Format APA Citations on Your Mac in Seconds

APA formatting is fiddly. Sentence case for article titles but title case for journal names. Italics on the volume number but not the issue. En dashes between page numbers, not hyphens. You know the rules exist, but remembering every detail while writing a research paper is a different thing entirely.

Most students and researchers end up toggling between their document and the APA manual — or relying on citation generators that require you to fill out a form field by field. Both approaches pull you out of your writing flow.

How WunderType Handles It

WunderType lets you create a Custom Prompt that acts as an APA citation tool right on your Mac. Paste or type a rough citation into any app, select it, and press your keyboard shortcut. The AI reformats it into a fully compliant APA 7th edition citation — correct capitalization, punctuation, italics, and spacing.

No browser tabs, no form fields. Just select and fix.

See It in Action

Here's a citation that's close but not quite right:

Before

Smith, J. (2023). The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Behavior. Journal of Child Psychology, 45(2), 123-145. It was really interesting to look at how these platforms affect young people. This study really highlighted the importance of considering these effects. Note: Please ensure accurate formatting for this citation.

Select the text, press ⌥⇧⌘C, and WunderType transforms it to:

After

Smith, J. (2023). The impact of social media on adolescent behavior. Journal of Child Psychology, 45(2), 123–145.

The title is now in sentence case, the journal name and volume are italicized, the hyphen became an en dash, and the unnecessary commentary was stripped. Ready to drop into a reference list.

APA 7th Edition Without the Guesswork

The APA 7th edition introduced changes that trip up even experienced researchers — DOI formatting, the handling of 21+ authors, and updated rules for electronic sources. Instead of checking each rule manually, your Custom Prompt applies them all at once. You can also customize the instruction for specific source types like books, websites, or conference papers.

Set It Up in 30 Seconds

1. Click the WunderType icon in your menu bar and open Custom Prompts
2. Create a new prompt named "APA Citation Tool" with this instruction: Format the selected text as a correct APA 7th edition citation with proper capitalization, italics, and punctuation
3. Assign a keyboard shortcut — now it works in any app on your Mac

Works in Word, Google Docs, and Everywhere Else

Whether you write in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Pages, or Overleaf in your browser, WunderType works system-wide on macOS. Your APA formatting shortcut is always one keystroke away — no plugins or extensions needed for each app.

Download WunderType from the Mac App Store and stop second-guessing your APA citations.