Word is a powerful application, but some of the configuration tools are not very intuitive. It’s easy enough to change the font for text in your current document, but that doesn’t change the default font that’s applied every time you create a new document.
Changing the default font in Word is not obvious. We’ll show you an easy way to do this.
Open an existing document or enter some text in a new document. Select some text and click the “Font” dialog box button in the “Font” section of the “Home” tab.
On the “Font” dialog box, select the font you want to set as the default in the “Font” list box and click the “Set As Default” button.
A dialog box displays asking if you want to set the default font for the current document only or for all documents based on the Normal template. Select the “All documents based on the Normal.dotm template” radio button. Click “OK”.
NOTE: The new default font is saved only to the template currently in use. Existing documents will not be changed the next time they are opened.
If you have a custom template applied to the current document, the default font will be saved in that template and not in the Normal template. The easiest way to change the default font in the Normal template is to create a new document and then follow the steps in this article.
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To use your favorite font in Word all the time, set it as the default. If you’ve already changed the default font and the new setting isn’t sticking, scroll down to read about more things to try.
Now all new documents will use that font, unless you start with a custom template. To use a different font for one document, follow the same steps, but in step 5 click This document only. If the default font setting doesn’t persistSometimes, a company’s permission settings or some add-ins change the default font back to the original font. If that’s happening, here are some things to try. Check permissionsChange Default Font Word 2016
If you aren’t able to uncheck the Read-only box or if you don’t have Write permission, contact the person who’s in charge of your company’s computer systems. Turn off add-insIf you have Write permissions and the default font setting still doesn’t stick, you might have to turn off Word add-ins and change the default font setting. Here’s how:
After you change the default font, turn on the add-ins.
Note: You don’t have to turn off the Document Inspector type add-ins.
Answer by Joe Friend, Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft, on Quora,
Joe Friend, Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft
I managed the Word PM team during Office 2007. Our team championed this change. There were two key reasons to support the change:
1. Growth of digital consumption. We believed that more and more documents would never be printed but would solely be consumed on a digital device. Given we started this work in 2003 (long before Surface, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, etc.) this was a somewhat controversial opinion (more when it would happen, not if).
To support digital consumption the new fonts were created to improve screen readability. They do this via a technology called ClearType. You can learn more about that ClearType here: ClearType Overview. There is an excellent blog post from the Engineering Windows 7 blog that gives additional detail on the ClearType: Engineering Changes to ClearType in Windows 7
The collection of fonts introduced at this time are called the ClearType Font Collection.
2. At the time, Office was looking to modernize the look and feel of documents created by the Office applications. They hadn't changed substantially since the early 90s. Among many other improvements, the introduction of the new fonts had a big impact on the modern look. The use of san serif Calibri as our default body font (instead of the old standard Times New Roman) was one of the more controversial changes.
Calibri was just one of several fonts introduced at the time (ClearType Font Collection). Many other ClearType fonts for various languages have been released since. New Fonts in Windows 7
This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Microsoft:
Answer by Joe Friend, Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft, on Quora,
I managed the Word PM team during Office 2007. Our team championed this change. There were two key reasons to support the change:
1. Growth of digital consumption. We believed that more and more documents would never be printed but would solely be consumed on a digital device. Given we started this work in 2003 (long before Surface, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, etc.) this was a somewhat controversial opinion (more when it would happen, not if).
To support digital consumption the new fonts were created to improve screen readability. They do this via a technology called ClearType. You can learn more about that ClearType here: ClearType Overview. There is an excellent blog post from the Engineering Windows 7 blog that gives additional detail on the ClearType: Engineering Changes to ClearType in Windows 7
The collection of fonts introduced at this time are called the ClearType Font Collection.
2. At the time, Office was looking to modernize the look and feel of documents created by the Office applications. They hadn't changed substantially since the early 90s. Among many other improvements, the introduction of the new fonts had a big impact on the modern look. The use of san serif Calibri as our default body font (instead of the old standard Times New Roman) was one of the more controversial changes.
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Calibri was just one of several fonts introduced at the time (ClearType Font Collection). Many other ClearType fonts for various languages have been released since. New Fonts in Windows 7
This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Microsoft:
When you set a default font, every new document you open will use the font settings that you selected and set as the default. The default font applies to new documents that are based on the active template, usually Normal.dotm. You can create different templates to use different default font settings.
Note: In Word, you can also quickly and easily format an entire document to give it a professional and modern look by applying a document theme. A document theme is a set of formatting choices that can include a color scheme (a set of colors), a font scheme (a set of heading and body text fonts), and an effects scheme (a set of lines and fill effects).
Set the default font
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Change Default Font Wordpress
Start with a blank document, or if your document already contains text that is formatted with the properties that you want to use, select that text.
See also
Changing the default font in any template means that the font is used in every new document that is based on that template. For example, the default font for new blank documents is based on the Normal template.
Change the default character spacing
Changing the default character spacing in any template means that the settings for scale, spacing, position, kerning, and other typographic features are used in every new document that is based on that template. For example, the character spacing for new blank documents is based on the Normal template.
Change the default margins
Changing the default margins in any template means that the margin settings are used in every new document that is based on that template. For example, the margins for new blank documents are based on the Normal template.
Change the default layout
Changing the default layout in any template means that the section breaks, headers and footers, and other layout attributes are used in every new document that is based on that template. For example, the layout attributes for new blank documents are based on the Normal template.
Change other default settings in the Normal template
You can customize the Normal template and change default settings for many aspects of a document, such as text formatting, paragraph formatting, document formatting, styles, text, pictures, AutoText entries, and keyboard shortcuts. To make changes to Normal.dotm, you must open the file from Word. If you open Normal.dotm from the Finder, Word will create a new blank document based on the template.
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See also
You can change fonts in your documents, but the next time you create a new blank document, Word for the web reverts to 11-point Calibri. If you create a new document from a template, it may have a different default font.
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