How To Change Default Settings In Formatted Template

How to change the default settings for new Word documents

Introduction

Background

Irresolute default formatting for new documents

Word 2003 and earlier

Changing default page formatting
Irresolute default font formatting
Changing default paragraph formatting
Changing other styles

Give-and-take 2007

Irresolute default page formatting
Changing default font formatting
Irresolute default paragraph formatting
Changing other styles
Changing certificate defaults

Discussion 2010

Changing default folio formatting
Changing default font formatting
Irresolute default paragraph formatting
Changing other styles
Changing document defaults

Discussion 2013 and higher up

Changing default page formatting
Changing default font formatting
Changing default paragraph formatting
Irresolute other styles
Changing document defaults

Other changes

Changes that are not recommended

What you should never do

If you lot make changes you shouldn�t have

Introduction: a template behind every document

Whenever you start Discussion with a new blank certificate or create a new document past selecting from the offerings at File | New or Role Button | New, that certificate is based on a template, a special kind of file that contains instructions for formatting a document, including specifications for the page size and margins, the font style and size, paragraph formatting, etc.

When that document is the �Blank certificate� that Word starts with, or that you can choose from the New dialog or New tab of the Backstage (or create with Ctrl+North), the template is the built-in default template called Normal.

The Normal template serves as more than than a certificate template; it is also a �global� template, which ways that it stores certain kinds of customizations, including macros, AutoText entries, and (in earlier versions) toolbar and card customizations. These customizations are bachelor in every document you lot create, not simply those based on the Normal template (that�due south why Normal is called �global�).

Although all templates, including Normal, contain many styles, the basic style in every template is chosen Normal. That is the mode applied to the default empty paragraph in whatever new certificate, and most of the rest of the styles in the document are based on it, so making changes in the Normal manner has a ripple effect throughout all the styles.

Background: the evolution of the Normal manner

If you await at the formatting of the default Normal style in early versions of Word, you can deduce that Discussion�southward designers assumed that Word would mostly be used to create business messages and reports. The font used was ten-point Times New Roman, a compact font at a size that approximated 12-pitch �Elite� type on a typewriter, which is what early Word users would take been familiar with. To proceed lines of small type from beingness as well wide to read easily, the side margins were set at a generous one.25 inches left and right. Paragraphs were left-aligned (non justified), with no indents, and unmarried-spaced, with no Spacing Before or After. The letter of the alphabet templates used past the Letter of the alphabet Wizard used 13-bespeak Times New Roman, a larger size improve suited to shorter documents. You could have any color you liked equally long as it was black: most users were assumed to be using monochrome printers, and so colour was reserved for graphics (pictures, charts, and the like). Although font color could be practical, the default styles were all set up to �Automatic� (black on a light background, white on a dark groundwork).

In Word 2000, the default font size was increased to 12 points (approximately equivalent to �Pica� type on a typewriter). According to Microsoft, �This change was implemented considering many Web browsers employ 12pt as their default font size.� This decision, 1 of many implemented to make Word 2000 more Web-compatible, therefore evidently had zippo to practice with what might be most appropriate for printed documents.

In all versions of Give-and-take from the very outset through Word 2003, Times New Roman (a serif font) was used equally the font for torso text and Arial (a sans serif font) for headings. Word users became accustomed to these fonts. Times New Roman was so widely used that information technology became �invisible�: type whatsoever kind of document in TNR and no 1 would notice the font; it did non phone call attention to itself.

When Word 2007 was introduced, Word users were stunned. In addition to having to learn how to use the new Ribbon in identify of toolbars and menus, users were presented with new formatting for the Normal style. Serif and sans serif styles had been swapped. The new default Body font was Calibri (a sans serif font), at 11 points, with Cambria (a serif font) used for Headings. And the headings were blue! To add together to the confusion, the paragraph spacing had been prepare to 1.fifteen lines, with 10 points Spacing After, giving the appearance (to many users) of double spacing. In Word 2013, even this was changed: Body and Headings fonts were now Calibri and Calibri Light, and paragraph spacing was one.08 lines, with 8 points spacing after.

Even in the earliest versions of Word, information technology was not unreasonable to want narrower margins or a different font or font size. Fortunately, these were relatively easy to change. More contempo versions take added so many bells and whistles that it is non e'er obvious how to make the changes (sometimes there�s more than i way). This article will describe how to change page, paragraph, and font formatting in Word versions 2003 (and earlier), 2007, 2010, and 2013. Instructions for Word 2013 are all applicable to Word 2016.

Changing default formatting for new documents

There are basically two means to alter the formatting for all new documents. One is to create a template using your desired settings and base new documents on that template. This method is recommended for specific types of documents: reports, for instance, in which you always desire to accept a specific header or footer or comprehend folio, or letters, where you may want to include a letterhead. But if you want to change the basic formatting for a new Blank Certificate (what you get when you lot start Give-and-take), and then you demand to customize the Normal template. At that place are several ways to practise this, some of them quite unproblematic, but in that location are significant differences between versions, so you lot should find the version you have in the give-and-take beneath and follow those instructions.

Word 2003 and earlier

Changing default page formatting

All of the settings for folio-level formatting of a document or section (except columns) are found in Word�s Page Setup dialog. In Word 2003, you tin can open up this dialog by selecting Folio Setup� on the File bill of fare. An easier style to admission the dialog, if yous have the horizontal ruler displayed, is to double-click at the top of the ruler.

By default, the Page Setup dialog first opens to the Margins tab, shown below.

Discussion 2003 Page Setup dialog showing the Margins tab

The Newspaper and Layout tabs also present settings y'all may want to modify (the newspaper size, for example). Simply if all you want to practice is alter the default margins, here�s how to do it.

Open a new Discussion document and get to File | Page Setup�
Set up the margins the way you want them in your default document. Do not make any other changes in this dialog unless yous desire them to use to all new documents.
Click the Default� button at the bottom of the dialog.
Discussion will inquire whether you want the new settings to use to all new documents based on the Normal template. Answer Aye.

Give-and-take 2003 Page Setup default message box

Irresolute default font formatting

Changing the default font changes the font used by the Normal manner and all styles based on Normal for which another font is not specified. The default body font in Word 2003 is Times New Roman, then irresolute the default font will change the font of all styles that utilise that font. Arial is used for headings in Give-and-take 2003, and so the heading font volition not change unless you lot change information technology explicitly.

To alter the default font:

Open a new Word document and open the Font dialog. Y'all tin can do this by pressing Ctrl+D, past selecting Font� on the Format menu, or by right-clicking in the default empty paragraph and choosing Font� on the context menu.
In the Font dialog, change the font and/or font size to your preference.
Click the Default� button at the bottom of the dialog.

Discussion 2003 Font dialog showing Default... push

Word will enquire whether you desire the new settings to employ to all new documents based on the Normal template. Answer Yes.

Word 2003 Font default bulletin box

Changing default paragraph formatting

When you modify the default font using the Default... button as described above, you are changing the font for the Normal style. At that place is not a Default... button in the Paragraph dialog. Instead, you lot would have to change the paragraph formatting of the Normal style. Because and then many other styles are based on it, withal, it is not appropriate to make changes in the paragraph formatting of the Normal style. If you make Normal justified or double-spaced, for case, or give information technology some Spacing Earlier or After or a first-line indent, this modify may trickle down to other styles (see �How styles in Word pour�).

Changing other styles

You may, however, want to change the formatting of other styles in Word. For example, there are many expert reasons for using Give-and-take�s built-in Heading styles (run across �Ten reasons to employ Discussion's built-in Heading styles�), simply many users avoid them because they don�t like the formatting. Luckily, this is easy to change! Give-and-take MVP Shauna Kelly gives footstep-by-step instructions for doing this in her article �How to modify a style in Word.� Equally she explains, if you want your modified way to exist the default for all new documents, you should check the �Add to template� box in the Alter Style dialog, and the modify will be saved to Normal.dot.