Intro

OpenOffice.org has great default margins, 0.79" all around. Microsoft Word's margins are 1.00" top and bottom, 1.25" left and right. I always encourage the use of wider margins which use up less paper. However, in the university setting some professors mandate that the margins be Microsoft Word's default. Other times you may have a 12-page paper due on a topic which you have no interest in at all... in which case you'll want to work those margins for all they're worth and setting them to MS Word's default is nice "legal" way to do that.

Anyway, there's no easy way to do this like there is an easy way for changing the default file format to Microsoft defaults (in the unfortunate event that it's appealing to do that). The way default margins are done would be to set up a custom template titled "MS Word margins" (or whatever) for reuse.

Directions

This guide is for the OpenOffice.org 2.x version and has been confirmed as valid through OpenOffice.org 2.0.4.

1. Open up a blank Writer document.
2. Go into the menu Format -> Page
3. You'll see the margins area in the lower-left hand corner. Set left and right to 1.25". Set top and bottom to 1.00". Push OK to finish.
4. Your current document has been adjusted with these margins. Now time to use it as a template. Go into the menu File -> Templates -> Save...



5. There will be a text field titled "New template". Title it "Microsoft Word margins" or whatever you want.
6. Below it there is a section titled "Templates" for organizing a lot of templates if you had many that you used. I would recommend just saving it under the "My Templates" category. Push OK to save it.

1. Go to the menu File -> Templates -> Organize...
2. Double click on the "My Templates" folder.
3. Your "Microsoft Word margins" template that you created should appear. Right click on it and "Set as Default Template".
4. Push "Close" to finish up.

If you want to test it out just close out of Writer completely. Open up Writer again and your document will has Microsoft Word default margins.

As an additional note, this same process can be used for setting up any template you may find worthwhile to have. :)