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Can't change default style in Word

Anonymous
2011-09-26T22:54:58+00:00

I have been able to change the default font to what I want, and the default margins, but cannot find a way to change the default style.  I want to have it default to "No Spacing" instead of "Normal". 

Note:  I edited this on 9/27/11 to put "Normal" instead of "Paragraph", which I had erroneously put in originally.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-09-26T23:21:24+00:00

    That setting doesn't ring a bell. Where do you set it?

    When all else fails to change a default, I suggest opening the template for edting, NORMAL.DOTM is the default, and make changes there.

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.4K Reputation points MVP
    2013-05-08T18:01:45+00:00

    To quickly open the Normal template as a document, you can use the following trick: In Word, press Alt+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor. Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window. Type

    NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

    and press Enter. Normal opens in a separate document window (look at the title bar). Close the Visual Basic Editor and change the defaults in Normal.

    Note that most changes (such as changing font, size, line spacing, etc.) can be done from Word's dialog boxes, without opening Normal. If you find that you have to open the template for these changes, something is preventing you from correctly saving it. This must be troubleshot separately; see the sections referring to add-ins in the KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541/en-us/.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-08T14:02:15+00:00

    HI, thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what you mean by "modify Normal directly." I've tried modifying the Normal style on the ribbon, but to no effect. When I re-launch Word, I'm back at the 1.15 line spacing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-07T17:38:15+00:00

    Sadly none of the solutions work for me. I can open up the Normal.dotm template in Word, modify it, save it to over-write the existing file then close Word. When I re-launch Word a pane opens up telling me Word has recovered the Normal file and asks if I want to save it. It doesn't matter whether I select that recovered file or just close the recovered file window, I still end up with the original un-modified settings. There are no add-ins at all causing conflicts. I've tried deleting the Normal.dotm file and creating a new template but that doesn't work either. Seems to me that there's a bug in Word (like the Word Previewer bug) that no-one knows why it happens or can solve it. Still, I hate giving up on anything so let's see if any of you can come with a fix, please. Over to you.

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  4. Stefan Blom 339.4K Reputation points MVP
    2011-09-26T23:25:40+00:00

    You can modify the Normal style (which is applied to the empty paragraph in the Normal template) as follows: Create a new, blank document, for example by pressing Ctrl+N. On the Home tab, click the dialog launcher button (the little arrow on the bottom right) of the Paragraph group. Change the Spacing Before and After to zero. Click the Set As Default button. If/when you are prompted to save the Normal template, choose to do so.

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