In my fifteen years of teaching and tutoring tech, I’ve seen everything–and come up with solutions for most of it. I’ll share those with you. My goal: That students (of all ages) feel empowered not frightened by technology, that it is fun not frustrating. These tips will get you there with you and your kids.
Q: If you’re like me, you don’t like MS Office 2007 or 2010’s default font of Calibri, size 11 with a double space between paragraphs. Here’s how you fix that:
- Type a couple of paragraphs in any document
- Highlight what you typed and right click
- Select font
- Change the font to what you prefer. In my case, it’s TNR 12
- Click the Default button on the lower left and approve that this is, in fact, how you’d like a future documents to be formatted when opening a new document. If it asks whether you want this for future documents, say Yes.
- Now right click again and select Paragraph
- Make sure Line Spacing is single (or double if you’re following MLS)
- Go to Spacing and make sure both Before and After show 0 pts.
- Click Default
That’s it. The next time you open a document in MS Word, it will open with this revised formatting.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
