why have you people made it impossible to change the default font to anything besides Liberation Mono

When I open a document, any document, I would like to view it in Arial 12, not Liberation Mono. When I create a document the Arial 12 is there for me, but what I want to see is everything, EVERYTHING, open in Arial 12. You know, like a default is supposed to perform.

I have downvoted the question for the following reasons:

  1. You made an accusation right in the title of your question
  2. You addressed the accusation to fellow users (because Ask site is peer-to-peer user help forum)
  3. You did that without understanding what you are doing, so accused others in what is actually your own ignorance

And actually you used vague wording. It isn’t clear if you want to see new or existing documents in other fonts (your “When I create a document the Arial 12 is there for me” might imply that new documents actually have your preferred font set; but then why do you expect existing documents to have font different from what is set in them?) - so your “like a default is supposed to perform” shows misunderstanding what “default” is (it is used when no explicit font is set).

I had the same problem even though I assigned a template. I understand the OP’s frustration nothing vague about it. Luckily the answer below fixed it…

Well I 100% agree, even after following recommended steps to stop this fugly font from being used it still appears even in my own spreadsheets.

How do we stop this font from being used as the default in all instances other than those where it has been explicitly set by the person who created the document???

@User1001: First of all - are you talking about Calc? what has it to do with this “question” tagged “Writer”?

Then - you again do nothing to describe what your problem is (is that a new age fashion?). You could at least suspect that not everyone has the same problem; and thus, at least some information would be useful to others to understand you (as well as OP here): your OS; LO version; a sample document where you see the problem; exactly how it was created; why do you think it should be different; etc. Because it’s possibly some configuration problem; or some version bug; or an issue of some file format; or related to specific way of creation; or whatever - but we know nothing.

1) Select the menu "Tools : Options..."
2) in the listbox on the left, expand the item "LibreOffice Writer",
3) Click on the item "Basic Fonts (Western)",
4) There on the right you can set Arial 12 for Default, Heading, List, Caption, and Index Font.

this answer does NOTHING. Literally. After closing and reopening of LO, font(s) are reverted to factory default…

Yup. As of the date I’m writing this, the default behavior keeps reverting. I am likewise trying to set Arial 12 pt. as the default font and it keeps magically reverting to Liberation Sans. Infuriating!

Same for me as well. I can set the defaults to whatever, save the file, then reopen in LO (I am using Impress), and it is back at Liberation Sans 18.

This is a real problem for us, as we use LO and our clients use MS Powerpoint

open pptx in powerpoint, make changes, save as pptx

open saved pptx file in LO Impress, do whatever you want to the defaults, save it as pptx (no changes)

open the pptx saved by LO in step 2 above in Powerpoint

All of the blank cells in all the tables in the pptx file are all changed to Liberation Sans 18
Which trashes the format of all the tables as the rows get bigger

if you open this same file again in LO the tables are all fine, but if you click on a blank cell in a table and look at the character properties, they are all Liberation Sans 18

(somehow LO knows not to change the row size if cell has no text, but I think in powerpoint the font /size is associated with the cell)

Sigh - this will cost me several hundred powerpoint licences

Same??? Do people novadays really absolutely illiterate, unable to read and comprehend? Your issue looks totally different, and worth reporting a bug - regardless of your decision what to use in the future.

I just joined the community and am reading over some suggested etiquette. You know, being kind to fellow community member, and refraining from ad hominem attacks, Asking, “Does my reply improve the conversation?” I’m asking myself that right now - and despite your comments being nearly 3 years old, I notice that they remain powerfully negative.

It’s perhaps the height of irony that you accuse others of being illiterate in a comment littered with typos and grammatical errors; despite this, your frustration is clear, and I could see others perhaps being reluctant to ask a question within the forum for fear that you’ll accuse them of, for eg. “not describing their problem properly.”

In fact, this is a significant problem with LibreOffice - we can see this by the number of people writing-in with the same complaint, and no, they don’t all sound like neophytes (as though that would be a crime) with the suggested “steps-to-correct” failing to do just that. I suspect it was a shortcoming in the program as of 2019; I’m just about to see whether it’s been remedied as I’m running into the same issue.

@doctoranddog: there is a fundamental difficulty associated with LO. It is a portable “universal” application, i.e. it is not associated with a unique OS or platform, it can be installed on virtually any platform, at least Windows, Linux, MacOS, *Nix and x86, PowerPC, ARM, … This “universality” implies subtle differences in the code (or compilation process) so that the application can run as smoothly as possible on the platforms and integrates correctly with the interface and native look-and-feel.
Consequently, mentioning at least the OS already gives clues for the context.
In addition, you can’t expect users to be top-grade computer experts. Once they got LO installed and working fine for their needs, there is no reason to frenetically upgrade to “latest” version (and though “universal”, the various ports have their own paces, meaning “latest” is not the same number everywhere). Thus, problems invoked here are associated with a bunch of versions. Since there are inevitably bugs in any software, mentioning version number is a requirement to see if it is a known and potentially fixed issue.

Most of us are not English-speaking natives. Even top-rated contributors answer in some approximate form of English but they make a valuable effort to share their expertise. This site is not a US-only Q&A one (or UK-, AU-, NZ- if you prefer). Its audience covers the world and you must accept/tolerate some rate of typos and language inaccuracy as long as the thread can be understood.

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