Modifying the MS Word 2007 normal.dotm Template

One of the greatest unanswered questions of all time will inevitably go down in history as: “Why did Microsoft change the normal.dot template of MS Word to Calibri 11 with extra spacing and multiple lines?” The question following that will be: “Who on this planet actually enjoys using this style?” My speculations and further comments on the matter cannot be written in a public venue.

So, what is the normal.dot or normal.dotm? This is the “blank” document on which all new MS Word documents are based. If you work at a larger office or corporation, chances are your IT staff have already rectified this ghastly situation for you. If you are a solo practitioner or in a small office, you are perhaps still struggling with the aforementioned unwieldly style. Here is the quick solution.

Open MS Word 2007. Click on the Office Button in the upper left corner of your screen. Click on Open. Under Microsoft Office Word there will be a folder labelled Templates. Click Templates and then double click the Normal.dotm file. This should open the MS Word 2007 template.

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Press < Ctrl + a > on the keyboard to select everything (even though there is nothing but one blank line there). Now you are free to change the Font (perhaps to Times New Roman), and Font Size (perhaps to 12). Most importantly, click on Paragraph (the region highlighted in the screenshot below with a red box) and edit the spacing according to your personal preferences (likely what is displayed in the screenshot below).

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Save the document template with your changes. All future documents created will carry the formatting style you previously set in the template.

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