Living outside of the US means that I use A4 paper. OpenOffice Writer documents usually default to Letter sized paper.

To change the size of your paper to A4, use the steps below. If you want to change the default paper size, then perform the steps below and keep reading further.

Changing the page size of your document

First, open a new Writer document.

Then from the Format menu, select ‘Page’.

Then from the Paper Format section, change the letter to A4 as per the following.

Select OK, and your page will be resized!

Easy! But who wants to do this every time they open a new document?

Change the default page size of your documents

From the previous section, you should now have a document that is A4-sized.

Modify any other settings that you want saved in your default template as well. For example, I like Arial font as the default instead of Times New Roman, so I have changed that.

Now, from the File menu, choose Templates -> Save.

You will then see the Templates box. Give your template a name, and select a category (like My Templates).

Now choose File -> Templates -> Organize

In the Categories list, double-click on the ‘My Templates’ folder.

Right-click on the template you want to use and choose Set as Default Template from the menu.

Click the Close button.