Change the Default Font in Excel

Whenever you open a new Excel workbook, you will see that a default font type and font size have already been selected for you.

Since 2023, Excel versions have Aptos Narrow as the default font, and earlier, it used to be Calibri.

If you want to change the default font in your Excel files, you can easily do that. I will show you how to change the default font for every new Excel file you open or in your existing Excel files.

Change the Default Font in New Excel Workbooks

In this section, I will show you two methods to change the default fonts in any new Excel file you open.

Note that this will not impact any Excel workbooks you have already created.

Set the New Default Font Using Excel Options

One of the easiest ways to change the default font in Excel is by using the Excel Options menu.

This method allows you to select a new font that will be applied to all new workbooks you create.

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Open a new Excel File (or any existing Excel workbook)
2. Click on the File tab in the ribbon.

3. Scroll down and click on “Options” at the bottom of the left sidebar.

4. In the Excel Options dialog box, select “General” from the left menu (if not selected by default).

5. Look for the section ‘When creating new workbooks‘ section.
6. Here, you’ll see the option for ‘Use this as the default font‘
7. Click on the drop-down menu and select your preferred font. Let’s me go with Verdana font in this case

8. [Optional] You can also change the default font size using the number box next to “Font size.”
9. After making your selections, click “OK” at the bottom of the window.

From now on, any new workbook you create will use the font and size you’ve chosen as the default.

Remember that this change won’t affect existing workbooks or templates – it only applies to new files you create after making this adjustment.

If you want to revert to the original default font later, simply follow these same steps and select “Aptos Narrow” (or “Calibri” for older versions) from the font drop-down menu.

Also read: Best Fonts for Excel

Create a Template with a Specific Font

Another effective method to change the default font in Excel is by creating a custom template with your preferred font settings.

This approach allows you to start new workbooks with the font you have already applied to the template.

Creating the Template

Here are the steps to create a template with the specific font:

1. Open a new Excel workbook.
2. Select all cells in the worksheet by clicking the triangle in the top-left corner where the row and column headers meet. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Control + A to select all the cells.

3. On the Home tab, choose your desired font and font size from the Font group.

4. Make any other formatting changes you want as your default (such as cell styles or number formats).
5. Click on the File tab, select Save As, and then click on Browse

6. In the Save As dialog box, choose Custom Office Templates folder, which is available in the Documents Folder as the location to save the file

7. From the “Save as type” drop-down menu, select “Excel Template (*.xltx).”

8. Give a recognizable name to your template, like “MyFont”

9. Click on Save

Note: If you’re using Windows, you can save the template file at the following location – C:\Users[YourUsername]\Documents\Custom Office Templates, and for Mac, use the following – /Users/[YourUsername]/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates. Replace [YourUsername] with your actual username on your computer.

With the above steps, I have created an Excel template that I can now use to open new Excel workbooks.

Opening a New Excel file using the Template

Here are the steps to open a new Excel workbook using the saved template

1. Open Excel application
2. Click on the New option in the left pane
3. Click on Personal tab

4. Select your saved template.

This will make Excel create a new workbook based on the selected template, and automatically apply your chosen font and any other formatting you included.

Remember that this method doesn’t change the system-wide default font in Excel, but it does provide a quick way to start new workbooks with your preferred settings. You can create multiple templates for different purposes, each with its own font and formatting choices.

Change the Font in Existing Excel Workbooks

In this section, I will show you how to change the default font in any workbook after you have opened it.

The methods covered here would only change the font in the workbook it’s applied to.

Create Your Own Font Theme

When you open an Excel workbook, it already has default theme settings, such as the theme colors or fonts.

However, you can create your own theme with the preferred font and apply it to any workbook you want.

In the steps below, I will show you first how to create your own theme and then how to apply that theme to any workbook you open.

Creating a Custom Theme with a Preferred Font

Below are the steps to create your own theme with the font of your choice

1. Open a new Excel workbook (or any existing workbook).
2. Click on the Page Layout tab in the ribbon.

2. In the Themes group, click on the Fonts option

3. In the drop-down menu that appears, click on Customize Fonts

4. In the Create New Theme Fonts dialog box, click the drop-down menus and choose your preferred font for heading and body text. I will go with Verdana in this example

5. In the Name field at the bottom, enter a new name for this theme. I will go with MyFont

6. Click on Save

With the above steps, I have created a new theme that uses the font that I want to use on all the Excel workbooks.

Now, although I have created this new theme, Excel would still always open a new file with the default Office theme. So, I will have to apply this new theme to any Excel workbook I open.

Applying the New Theme in Excel Workbooks

Below are the steps to apply the new theme to any Excel file you open:

1. Open the Excel file in which you want to change the theme
2. Click the Page Layout tab
3. Click on the Fonts option in the Themes group
4. Select the custom Fonts (MyFont in this example)

Pro Tip: If you work in an organization where consistent branding is important, creating custom theme fonts can help ensure all your Excel documents have a uniform look.

Using Cell Styles

Excel already has some inbuilt cell-style options that you can quickly apply to all the cells.

When you open a new Excel workbook, all the cells have the default style called Normal (where the font is Aptos Narrow in new Excel versions in Calibri and older Excel versions, and the font size is 11).

In this method, I will show you how to modify this cell style so it automatically changes the font in all the cells in the workbook.

1. Open the workbook where you want to change the default font
2. Click the Home tab in the ribbon

3. In the Styles group, click on the Cell Styles option

4. Right-click on the Normal cell style and click on Modify

5. In the style dialog box, click the Format button

6. In the Format Cells dialog box, select the Font tab

7. Select the font you want to apply to the entire worksheet. In this case, I will choose Verdana

8. Click Ok
9. Click OK

As soon as I apply the above steps, all the cells in the workbook will now have the Verdana font (or whatever font you choose in step 7).

Here are a couple of important things to know about this method:

• In the above steps, I only change the font type, but you can change other things, such as the font size, borders, alignment, or number formatting, etc., as well
• If you have already used Cell Styles other than Normal in your workbook, those cells will not be changed.
• This change would only be applied to the active workbook. It won’t be applied to any other workbook you open.

In this article, I covered a couple of methods you can use to change the default font in Excel. If you want it apply this to all the workbooks on your system, you can make the change at an application level by using the Excel options dialog box (as shown in the first method).

Alternatively, you can create your template and then open a new workbook with that template.

If you want to make changes to existing workbooks, you can create your own font theme or cell styles.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions for me, please let me know in the comments section.

Other Excel articles you may also like:

• How to Filter Cells with Bold Font Formatting in Excel
• How to Make Cells Bigger in Excel?
• How to Underline in Excel?
• Best Shortcuts to Fill Color in Excel (Basic & Advanced)