Try this: On the home tab on the ribbon click on the 'change styles' tab. Click on the 'style set' choice and choose word 2003. Click on the 'change styles' tab again and choose default. You can always change back if this doesn't work for you.

Genius! Thank you, it seems to have worked! I knew that there had to be an easy answer and someone at the GW would know it!
Many thanks. Do you know why it only does this on some documents? My assistant works on a MAC and it doesn't seem to happen. She may not be working from Office 2010.
Is this a problem for others too?

My Word 2007 was the same but I was not as clever as Bob and had a real fight before getting it to drop one line at a time. I went to 'Page layout' and changed the spacing but it took a few tries before allowing me to have my own way.

I'm not as clever as I am stubborn. I'm really fighting Office 2010 since I got my new computer. I use Publisher to publish a monthly newsletter and save it in pdf form to distribute it by email. Publisher 2010 has a Save AS pdf function but the problem is that it saves hyperlinks in a color that is barely visible. I can't change that and googling lets me know that there are many others with the same problem. I have an easy workaround, which is to use cute pdf writer to convert to pdf, but I don't see why Publisher can't do it right.

Bob, I've encountered a similar problem. Damn Microsoft, why can't they just leave good enough alone?!!! LOL!

Owbist- In my experience, that works for the document, but not for an envelope.

But it doesn't seem to be the same on my new iMac at home. There isn't an option on the Mac to save as 2003. WTH??

Some good info at this site....

Here is a link that might be useful: Word 2010 Spacing

It seems to have worked for me, but I had to delete my shortcut to the template I made and make a new one.

Thanks for asking about this.

I am so glad you wrote. I deal with this all the time. It should not be that complicated. I can't keep the same font
size and color. It reverts back to the same thing no matter what I do.

Now with full color refills on my printer I cannot get it to print in black even though that is the default.

They should have two menus....for those who want simple
typing with a few choices and those who need all the other advanced
choices. I stay frustrated and am so glad I have some allies here. Thanks for starting this post..

Ellie, I Googled about the font and found a way to set it. I don't remember exactly which way it worked. When you look at the top and see font, down in the lower right hand corner of that white square is an icon. Click on it, set your fonts and look for set as default in there. I don't think that worked for me. I may have just opened a blank page, set the font and saved as a template to my task bar. I think the second option is what worked. I don't like word but I just need to take the time to set up the tool bar so that I like it, like I did my windows live mail.

Ellie, you might find this interesting. I found two word tutorials at the URL below. One is on the quick access bar and the other is the ribbon. They are very easy tutorials to follow. The quick access is different from my word, it is there, but adding tools to the QA bar is not the same. I may learn something when I watch the ribbon tutorial. My word came with my office 2010, but don't know for sure if the word is 2010.

Here is a link that might be useful: Word

Hey there, that is a great link . You all have made me address the issues I face every day. Too many strokes to just get started. I have made templates and my one called normal is a free spirit. Bless its heart. Thanks a bunch, EmmaR. I will surely find some nuggets in that link.

Thanks Ellie, I thought so too. I Googled again and found the rest of the tutorials. I haven't found time to read them yet.

Stupid me, the quick access instructions didn't work for me because my MS Office Student and Home was somehow deactivated and I was using the starter that came on my PC. I reinstalled it and now My quick access bar is set up and the ribbon is minimized. I love learning this stuff.

As I said stupid of me, but probably just aging. I forgot to put the URL for the rest of the tutorials.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tutorials

I saw them. They are short and great.

I have been working at finding away to change the default font on all documents since this thread started. No matter what I clicked on the starter version came up so I thought that might be my problem. I finally uninstalled MS Office Starter and MS Office Student and Home, then just reinstalled the student and home. I still could not get the font style to stay at what I set it. I thought about what was said about the 2003 version and opened a blank page, set the font and single space, went to file and chose "save as". A menu came up and I chose to saveto my desktop as MS Word 97-2003 Template (.dot) and made a shortcut, so far it has held. In case some else is still having this problem I am posting my results. None of the other ways worked for me, a new document always came up with Office's default settings.