How come Microsoft Word 2007 leaves a line everytime I hit "Enter" as if I want to start a new paragraph?

I want to have a few things with Bullets but it leaves uneccessary lines/gaps for me.

For some reason the default setting in Word 2007 is to have a 10 point gap between lines when you press enter. Go to the page layout tab, then change the after spacing from 10 pt to 0 pt. I cannot find a way to permanently change this setting, I find it very annoying to change it every time.

Check somewhere in the upper left portion of your Word page and see if there's something about formatting where it says Times New Roman + something. Hit the clear formatting button and it shouldn't do that any more. Unfortunately, I can't be more specific because unless I'm having that same problem, it doesn't appear. The same thing has definitely happened to me and I'm not sure how I made it do that.

bearing in mind what your first answer said, click on the help/question mark, top right in word and type in template. Then look for ''Change the Normal template (Normal.dotm )''

Basically what your trying to do is set up your blank word document and then save it as a new template that will open when you open word. Then all the settings on it that you like will be there.
i did this when i changed the default font and the size to 12,
now when i open word its in the font of my choice and I'm ready to rock and roll