How can I change the paper size?

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The most secure way is to set a new default template.

1. On an empty document go to the style editor (F11), select "page styles" (4th icon from left to right) and modify "Default Style" to change your page settings.

2. Optionally, under "paragraph styles" (first icon) modify the "Default style" to set your preferred font and language.

3. Now go to File → Templates → Save as template, select a category and give a name to the template.

4. Finally, on File → Templates → Manage templates do a right click on the template you just saved and select Set as default

Unlike applications with just one set of settings, LO has the ability to have many different paper size and other setups.

For example, say your work sometimes requires you to use Letter, but other times you need Legal, or A4, or whatever. To make this work smoothly, LO uses what are called Templates. Each template is a starting point for your settings when you create a document. (Tip: For base forms use Writer Templates not base Templates.)

You can download a template, or create your own. To get started creating your own Template you:

1. First create a page, possibly a dummy page, with the settings you want.

2. To set the printer page size go to Format Page... Page tab then Paper Format and Format:.

3. Then save that page as a Template, possibly the Default Template using: File Templates Save as Template.

4. Enter a template name, like Letter Portrait narrow margins or whatever and possibly check the Set as Default Template box.

Later you can go back to File Templates Manage Templates.

This has probably been covered in much more depth elsewhere in Ask, so be sure to search more widely for this. Here is one page that discussed this. Unfortunately, new users sometimes want LO to work the way that other things they've used work. (I'll be the first to admit to having had that stance in the past and even now.) So it takes opening your mind to see that the template system is probably more versatile while keeping things pretty simple.