Art,
When Word opens to a blank document, it opens the the
Normal Template, with the Style Normal. Word uses default
settings for these, which you can modify. After you enter
the document, click Format | Font: select the font style
you want and click the button labeled Default at the lower
left of the dialog.
Learning to use styles within Word provides you with a
great deal more flexibility however:
for a brief summary see...
http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/column14.asp
jesse