Set the Cell Alignment and Page Break ONCE for all new spreadsheets ???

For the alignment, do this:

Create a blank workbook. Set the Normal style to be centre-aligned.
Save it as an Excel template called 'Book.xltx' in your Excel startup folder. You may need to turn on 'Show hidden files and folders' through Windows to be able to see this folder - it's normally:
C:\Users\ *yourusername* \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
Every time you create a blank workbook ('file'), this template will be used, with your centre-alignment.

You should do the same thing with a single sheet and save that as an Excel template named 'Sheet.xltx' - put it in the same folder.
That will be used every time you insert a new sheet ('tab').

Hope that helps.

Aardigspook:
I followed your clear instructions but when I open a new workbook the Alignment > Vertical still shows as "Bottom".
I am pasting a screen print to show that the templates were generated (and modified) today.

Excel Template files.JPG

Thanks for your prompt response and for any further suggestions for my issue (should saving those 2 .xltx files with the Page Break showing also saved that setting for future worksheets? It did not take, either)

I just tried this again and it worked for me
Step-by-step:
1. Open a blank workbook.
2. On the 'Home' tab, click 'Cell Styles' then right-click the 'Normal' style at the top left and select 'Modify'.
3. Click the 'Format' button, then select the 'Alignment' tab.
4. Change the alignment as you want (Vertical = Center).
5. Click OK.
6. Make sure you've got cell A1 selected, then press F12 to open the 'Save As' dialogue.
7. In 'Save as type' select 'Excel template (*.xltx)'.
8. Name the file as 'Book.xltx' and save it in the XLSTART directory.
9. Close Excel and re-open it - you should have a one-sheet book with the vertical alignment set to centred.

You can now repeat steps 6-8 using the filename 'Sheet.xltx' and you'll have a worksheet template with the same alignment.

The forum won't allow me to upload a template, unfortunately, or I'd attach the Book and Sheet I've just done.

Regarding the page break lines, I don't know of any way to get those to always appear at start without using VBA - I suggest you just click the 'Page Layout' icon (bottom right, to the left of the zoom slider') then click the 'Normal' icon - the page breaks will then appear.

The article is for 2013 which seems to work a bit differently from 2010 (proviso - I don't have 2013). It seems that in 2013 you need the templates in both the XLSTART folder (which is used when Excel starts - in a sort of logical way!) and also in the Templates folder. According to the article, you can set the templates folder directly in Excel in 2013. That's not the case in 2010, in which you can, to the best of my knowledge, only set the templates location through Word options, after which that templates location applies to all Office programs.

Regardless, I've just tried this (in 2010) with the templates only in the XLSTART folder and I was able to create new workbooks (files) and worksheets (tabs) with the vertically-centred alignment pre-set. So I don't know what's going on that your Excel isn't doing the same - sorry!

Glad you finally got it working - shame it now requires such a convoluted method. Obviously (?) if you name your exported template as 'Book.xltx' then new files will be named 'Book1', etc, as it seems to just add '1' to the name of your template - cosmetic issue only.