Change the default line spacing in Word 2007 - ms-word

Question

The secretary here must create word documents with Word 2007 and the default line spacing and after paragraph spacing makes it hard to format documents. If I make it single spacing and 0pt after paragraphs this works for her. She can easily double space where needed. The problem is I must do this every time. I've seen a few ways that claim to make this permanent but I must be missing a step because its never persistent. Every time I close Word and reopen it the changes are gone. What am I missing?
I can:
Right click the Normal style -> Modify -> Format -> Paragraph
- Change After to 0pt
- Change Spacing to single
Click OK -> Click "New documents based on template" -> Click OK
The spacing works perfect until I close Word and re-open it. The changes are lost.
I also can:
Open the styles dialog -> Manage Styles -> Modify -> Format -> Paragraph
- Change After to 0pt
- Change Spacing to single
Click OK -> Click "New documents based on template" -> Click OK -> Click "New documents based on template" -> Click OK
The spacing works perfect until I close Word and re-open it. The changes are lost.
I've done this at her desk and at mine. I've tried it saving the document and not saving the document. I've also clicked and not clicked the radio "New documents based on template". I've tried 3 different examples i've found searching. At this point it is less time consuming to walk to her desk and perform a few clicks. There must be some way to make this the default behavior. Anyone know what I need to do?

Answer 1

To change the default line spacing in Microsoft Word, complete the following steps:
Open a new blank document in Word.
Click on the "Page Layout" tab > Locate the "Paragraph" group.
Click the small arrow in the lower right of the "Paragraph" group. A "Paragraph" dialog box will open.
Click the "Indents and Spacing" tab > Locate the "Spacing" section.
Set the line spacing in the "Line spacing:" drop-down list to "Single" for single spacing.
Set the spacing "Before:" and "After:" paragraphs as desired. (If you want no extra spacing between paragraphs, set the spacing at 0 points.)
This last part is the critical one for you:
Click the [Set As Default] button > Select "All documents based on the Normal Template?" > Click [OK].

Answer 2

Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) provided the solution.
The way to solve this is to open the template (normal.dotm), make the change then save it.

Answer 3

The hours I've wasted and the number of times I've tried to set the default page style to be "No Spacing", I can't imagine. The most annoying answer is being told to change the normal.dotm template with no clear instructions on how to do it.
Well, I found a simple way to do it. This works in Word 2016 and I would imagine it works in older versions as well.
Open Word
Press Alt-F11 to open the VBA editor
Press Ctrl-G to activate the Immediate Window
Type: NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument
Press Enter (This will open the Normal Template and you will see it in the task bar in Windows. The doc title will be normal.dot or normal.dotm)
Go to that document template and make whatever style changes you want, ie. No Spacing
Press the spacebar when you're done to force a change to the document, and then press backspace to get rid of it
Click Save and say yes to overwrite the template
Close Word (This will also close the VBA editor)
Done. Word now has sensible line spacing that most people want rather than stupid gaps between lines that hardly anybody wants.
Credit for this solution: http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm#Word2013DocumentDefaults