How do I change the default typeface in Microsoft Word for the Mac?

Turns out that I just a few days ago helped someone with that very problem on their shiny new Apple MacBook, having just installed Microsoft Office:Mac 2004 (amazing that there hasn't been an update since 2004, but that's another story!)

The key is to know that Word uses something called the "Normal template" as the basis of any new document you create. Think of it as a skeleton that tells Word exactly what settings you want. By default, "Normal" has Times New Roman, specific left, right, top and bottom margins, page numbering turned off, etc etc, but just about everything can be changed if you want to experiment.

Let's talk about the basic step you want to accomplish, though. Start up Microsoft Word on your Apple Mac, then go to File --> Open and type in "Normal" in the small "find" window:

Make sure that the bottom menu indicates "Original" too, to ensure that when you do open up the document, you'll be saving your changes back to the original, not a copy elsewhere on the file system.

Now use Edit --> Select All, then Format --> Font... and make the changes you desire:

That's all there is to it. Click on "OK" to set the new typeface, then choose File --> Save and quit the program.

Restart Word, launch a new document and you should find that your default typeface has changed to be Papyrus 13 point, or whatever else you may have chosen.

If you want to go a bit more hog-wild with changes to the default Normal template, I do strongly recommend that you make a copy of it first and keep that safely squirreled away, just in case something goes south or gets too darn weird. Ya just never know...