How can I set my tabs so that they are always set in all my Word documents?

And for tips on setting other defaults in Word, see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm

You can set this for all new documents by changing the styles that are saved in your Normal.dotm file. Here are the steps:

1. Use File>New>Blank document to create a new blank document from Normal.dotm.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles gallery, right-click on Normal and choose Modify.
3. In the Modify Style dialog, check the option for New documents based on this template.
4. Click on the Format dropdown and choose Tabs. The Tabs dialog opens.
5. Set your preferred tabs, then OK out. The tabs are saved to Normal.dotm.
6. Create another new blank document to test.

For documents received from other sources and old files that you created, those documents will always have the tabs as set by the person who created the original file. Changing the tabs will likely change some of the page formatting in those files. You would have to create a VBA macro to reset the tabs, or reapply a template that has the new tab settings. Please post again if you want the steps to do either of these.

To set new default tab stops, change that setting in the Tabs dialog box. You will have to open your template for editing first.

Note that default tab stops are used when you haven't explicitly set custom tab stops.

Setting custom tab stops in a paragraph style is the better option. See John's reply.

For even more, read Suzanne S. Barnhill's article at http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/SettingTabs.htm.