Many people have tried and tried to change the default font, size and paragraph spacing, etc. in Word without success.
The way HELP tells you to do it works with some business or professional versions of Office but doesn't seem to work
with Home or Student versions.

After hours of trial and error I discovered how to change it!

1. Open Word
2. In the Home tab below where the font is shown is a small word "Font".
..........To its right is a small arrow pointing down at a 45 degree angle. Click on that little arrow.
3. There change the font to the one and size you desire and click on "Set as Default"
4. Then choose the "All Documents" option in the window that pops up.
5. Now do the same for Paragraph settings using the small 45 degree arrow there.
6. Now "Save As" a Word Macro-Enabled Template in the following folder:
......... C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (name it MyNormal)
7. Close Word
8. Go to the folder where you just saved MyNormal
9. Delete any other files with Normal in the name.
10. Then rename your file MyNormal to just Normal.
11. Open Word - The default should now show the font and paragraph settings you chose.

Good Luck!

Jon Mendenhall
January 16, 2014