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I have been able to change the default font to what I want, and the default margins, but cannot find a way to change the default style. I want to have it default to "No Spacing" instead of "Normal".
Note: I edited this on 9/27/11 to put "Normal" instead of "Paragraph", which I had erroneously put in originally.
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That setting doesn't ring a bell. Where do you set it?
When all else fails to change a default, I suggest opening the template for edting, NORMAL.DOTM is the default, and make changes there.
Dear usermcw,
I had the same issue, and finally found the solution - which is painfully simple once you get it!
Open a new word document
Click on the 'home' tab.
Go to the section 'font' which is in an enclosed box. To the lower right corner of this box is an arrow. Click on the arrow and a pop-up box will appear. Choose your default font eg Times. Then look below at the bottom left corner of this pop-up box: click 'Set as default'. Another pop-up box will appear saying if you want to apply these changes to the current document or all future documents, click on the second option. Then click on ok till you reach your blank document. You can test if this worked by opening a new document, it should go straight to Times font not Calibri.
The same applies for changing spacing: instead of 'home', now click on 'page layout', go to the box called 'paragraph'. In the lower right hand corner, click on the arrow so a pop-up appears. Choose/write 0 for before- and after- line spacings and click the 'set as default' button which appears below, and follow steps as mentioned.
If my description is hard to follow, you can check out some picture-steps at http://www.addictivetips.com/microsoft-office/change-default-font-settings-styles-in-word-2010/.
Hope this helps!
Cheers.
Thanks for the reply. I was able to do what I wanted by changing NORMAL.DOTM.
Indeed, there are many ways to accomplish the same, or almost the same, thing. My recommendation would be modifying document defaults or the Normal style.
Sadly none of the solutions work for me. I can open up the Normal.dotm template in Word, modify it, save it to over-write the existing file then close Word. When I re-launch Word a pane opens up telling me Word has recovered the Normal file and asks if I want to save it. It doesn't matter whether I select that recovered file or just close the recovered file window, I still end up with the original un-modified settings. There are no add-ins at all causing conflicts. I've tried deleting the Normal.dotm file and creating a new template but that doesn't work either. Seems to me that there's a bug in Word (like the Word Previewer bug) that no-one knows why it happens or can solve it. Still, I hate giving up on anything so let's see if any of you can come with a fix, please. Over to you.