Changing Word's default document zoom

Question

Word for Mac (Office 2011) defaults to a ridiculous 100% document zoom, that leaves more empty margin than readable text. Is there a way of changing this to something that usable, such as page width?

Answer 1

View > Zoom > Page Width

As to the question of how to get that to be default. I'm not sure.

Answer 2

To set a default zoom for all new documents the procedure isn't user friendly (I'm french so I'm not sure about the names between "" but the tutorial cannot make you do an error):

1. Open the Finder, "Go" menu -> "Go to the folder" and paste ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/
2. In this folder you should find a folder "Templates" with a file named "Normal.dotm" in it, drag the folder "Templates" in your "Favorites" sidebar.
3. Open Word 2011, "File" menu -> "Open" and choose "Normal.dotm" by using the "Templates" folder in your "Favorites".
4. The file is empty, it's normal. "View" menu -> "Zoom", select what you want (125% is good on my 13" MBA).
5. Save the file and close it, now all your new files are with a default zoom of 125%.

You can remove "Templates" from your favorites, you shouldn't have to use it anymore!

Answer 3

In OSX Yosemite, after step 1, you may not see the shortcut in the Favorite bar when you try "File" menu -> "Open" (at least in my case).

However, you can make an alias of the "Office Template" folder or the "Normal.dotm" file, and place the alias in desktop. Then open the "Normal.dotm" file from there. Then follow step 4. This alternative works for me.