How-To: Revert Default Fonts

Word decided to unilaterally and without notice change everyone’s default fonts used on new documents.

There has been a “Set as Default” button… not sure how long it has been there, so you don’t need to manually open the template file.

1. Open a new document
2. Set the Font Typeface
   1. Click on Design in the Ribbon
   2. Towards the right, there is an icon with an A and Fonts text under it, click it
   3. Click the Office 2013-2022 item in the drop-down list (Or can select your own choice)
3. Set anything else you want as defaults while you are at it (i.e. Text Styles)
4. Under Design, beside Fonts, click the Set as Default, then Yes to confirm the changes.

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To revert the changes for any new documents, it needs to be set in the Normal.dotm file. The steps below will work with any version of Office:

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1. Navigate to C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates directory (Folder may be hidden, but can use %appdata% to get half way there)
2. Right-click on Normal.dotm file and select Open (double-clicking will not open it but just create a new document based on the template, which is not what needs to be done)
3. Click on Design in the Ribbon
4. Towards the right, there is an icon with an A and Fonts text under it; click it
5. Click the Office 2013-2022 item in the drop-down list (Or can select your own choice)
6. Save the Normal.dotm file, then close it.
7. Test to see if a new file will have the correct format now.

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If you have an existing file you wish to change back, use Steps 3-5 for the file(s) that need to be changed.

Reverting to the defaults, if Word will not open, is easy: With Word closed, use step 1 to navigate to the folder and delete or rename the Normal.dotm file and then open Word, which will cause it to generate a new template from the defaults. Note: this may affect plugins or any other customizations done to your install.

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