Sorry if I don't sound especially grateful to the moderators who supplied the macro-based work-around, but...
Why is it necessary to go through so many steps to make such a simple change to a Word default setting? Wouldn't a simple Preferences checkbox make a lot more sense that having to go through complicated macro somersaults to get the result you want?
(Yes, I know, Microsoft's product design philosophy seems to be "if you can make them do it in 20 steps, why let them do it in 1?")