In a new, blank document, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S to display the Styles pane. Click the Manage Styles button. On the Set Defaults tab, make sure that the "Left" indent is zero and that "Special" is set to "(none)." Select "New documents based on this template" and click OK. If/when you are prompted to save the Normal template, choose to do so.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hard to believe but I managed to not succeed despite your thorough instructions.

I reset the left margin from .25 to 0. And I thought the 'special' was not an issue since there is just white space to the right of 'special:' and 'by:'.

I suspect the problem arose when I exited Word. I was not prompted to save the Normal template but to doc1--which I did. So when I load a new blank page the problem still remains and if I load doc1 I'm fine.

So what's the trick to get Word to prompt the Normal template after making the changes or Save As this corrected doc1 as the Normal template?

Mark

By default, if you are not prompted, Word saves changes to the Normal template without asking.

If Word, for some reason which must be troubleshot separately, can't save Normal correctly, the workaround is to open the template as a document and then change the defaults. The easiest way is as follows: From within Word, press Alt+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor. Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window. Type

NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

and press Enter. Normal opens in its own window (and you should now close the Visual Basic Editor). Change the defaults in the Manage Styles dialog (this time, you don't have to select "New documents based on this template"). Save and close the template.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I did as you suggested yet the Normal template still indents. I've attached 2 screen shots--_1 displays the Normal template (you can read the filename at the top bar) with Manage styles alongside showing the correct Left settings and _2 displays the same Normal template after I've typed a line and the line indents?

Mark

Attached Images

	Normal_1.jpg (69.9 KB, 15 views)
	Normal_2.PNG (159.0 KB, 16 views)