How to change the Microsoft Word 2007 default format

If you want to change your Microsoft Word 2007 default format, it's pretty simple. In my situation, it was defaulting to extra line spacing that I didn't want. Instead I wanted all new documents to default to single spacing by default. In this example I'll show you how to setup single spacing, but this also shows you where to set any of the other default options too.

1. Open Microsoft Word 2007, then on the Home tab, look for Styles. Right-click on the Normal style, then choose Modify

2. At the bottom click the Format button, then select Paragraph

3. Change the Line Spacing dropdown to Single, and also change the After spacing to 0 pt. Then click OK

4. Change the selection at the bottom to "New documents based on this template", then click OK

Of course you can make any modifications you want to through this process, and as long as you select the "New documents based on this template" option before you click OK, your new documents will be based on those settings.