Word Mac - When creating a new document it defaults to letter instead of A4

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Word Mac - When creating a new document it defaults to letter instead of A4

Gerd Goebel 20

I am using MS Office H&B 2021 Mac

My Mac OS is Tahoe 26.1, with language set to US English and region set to USA.

I am in Europe and have all my printer defaults set to use A4 paper format.

However, when I create a new Word document it still always defaults to US Letter format instead of A4. I found some threads telling me to delete the normal.dotm, but after starting Word again, it still defaults to US Letter format.

I know I can go into the page setup and change the format, but after the printer defaults are A4 I would want Word to take this setting for new documents as well.

Is there any other setting I can or need to change, that any new document defaults to A4 format?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gerd

Answer accepted by question author

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Answer 1

John Korchok 223.8K Volunteer Moderator

To set the default page size in Word for Mac:

Create a new blank document.
Choose Format>Document from the macOS menu bar.
In the Document dialog, click on the Page Setup button.
Set the Paper Size to A4, then click on OK.
Back in the Document dialog, click on the Default... button.
When Word asks Do you want to change the default settings for page setup?, click on Yes.
Test by creating a new blank document.

Answer 2

To set the default paper size for new documents in Word for Mac to A4 instead of US Letter, you can follow these steps:

Open Word and create a new document.
Go to File > Page Setup.
In the Page Setup dialog, select A4 from the paper size options.
After selecting A4, look for an option to set this as the default. This may vary based on your version, but typically, there is a button or checkbox to set the current settings as default.
Click OK to save your changes.
Close Word and reopen it to check if new documents now default to A4.

If this does not resolve the issue, ensure that your printer settings are also configured correctly to use A4 as the default paper size. Sometimes, Word may default to the printer's settings when creating new documents.

If you continue to experience issues, you may want to check for updates to Word or consider resetting Word preferences, as sometimes settings can become corrupted.

References:

Answer 3

Gerd Goebel 20

There is no option to save the setting, and after closing Word and reopening it again, it still defaults back to US Letter.

Answer 4

Gerd Goebel 20

THANK YOU very much, John Korchok,

this finally fixed the problem. I tested creating a new document several times, checked the page layout and it sure always defaulted to A4.

You sure made my day.

Regards,

Gerd

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Word Mac - When creating a new document it defaults to letter instead of A4

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