Video:Word Tutorial: How to Change the Normal Template

Transcript:Word Tutorial: How to Change the Normal Template

Hello, this is Adam Watstein for About.com. Microsoft Office 2010 gives you many different styles that you could choose from for your documents.

Why Change the Normal Template in Microsoft Word?

Let's say you have a document and you want to find just the right style to complement what you're trying to say. Highlight all of the text and then go up into styles. Here, by selecting the different styles in the pane, you'll see the immediate effect that the style has on the document.

Instructions for Changing the Normal Template in Microsoft Word

As you can see, I can click on this drop-down arrow to look at the long list of styles to choose from. Keep in mind that the default style in all Microsoft Word documents is “Normal.” But it doesn't mean that you can't modify this Normal setting. And here's how you modify the Normal style.

Additional Instructions for Changing the Normal Template in Microsoft Word

Now go over to the Normal style and right click it. Go down to Modify. As you can see, there are numerous options that you can change – you can change the name of the style, but let's just say you want to simply change the default text. Times New Roman is the default text in the normal style but let's say I don't want to write in Times New Roman every time I write a document, I like to write in Arial. So, I'm going to select Arial as my default font. And, I don't like writing in 12 point, I want to write in 14 point.

After you've made all of the changes you want to make to your normal style layout, go down to New Documents Based on this Template. Now, by checking this, every time I start a new document, it will write in Arial and 14 point. By selecting OK, you'll see the changes to the document – and again, every time I start a new document, I'll be writing in Arial and 14 point. And that's how we change Styles in Word 2010.

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