Interestingly, changing the default font in this manner has no effect on blank documents created through right-click > New.
(The move from application-centric to document-centric thinking required this option)
In order to make the right click menu work, you need TweakUI or TweakUIXP.
1. Start TweakUI or TweakUIXP (Anyone still using 98? How do you survive without security fixes?
)
2. Delete the original templates.
3. Start Writer. It should create a blank document with the desired font.
4. Save as...
5. Save in: Desktop, Filename: OpenDocument text, Type: OpenDocument text
6. [optional] Since we are in a transitory phase (MS Office -> OpenDocument), also do
Save in: Desktop, Filename: Microsoft Word document, Type: Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP
7. Close Writer.
8. For TweakUI, drag the two blank documents from Desktop to the Templates field
For TweakUIXP, click Create, then select the blank document, one by one.
Done!
In Word 2000, trying to change the default font through the default template (which seems logical) is impossible -- you have to go Format > Font... , select the font, then click Default.
Interesting that Writer imitates Word to such a degree that such strange behaviour is preserved -- it makes sense to the programmers, but often not to the people who use this software.