How change default font in new MS Word 2010 and other previous versions

Trick to change default font in new MS word 2010

 I find this new problem when I start using new word 2010. This was so tricky in 2010. I hate Default font  11 point Calibri in Word 2007 after years of 12 point Times New Roman being the default.  Although it can be easily overlooked, there are ways in Word to change the default settings to anything you want.  Whether you want to change your default to 12 point Calibri or to 48 point Comic Sans…here’s how to change your default font settings in Word 2007 and 2010.

The default font for Word is defined in the Normal style of the global template (Normal.dot). Word uses the Normal.dot template if you do not specify another template.

Before we see word 2010 here is review of previous versions 2000, 2002 and 2003.

To Change the Default Font in MS word 2000

To change the style of the default font, follow these steps:

1. If you do not have a document open, create a new document based on the Normal template. To do this, click New on the File menu, and then click the General tab. Click Blank Document, and then click OK.



Picture of 2000



2. On the Format menu, click Font.

3. Select the font, point size, and any attributes that you want.

4. Click Default.

5. When you are prompted with the following message, click Yes.

Do you want to change the default font to font name?

This change will affect all new documents based on the NORMAL template.

6. While you hold down the SHIFT key, click Save All on the File menu.

NOTE: Click Cancel if Word prompts you to save the new blank document. Word will not prompt you to save the changes to the Normal template unless the Prompt to save Normal template option is selected on the Save tab (on the Tools menu, click Options).

How to change the style of the default font in Word 2002 or in Word 2003

 

To change the style of the default font in Word 2002 or in Word 2003, follow these steps:

1. If you do not have a document open, create a new document that is based on the Normal template.

To do this, click New on the File menu, and then click Blank Document in the New Document task pane.

2. On the Format menu, click Font.

3. Select the font, the point size, and any attributes that you want.

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4. Click Default.

5. Click Yes when you receive the following message:

Do you want to change the default font to font name?

This change will affect all new documents based on the NORMAL template.

6. On the File menu, hold the SHIFT key down, and then click Save All.

 

Note If Word prompts you to save the new blank document, click Cancel. Word will not prompt you to save the changes to the Normal template unless the Prompt to save Normal template option is selected on the Save tab. To find this option, click Options on the Tools menu.

MS Word 2010

Microsoft changed the default font to 11 point Calibri in Word 2007 after years of 12 point Times New Roman being the default.  Although it can be easily overlooked, there are ways in Word to change the default settings to anything you want.  Whether you want to change your default to 12 point Calibri or to 48 point Comic Sans…here’s how to change your default font settings in Word 2007 and 2010.

Changing Default Fonts in MS Word 2010

 

To change the default font settings, click the small box with an arrow in the right left corner of the Font section of the Home tab in the Ribbon.

In the Font dialog box, choose the default font settings you want.  Notice in the Font box it says “+Body”; this means that the font will be chosen by the document style you choose, and you are only selecting the default font style and size.  So, if your style uses Calibri, then your font will be Calibri at the size and style you chose.  If you’d prefer to choose a specific font to be the default, just select one from the drop-down box and this selection will override the font selection in your document style.

Here we left all the default settings, except we selected 12 point font in the Latin text box (this is your standard body text; users of Asian languages such as Chinese may see a box for Asian languages).  When you’ve made your selections, click the “Set as Default” button in the bottom left corner of the dialog.

You will be asked to confirm that you want these settings to be made default.  In Word 2010, you will be given the option to set these settings for this document only or for all documents.  Click the bullet beside “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template?”, and then click Ok.

Now, whenever you open Word or create a new document, your default font settings should be set exactly to what you want.  And simply repeat these steps to change your default font settings again if you want.

Please Note: Changing your default font size will not change the font size in existing documents, so these will still show the settings you used when these documents were created.