How to Change the Default Font in Microsoft Excel

Every time you open a brand new, blank workbook in modern versions of Microsoft Excel, the application defaults to using the Calibri font at 11 points in size. While this is a clean, highly legible font for general use, it might not suit your needs. If your company strictly requires all financial documents to be written in Arial size 10, or if you simply prefer a larger font size for accessibility reasons, manually changing the font every single time you start a new project is incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, you can change the default font globally across the entire application.

How to Change the Default Font in Excel

You can change the global font settings directly from the main Excel Options menu. This will only affect new workbooks you create moving forward; it will not alter any existing spreadsheets you have already saved.

1. Open Microsoft Excel and click on the File tab in the top-left corner of the ribbon menu.
2. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the left-hand green navigation pane and click on Options. (If you do not see Options, click on “More…” first).
3. The “Excel Options” dialog box will appear. Ensure you are on the General tab in the left pane.
4. Look for the section titled When creating new workbooks.
5. Locate the drop-down menu labeled Use this as the default font. Click it and scroll through the massive list to find your preferred typeface (e.g., Arial, Times New Roman, or Segoe UI).
6. Directly below that, click the drop-down menu labeled Font size and select your preferred default size (e.g., 10, 12, or 14).
7. Click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box to save your changes.

Restart Excel to Apply Changes

After clicking OK, Excel will immediately display a small pop-up warning message stating: “Please restart Excel so that your font changes can take effect.”

1. Click OK to dismiss the warning message.
2. Close all open Excel windows and workbooks (saving your work if necessary).
3. Re-launch the Microsoft Excel application.
4. Click Blank workbook to start a new project.

If you look at the Font group in your Home ribbon menu, you will see that the cells are now perfectly formatted with your new, custom default font and size.