How do I change the Default Theme Font in Outlook?

In a new e-mail message in Outlook, go to the Format Text tab. In the Styles group, click Change Styles > Fonts and choose the desired font theme. Alternatively, create your own, custom font theme.

Finally, click the Set as Default option on the Change Styles drop down.

So I have the same issue after an update to Office 365 in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and while Word lets you actually SET A DEFAULT theme you select, none of the other applications DO...

There is literally NO reason why Microsoft can NOT make ALL the applications have a means to do what Word allows - which is select a theme from the available list, then click a "SET AS DEFAULT" and that's it.

I can do any workaround on my personal computers at home, but at work, the systems are locked down and if there's something needing to be set-up or saved in my user folder on the C: drive, I can't do it and any thing that requires a system modification has to be done by the IT department -- and while I could implement workarounds myself, the IT department won't let me and they won't even bother to try.

So, yeah, I'm "stuck" with having to either just accept the changes Microsoft forced on me by changing the theme in the update, or having to set a theme every time I start a new Excel workbook, new PowerPoint deck, new Email....

Unless someone can tell me how to get around this (and I've tried everything mentioned here for Outlook to no avail.)

Microsoft has ALWAYS had an issue with consistency of basic functionality in the menu structures of their Office suite... and it seems like they ALWAYS will and will continue to make changes that force end-users by default to do things they way they think things should be done, and not the way that end-users would like to do thing.

Sorry for the rant.... but this is beyond annoying.

Hi Stefan

Thanks. I've tried that and can see that it only remembers the font, not the size.

After realising the above, I went to options -> mail -> fonts & stationery -> new html messages. If I change the Theme toggle from 'use default theme font' to 'use preferred font' it still doesnt do it. Your above fix can be used to remember the font only, not the size.

So, the only way to to do this is to adjust the default Theme font size for new HTML messages or get the 'use preferred font' toggle to actually work. I presume this is a bug?

Gus,

In Outlook for Windows, you can change the font size in the Signatures and Stationery dialog box.

Also, you can make changes from a new e-mail message. Individual styles can be modified via the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S).

For doc defaults, click the Manage Styles icon on the bottom of the Styles pane and go to the Set Defaults tab of the dialog box.

Always choose the "New documents based on this template" option to save the new settings so that they apply to future e-mails that you create.

Hi Stefan

Thanks. I've tried that and can see that it only remembers the font, not the size.

After realising the above, I went to options -> mail -> fonts & stationery -> new html messages. If I change the Theme toggle from 'use default theme font' to 'use preferred font' it still doesnt do it. Your above fix can be used to remember the font only, not the size.

So, the only way to to do this is to adjust the default Theme font size for new HTML messages or get the 'use preferred font' toggle to actually work. I presume this is a bug?

Hi Stefan,

thank you for sharing your tips - highly appreciated!

While we understand that Microsoft wants to change the default look of the Microsoft 365 Apps - formerly known as Microsoft Office - we need to have an automated way to control this.

How can we create a .thmx theme file to copy this with a script into the folder "c:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes"

of every user so that it automatically uses the desired font without any end user interaction?

Alternatively: Is there an ADMX file to set a group policy to control this centrally?

Best regards, Christian