How to convert your existing paper into a PERRLA paper (Add-in)

PERRLA makes writing APA and MLA papers easy. But, if you've already started on a paper without using PERRLA, there are a few steps you'll need to follow to convert it into a "PERRLA paper".

Before we begin, make sure you've already added the PERRLA for Word Add-in to your version of Microsoft Word. You find instructions for that here.

Here's how to convert your paper:

1. Open Word & start a new PERRLA paper
   Create a paper for the format & type you need. Click here to see how to start a PERRLA paper.You can close the empty Word document after you've started the new PERRLA paper.
2. Open your existing paper that you want to convert to PERRLA
   You should have two papers open: the new PERRLA one & your existing paper.
3. Highlight and copy the body of your existing paper
   The easiest way to copying text is to click Copy in the Edit menu at the top of Word. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + C (PC) or Cmd + C (Mac).
4. Paste the copied text into the body of the new PERRLA paper
   There are some tips for pasting effectively at the bottom of this email.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have moved all your text into the PERRLA paper. If your paper is long, you may want to copy/paste the text in sections.

At this point, if you had any references or citations in your original paper, you'll need to recreate them using PERRLA's References & Citations panel. Click here to learn more about creating references or click here to create citations.

Citations that were pasted in with the body's text aren't connected to the Reference in PERRLA- they are just normal text. 
We recommend replacing them with PERRLA generated citations to ensure they're all 100% correct. 

And that's it! It may be a little tedious, but that's how you can take an existing paper and "convert" it into a PERRLA Paper.

Trouble Pasting Text into the New PERRLA Paper

If your pasted text still looks a little off in your new PERRLA paper (not Times New Roman 12 pt), you can try pasting the text as Unformatted Text. Here's how:

Word 2016: Go to Edit in the top menu bar, choose Paste Special, then Unformatted Text, and click OK.
Word 2019: In the Home ribbon tab, click the Paste dropdown, then click Paste Special, then select Unformatted Text, and click OK.