Change Default Alignment Settings

Welcome to the forum.

You can do this by creating a template which has your preferred options set.

1. Open a blank workbook.
2. On the 'Home' tab, in the 'Styles' section, right-click on the 'Normal' style. Set the options the way you want.
3. Save the file as an 'Excel template (*.xltx)' and call it 'Book.xltx'. Don't close it yet.
4. Now save the file again, this time as 'Sheet.xltx'.
5. You need to put these two files into your XLstart folder. To find it, copy and paste this into the address bar of File Explorer: %appdata%\microsoft\excel\xlstart
(It's a hidden folder, so you may need to enable viewing hidden folders first.)
6. Copy the two files you just made into this folder.

Book.xltx will now be used whenever you open a new file.
Sheet.xltx will be used whenever you add a new sheet.


In step 2, you can set any other options you like, such as the theme (to set default fonts), margins and so on.


I've seen some reports that in newer versions of Excel, it won't use 'Book' if you just click 'blank workbook' from the start screen. To get it to use your now-perfect 'Book' you first have to disable the start screen by going to 'File' → 'Options' → 'General' → 'Start up options' and then un-select 'Show the start screen when this application starts'. I haven't had this problem myself (I use 2010) but I include the info just in case.


Hope that helps.