Can't help with the mail thing, but the font can be changed by;

In the "Home" view there is a small call out arrow on the corner of the font dialogue box, click this to open the more familiar font settings.

Set Times New Roman and size, then bottom left click "Set as default", then yes for all documents based on the "Normal" template.

I never thought of it that way to save ink with TNR, thanks for the tip!

"...a recent well known consumer magazine report concluded that TNR uses less ink than any other font style."

I find that odd. Times New Roman is a lovely font in my view - very elegant and legible, but it is more "fussy" or ornate than many others. (To be technical, it has "serifs".)

Here is some evidence, for what it's worth:

"Thinner fonts obviously use less ink than bold fonts like Arial Bold or Impact. Generally speaking, sans-serif fonts like Arial need less ink than serif fonts like Times New Roman because you don't have to waste ink printing out little tails. What's the least expensive font to use? The cheapest font to print with is actually the modern sans-serif font Century Gothic, while Franklin Gothic Medium came in last place. The highly popular “Arial” font placed somewhere in the middle..."

(from tinyurl.com/nre24gm)

"... the University of Wisconsin... found that it could save up to $10,000 by switching to Century Gothic as the default font. The university, which has 6,500 students, spends $100,000 a year on ink and toner cartridges, reports Yahoo, via Associated Press. Now, the school is asking faculty and staff to use Century Gothic for printed documents, and the school will change the default font in e-mails to Century Gothic."

(from tinyurl.com/yj6hhm5)

Apparently there is a font called Ecofont, which uses the least ink of all, as it has minute holes in each character. There is also an Ecofont application which modifies standard fonts in a similar way. (Neither of these is free.)

I often print out text on my printer's "fast" setting, which uses much less ink, producing a greyer result that is still perfectly legible.