I have this issue, too; and the stupid network permissions at the job won’t save anything I set… grrrrrrr. I have to reset the reading pane view, type in the font name and change the color, etc. Every. Stinking. Time.

I don’t remember how to do it, but I know you can do it. I reset the default font to Book Antiqua years ago and haven’t looked back. I’d say start a new document and set your font and then go clicking around menus until you find something that says “set as default” or something similar, and check it.

Fonts have owners. Fonts aren’t distributed for free, they are pieces of software that are copyrighted.

Unlike Times New Roman, the Cambria font is actually owned in part by Microsoft. Times New Roman is owned by Monotype Corporation. It’s all about Microsoft trying to get users to use its own products.

@Jeruba: Thank you. That is encouraging to hear!

@PhiNotPi: I suppose I knew that in theory… But how does it actually profit Microsoft if I use Cambria rather than Times New?

“Beginning in 2006, Microsoft says it will ship with its operating system and other software products six brand new typefaces [Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consola, Constantina, Corbel] created especially for extended on-screen reading.

“The new ClearType Font Collection incorporates improved ClearType and OpenType technologies, and a boatload of research, to improve the structure and the clarity of the letter forms….”

The Poynter Institute

I had to take a look to see how this affects documents; I really hadn’t noticed it until you mentioned it.

Have you ever seen what happens in Word when you type on a new line:
=Rand(p, s)
where
p = a number of paragraphs and
s = a number of sentences per paragraph

It used to use a single sentence repeated s number of times for p paragraphs, and it was always “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” but apparently the text now is from the Help system.

Open a new Word Document and on the home screen menu, right-click on the first paragraph style option (not really sure what it’s called, but it’s on the “Styles” tab, between “Paragraph” and “Editing”). Once you right-click, select the very last option, I believe (Fonts, I guess?) which will bring up a pop-up window with options to change the font style, size, color, etc. Once you’ve changed the settings to your own preferences, click on the option that says “set as default” and then save. From then on, every time you open a new document, it should be set to your new default settings. Do the same for Excel and all other Office programs if you’d like.

I’m really sorry this is so vague, but I don’t have access to a word document right now, so I’m just going by what I remember doing. Just play around a bit with the “Styles” tab and I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out. I know how annoying it is to have to change your default settings each time you open up a new document, so I hope this works for you like it did for me. Best of luck!

I haven’t researched it, but I think this will work (based on looking at Word):

Click the pop-out button for Font (the little diagonal arrow at the bottom right hand corner) on the Ribbon; scroll down to Times New Roman; change the size if you wish (presumably to 12); before clicking OK, click the Set As Default button on the left.

@glacial‘s method works perfectly and seems to be the easiest solution. It aggravated me to no end that they changed the default font, and I’m glad to have my trusty old Times New Roman back!

Because it is.