Word 2010 Default Footnote

[VRM]

How does one change the default footnote style for all new document
(font, font size, spacing, justification, etc.)? I know I need t
create a new default template incorporating the required changes.
However, when I attempt to change styles, I can change the font, but no
the font size. I am unable to make all the formatting changes necessar
at the same time. Also, any idea what book I could purchase that woul
contain in-depth coverage of Word 2010 that is not necessarily to
technical

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

You don't need a new default template; you just need to change the style in
your normal.dotx or normal.dotm (if it contains macros) template. (I use
Word2007, so it might be slightly different in Word2010, but probably not.)

I 1) Open the normal.dot template. (Not by clicking on it; that gets you a new
document based on it.) Select "Open" under the Office menu, then navigate to
"templates."

2) Open one of the ways of getting at the Styles, such as Ctrl-Shift-S or
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S. Go to the Footnote Text style in the list. Click Modify
(or right-click on the name and choose Modify).

3) Make all the changes you can possibly think of (but you can always come
back and do more) and exit the Styles area.

4) Type a character (any character) in the text area and delete it. (That's
just to be sure Word knows you've made a change.)

5) Save the template.

6) The next new document you open will have the modified style -- but it
isn't retroactive to existing documents created with that template.

(7) If you need to put the new Footnote Text style in an existing document,
you can copy it over using the "Styles Management" panel, but that would be
a different lesson.)

II. The other possibility is to make the changes in the style in an
existing document, but when you're in the main Modify panel, note the
checkbox at the bottom for "Make these changes in the document template"
or something like that -- if you check that, the next time you Save the
document, Word will ask you whether you want to save the changes to the
template as well. Say yes.

The "For Dummies" series are pretty good for someone who doesn't want to
get too technical. Microsoft's "Step by Step" series is less helpful (I
think it's the one that insists you load its examples from the disk and
"learn by doing," which is a pretty slow way to do it) but also aimed at
the beginner.

 

[Stefan Blom]

To add to what Peter said, the "New documents based on this template" radio
button (simply called "Add to template" in older versions of Word) is
usually the quickest method when you want to change a style definition.

Sometimes you do have to open the Normal template and modify it directly.
For example, poorly designed add-ins (unfortunately, there is a large number
of those) may interfere with Word's saving the template.