changing the default tab settings

T

tony

when i open word 2007, there is a default centre & right tab set. If i do a
bullett or numbered points and save as 2003 compatable, the alignmennt of the
words goes in line with the centre tab. Its fine if i save as docx. I've gone
into the tab settings and tried removing the tabs and changing them to left
but they reappear everytime i start a new document. Is there something in
styles or the default template that is the cause?
 
J

Jay Freedman

tony said:
when i open word 2007, there is a default centre & right tab set. If
i do a bullett or numbered points and save as 2003 compatable, the
alignmennt of the words goes in line with the centre tab. Its fine if
i save as docx. I've gone into the tab settings and tried removing
the tabs and changing them to left but they reappear everytime i
start a new document. Is there something in styles or the default
template that is the cause?

Your Normal.dotm template is messed up.

In new documents based on the default Normal.dotm template, the empty single
paragraph has the Normal style, in which there are no defined tab stops
(only the invisible "default" stops).

The center and right tab stops are standard for the Header style and the
Footer style, but the empty single paragraph in a new document shouldn't
have either of those styles.

So your Normal.dotm template may have Header or Footer style applied to the
empty paragraph, or it may have unwanted tab stops defined in the Normal
style. Either of those is wrong.

Rather than mess around with trying to fix the existing template, the
easiest course is to restore the Normal.dotm template to the out-of-the-box
default. To do that:

- Close all instances of Word.
- Using the Windows Explorer (also called Computer or My Computer, depending
on Windows version), type in the folder path
%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates
- Select the Normal.dotm template and rename it to OldNormal.dotm.
- Restart Word. Your new document should be free of unwanted tab stops and
other weirdness.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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