How do I change the default settings for Word docs in MS One Drive?
September 5, 2022 3:03 PM Subscribe
Whenever I create a Word Doc in Microsoft One Drive (image) it defaults to Calibri 11. I would like each new document to be Times New Roman 12. How do I make that happen?
Trying to format anything in Word without understanding Styles (which are the fundamental components of Templates) will drive you mad. Word will probably drive you mad anyway, but understanding Styles will tune you down from Barking Mad to merely Absolutely Mad. In addition to the article theora55 linked, there are probably a million other articles on Word templates and styles, because everyone has realized how important they are.
posted by lhauser at 4:33 PM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by lhauser at 4:33 PM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
The steps for changing defaults on your computer will (I think almost certainly) not work to change documents created online.
This discussion from 2019 suggests that this feature did not exist at that time.
When I googled this, most of the results were explaining how to change the desktop template.
However, once you do create a document, the durable way of changing the font is to modify the style "Normal" to have the font that you want, and any other styles you use.
This article says that editing styles is impossible on the web version and must be done by opening the desktop app.
All unfortunate. I suggest you save a blank document with the styles you want (editing the styles on the desktop app), save to OneDrive, and create new documents by creating a copy of that document. On desktop this could be done by creating a template, but I doubt templates function properly on web.
Memail me if you want help with the styles - if you tell me what you want I can quickly whip it up for you and you could copy that.
posted by lookoutbelow at 5:02 PM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
This discussion from 2019 suggests that this feature did not exist at that time.
When I googled this, most of the results were explaining how to change the desktop template.
However, once you do create a document, the durable way of changing the font is to modify the style "Normal" to have the font that you want, and any other styles you use.
This article says that editing styles is impossible on the web version and must be done by opening the desktop app.
All unfortunate. I suggest you save a blank document with the styles you want (editing the styles on the desktop app), save to OneDrive, and create new documents by creating a copy of that document. On desktop this could be done by creating a template, but I doubt templates function properly on web.
Memail me if you want help with the styles - if you tell me what you want I can quickly whip it up for you and you could copy that.
posted by lookoutbelow at 5:02 PM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Per this article from Microsoft, lookoutbelow’s approach is the official solution to using templates on Word for web.
posted by MadamM at 7:42 PM on September 5, 2022
posted by MadamM at 7:42 PM on September 5, 2022
Microsoft stores ALL default document settings in "normal.DOTM" (document template) for the desktop version.
Please follow the instructions here
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-normal-template-normal-dotm-06de294b-d216-47f6-ab77-ccb5166f98ea
TL;DR if you have Office newer than 2007
posted by kschang at 11:46 PM on September 5, 2022
Please follow the instructions here
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-normal-template-normal-dotm-06de294b-d216-47f6-ab77-ccb5166f98ea
TL;DR if you have Office newer than 2007
On the File tab, click Open.The article suggests it should still work for Word for MS 365.
Go to C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.
Open the Normal template (Normal.dotm).
Make any changes that you want to the fonts, margins, spacing, and other settings. You can use the same commands and features that you use to change a document — but remember that any changes that you make to Normal.dotm will be applied to documents that you create in the future.
When you have finished, click the File tab, and then click Save.
posted by kschang at 11:46 PM on September 5, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by theora55 at 3:39 PM on September 5, 2022