How Do I Change the Default Settings in Open Office?
Changing the default settings in open office can make it easier to work with MS Word files. It can also be a lot easier to share files with people who only use MS Office. However, there are some occasions where it’s just better to keep the Microsoft formats as the defaults.
Open office is an open source office suite that contains applications for creating and editing documents (Writer), presentations (Impress), spreadsheets (Calc), graphics (Draw) and mathematical formulas (Math). It is completely free of charge, can be installed on multiple computers and is licensed for private, commercial, educational or government usage.
The first step is to create a template that includes the fonts, sizes and other formatting you want to use as the defaults. This can be done by creating and saving a new document based on the Normal template or by selecting an existing document that is based on the template and clicking File > Save As. Once the new template has been saved, it can be set as the default by opening the Template Management window and selecting the template you want to use as the default.
You can modify any template to change its default settings, including the ones for paragraph style, page layout and file format. It is important to remember, though, that all documents created from any template are based on the Normal template and will be impacted by any changes made to it. Therefore, you should only change the settings for the Normal template if you want all documents to be affected by your changes.
To change the fonts used for menus, headings and text body, click Tools > Options > OpenOffice > Fonts. Select the font that you want to be used for all of these and then choose a size. You should also uncheck the option to use system font for user interface. This is necessary if you want the fonts to display correctly, as this allows the program to use antialiasing.
If you want the fonts to be used for the title bar and window controls, you can also use this dialog box. In the fonts dialog box, you can choose from a number of different font families and sizes. You can also specify if the font should be displayed on screen only or both on screen and in print.
The last setting that you can change is the font for list contents. In this case, the default is Times New Roman 12 point. You can also choose a different font for the index and table of contents fonts. However, I couldn’t get the list content settings to work, so I’m unable to test these options. You can always change these back to the original settings later. You can also change the margin settings for all documents by using the dialog box. This is important if you’re working with a large document. This way, you can have a consistent look across all documents.
