Turabian Format in Google Docs: Complete 2026 Guide

Turabian is Chicago style adapted for student research papers. Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations has been the go-to guide for undergrad and graduate students for decades, and its 9th edition rules apply to everything from history seminar papers to theology dissertations. If your professor says "use Turabian," they mean a specific mix of page layout, footnote citations, and bibliography formatting that Google Docs doesn't set up automatically.

This guide walks through every setting — from margins and font to footnote formatting and bibliography entries — so you can build a clean Turabian paper in Google Docs from scratch without guessing.

1. Turabian vs. Chicago: What's the Difference?

Turabian is not a separate style — it is a streamlined adaptation of the Chicago Manual of Style designed specifically for student papers. The two formats share the same citation logic. The main differences are practical ones for students:

• Title page: Turabian uses a dedicated title page; the full Chicago style often doesn't require one.
• Paper length: Turabian guidance targets shorter papers (10–50 pages), while Chicago covers book-length manuscripts.
• Two systems: Turabian supports both Notes-Bibliography (NB) and Author-Date (AD) systems. Humanities courses almost always use NB (footnotes + bibliography). Sciences and social sciences use AD (in-text author-year citations + reference list).

If your professor hasn't specified which system to use, ask. Using the wrong one — author-date in a history paper — is a common error that a quick email prevents.

2. Page Setup: Font, Margins, and Spacing

Start with a blank Google Doc. Copying from a previous paper or a template imports hidden formatting that surfaces at the worst moment.

Font

1. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) to select everything.
2. Set the font to Times New Roman, 12 pt.

Turabian specifies a legible 10–12 pt serif font. Times New Roman at 12 pt is the universal safe choice. Some programs allow 11 pt Calibri or Georgia, but Times New Roman removes any ambiguity with your professor.

Margins

1. Go to File > Page setup.
2. Set all four margins (top, bottom, left, right) to 1 inch.
3. Click OK.

Turabian's standard is 1-inch margins on all sides. Some thesis programs require a larger left margin (1.25” or 1.5”) to accommodate binding — check your institution's specific requirements if you're submitting a thesis or dissertation.

Line Spacing

1. Go to Format > Line & paragraph spacing > Double.
2. From the same menu, click Remove space after paragraph.

The body of a Turabian paper is double-spaced. Footnotes and bibliography entries are single-spaced within each entry, with a blank line between entries — we'll handle those separately.

3. The Title Page

Turabian requires a separate title page. Unlike MLA — which uses a heading block at the top of page one — Turabian puts the paper's identifying information on its own page, so the body starts fresh on page two.

Title page layout

Center all content on the title page. The vertical placement follows a rough thirds rule: the title sits in the upper third, and the author's information sits in the lower third. You can approximate this in Google Docs by pressing Enter several times before the title, then pressing Enter again after it to push the author block down.

• No page number on the title page (suppress it — instructions below).
• No bold, underline, or quotation marks on the title.
• Italicize book or film titles within your paper title if applicable.
• Date format: day month year (e.g., 24 June 2026) or month day, year (June 24, 2026) — both are acceptable.

Suppressing the page number on page one

1. Insert a page break (Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter) after the title page content.
2. Go to Insert > Headers & footers > Header.
3. Check Different first page in the options panel.
4. Leave the first-page header blank.
5. Click into the header on page two and add your running header (last name + page number, right-aligned).

Turabian numbers the first page of the body as page 1, but many instructors want the title page uncounted. The "Different first page" option accomplishes both at once: the title page has no header, and page numbering begins on the next page.

4. Footnotes: The Heart of the Notes-Bibliography System

In Turabian's Notes-Bibliography system, every source you cite gets a footnote at the bottom of the page where you cite it. Footnotes are numbered consecutively throughout the paper — 1, 2, 3 — and the number appears as a superscript immediately after the cited material.

Inserting a footnote in Google Docs

1. Place your cursor immediately after the period or quoted text that needs a citation.
2. Go to Insert > Footnote (or press Ctrl+Alt+F / Cmd+Option+F).
3. Google Docs inserts a superscript number in the text and drops you to the footnote area at the bottom of the page.
4. Type the citation directly in the footnote area.

Google Docs handles the numbering automatically. If you insert a new footnote between existing ones, all subsequent numbers update. Never type footnote numbers manually.

Footnote formatting

Turabian footnotes use a specific format that differs from the bibliography entry for the same source. The most common differences:

• Author's name is in normal order (First Last), not inverted.
• Publication details appear in parentheses.
• A specific page number is included at the end.

Shortened footnotes for repeated sources

When you cite the same source more than once, Turabian 9th edition uses a shortened form instead of Ibid. The short form includes the author's last name, a shortened title (4 words or fewer), and the page number:

5. The Bibliography Page

The bibliography lists every source cited in the footnotes. It appears at the end of the paper on its own page and is formatted differently from footnotes — author name inverted, no page numbers (unless citing a specific chapter or article), and a hanging indent.

Starting the bibliography page

1. At the end of your final body paragraph, insert a page break (Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter).
2. Center-align and type Bibliography in Times New Roman 12 pt — no bold, italics, or underlining.
3. Press Enter once and return to left alignment.
4. Type or paste your bibliography entries.

Bibliography entry format

Compare these bibliography entries with the footnote examples above to see the formatting differences:

Applying hanging indents

1. Highlight all bibliography entries.
2. Go to Format > Align & indent > Indentation options.
3. Under Special indent, choose Hanging and set the value to 0.5”.
4. Click Apply.

The first line of each entry sits flush left; all continuation lines indent 0.5”. This is the same hanging indent used in MLA and Chicago — it makes the author's last name (used for alphabetizing) easy to scan.

Spacing within and between entries

Turabian bibliography entries are single-spaced within each entry, with one blank line between entries. Since your document is set to double-spacing, you need to override the spacing for the bibliography section:

1. Highlight all bibliography entries.
2. Go to Format > Line & paragraph spacing > Single.
3. Then go to Format > Line & paragraph spacing > Add space after paragraph to insert a blank line between entries.

6. The Author-Date System (When Your Professor Requires It)

If your field uses author-date citations — social sciences, natural sciences, some interdisciplinary programs — the footnote-based NB system above is replaced by in-text parenthetical citations and a reference list.

Author-date in-text citations

Place the author's last name, publication year, and page number in parentheses immediately after the cited material:

Reference list vs. bibliography

In author-date style, the end-of-paper list is called a Reference List, not a Bibliography. The formatting differences are minor but important:

7. Common Turabian Mistakes in Google Docs

8. Headings, Subheadings, and Block Quotes

Headings

Turabian allows up to five levels of headings for longer papers. Most undergraduate papers need only two or three. The recommended hierarchy:

• Level 1 — Centered, bold, headline-style capitalization
• Level 2 — Centered, italic, headline-style capitalization
• Level 3 — Left-aligned, bold, headline-style capitalization
• Level 4 — Left-aligned, italic, headline-style capitalization
• Level 5 — Run-in with the paragraph text, bold, sentence-style capitalization, followed by a period

Do not skip levels. If you use level 1 and level 3, add level 2 in between.

Block quotes

Quotes of five or more lines should be set off as block quotes:

1. Start the quote on a new line without opening quotation marks.
2. Select the quoted text and apply a 0.5” left indent (Format > Align & indent > Indentation options).
3. Switch the block quote to single spacing.
4. Place the footnote number after the closing period of the quote.

9. Final Review Before Submission

Once the content is done, do a layout review in View > Print layout — the standard editing view compresses things in a way that hides spacing problems. Work through this list:

• Title page is separate with no page number in the header.
• Body starts on page 1 (or the page after the title, depending on your professor's instructions).
• Running header (last name + page number) appears top-right on every body page.
• All body text is Times New Roman 12 pt, double-spaced.
• First line of every paragraph indented 0.5”.
• Footnote numbers are superscript and follow closing punctuation.
• Footnotes are numbered consecutively; no Ibid.
• Bibliography is on its own page, single-spaced within entries.
• Hanging indents applied to all bibliography entries.
• Entries alphabetized by author's last name.

Export as PDF unless your professor requires .docx: File > Download > PDF Document (.pdf). Open the PDF and scroll through it — the page numbers, footnotes, and bibliography should look exactly as they did in the editor. If footnote text spilled onto the next page, adjust the surrounding content or reduce the amount of body text on that page slightly.

One More Thing: The Writing Under the Formatting

Clean Turabian formatting gets your paper in the door, but the writing still has to hold up. If you drafted any part of the paper with AI assistance, be aware that most universities now run submissions through AI detection tools alongside plagiarism checkers. A perfectly formatted footnote doesn't protect a paper flagged for AI-generated text.

AuraWrite AI rewrites AI-drafted prose so it reads like your own voice — preserving the arguments, citations, and structure while bringing the AI detection score back to human range. Run your draft through the humanizer before you build out the Turabian formatting. The structure is the same; the writing underneath sounds like it came from you.

Conclusion

Turabian in Google Docs is more involved than MLA or APA, but it follows a clear logic: a title page to identify the paper, footnotes to cite sources at the point of use, and a bibliography to list every source in full. Get the page setup right first, then build the title page, then write the body with footnotes as you go. The bibliography is easier to assemble at the end once all your footnotes exist.

Don't fight the editor — use Insert > Footnote instead of typing numbers, use page breaks instead of blank lines, and use the indentation options panel instead of the spacebar. Get those habits in place and Turabian formatting becomes mechanical rather than stressful.

Last updated: June 24, 2026