Microsoft Word Line Number Font

I was using Microsoft Word 2003 to put together a manuscript to study. Part of this includes having line numbers along the left side, starting with 5 and counting up in increments of 5. I figured out how to do line numbers easily enough: just go to File -> Page Setup -> Layout -> Apply to: [if you want to apply it to a certain section] -> Line Numbers…

But this made the line numbers appear in Times New Roman, while the rest of my document was all in Trebuchet MS. This didn’t match up. I performed several Google searches, and couldn’t find my answer until I luckily stumbled into an article called Line Number Font Doesn’t Follow Default Paragraph Font. It’s for older versions of Word, but it got me started in heading the right direction. The reason Line Numbers have their own font is that they have their own style. This is keep the document professional: the line numbers should remain constant even as the paragraph styling changes.

I found that there’s a little “Styles and Formatting” button immediately left of the drop-down menu that shows your currently-active style. Click that, and you get a list of formatting definitions. Ta-da: Line Number is in that list! Hit the dropdown, choose Modify…, and you’ll be good to go.