which Word's native tool often struggles to format automatically.

Solution 1Recommended

Convert Citation to Static Text to Manually Edit

Since Word does not provide a built-in option to suppress titles dynamically for the same author, the best workaround is to convert the citation to plain text and delete the title manually.

This method disconnects the specific citation from Word's reference manager, allowing you to manually adjust the text to strictly comply with APA suffix rules (like adding an 'a' or 'b' to the year).

Select the citation

Click anywhere inside the in-text citation that contains the unwanted short title. A content control box will appear around the text.

Open the citation options

Click the small drop-down arrow that appears on the right side of the citation box.

Convert to static text

Select 'Convert citation to static text' from the drop-down menu.

Delete the title

Manually highlight and delete the short title from the text, and add any necessary year suffixes (e.g., 2023a) to ensure your citation remains unambiguous.

Important: Once converted to static text, the citation will no longer update automatically if you change the source details in the Source Manager. Do this as a final step before publishing.

Solution 2

Verify Author Names in the Source Manager

Sometimes Word adds titles unnecessarily because it detects slight differences in how an author's name is entered across different sources, treating them as different authors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Word add titles to my APA citations?

When you cite multiple works by the exact same author, Word's citation engine attempts to prevent ambiguity by adding a short title. While this helps distinguish the sources, it often conflicts with APA style, which prefers adding alphabetical suffixes (e.g., 2021a, 2021b) to the publication year instead.

Can Word automatically add 'a' and 'b' to years for APA citations?

No, Microsoft Word's built-in citation manager does not natively support automatically appending letters to the publication year for identical authors. You typically need to convert the citation to static text to manually type the letters.

How do I submit a feature request to Microsoft for citation improvements?

You can submit feedback or feature requests by opening Word, navigating to 'Help' > 'Feedback', or by visiting the official Microsoft Feedback portal online and suggesting advanced APA citation controls.

How can I update all citations in my document at once?

Click anywhere inside a citation or your bibliography, and click the 'Update Citations and Bibliography' tab that appears, or simply press the F9 key on your keyboard to refresh all fields in the document.

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