Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: If you’re like me, you don’t like MS Office 2007 or 2010′s default font of Calibri, size 11 with a double space between paragraphs. Here’s how you fix that:
- Type a couple of paragraphs in any document
- Highlight what you typed and right click

- Select font
- Change the font to what you prefer. In my case, it’s TNR 12
- Click the Default button on the lower left and approve that this is, in fact, how you’d like a future documents to be formatted when opening a new document. If it asks whether you want this for future documents, say Yes.
- Now right click again and select Paragraph
- Make sure Line Spacing is single (or double if you’re following MLS)
- Go to Spacing and make sure both Before and After show 0 pts.
- Click Default
That’s it. The next time you open a document in MS Word, it will open with this revised formatting.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and four ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.






































Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you! I’ve always wondered how to change the defaults but had no clue.
By: Ms. Nine on July 3, 2012
at 6:52 am
Cool, isn’t it? I taught all my 8th graders to do it.
By: Jacqui Murray on July 3, 2012
at 7:21 am
Thank you for making it so easy to follow the directions. The photo and highlighted sections make this a breeze. I might not be as smart as an 8th grader, but I can follow these directions!
By: Shari Pratt on July 3, 2012
at 10:39 am
Hehe.
By: Jacqui Murray on July 4, 2012
at 9:41 am