A colorful Microsoft Office? I must have it painted black.
To enable dark mode in Microsoft Office for Windows, navigate to File > Account, then set the Office Theme to “Black.” You can also change Windows 10 or Windows 11 to dark mode and use the default “Use system setting” setting. On a Mac, you must change your system theme to dark mode.
Microsoft Office includes black and dark gray themes. The system-wide dark mode on Windows 10, Windows 11, and Mac will now affect Office apps, but you can also separately choose a dark theme for Office apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint on Windows.
According to Microsoft, Office’s dark mode is only available if you have a Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) subscription on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs. (However, you can change your theme to “dark gray” on Office 2016 and Office 2013. This even works on Windows 7.)
To change your theme on Windows, click the “File” menu at the top left corner of an Office application like Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint.
Click the “Account” option in the sidebar. On the right, open the “Office Theme” dropdown menu, and then select your desired theme.
The default theme in Microsoft Office is now “Use system setting.” This means Office will only use a dark theme if you have your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC set to use a dark theme.
You may still have your Office installation set to use another option, like “Colorful,” which was previously the default setting.
To enable dark mode, select “Black” for the darkest possible Office style.
(If you prefer sticking with the “Use system setting” option, you can choose a dark Windows system theme from Settings > Personalization > Colors on Windows 10 or Windows 11. Select “Dark” under “Choose your color” on Windows 10 or under “Choose your mode” on Windows 11.)
You can also select “Dark Gray.” This theme uses lighter dark grays, which you might prefer if you find the Black theme too dark.
You can select a different “Office Background” from here, too. For example, if you’d rather not see a design behind Office’s ribbon bar, click the “Office Background” box and select “No Background.”
These theme and background settings affect all Microsoft Office applications on your system. They even affect Office applications on other Windows PCs, assuming you sign into them with the same Microsoft account.
There’s a second place where you can choose your theme, too. To find it, click File > Options. Ensure the “General” category is selected and look for the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section. Click the “Office Theme” box and choose your desired theme. Click “OK” to save your changes.
Documents you create will have a background matching your theme by default. For example, with the dark theme, Office will show white text on a dark background. To stop this from happening, check “Never change the document page color” in the Word Options window.
This setting is just visual. If you send a Word document created in dark mode to someone else, they’d only see a black background with white text if they open it in dark mode. It won’t require a large amount of ink or toner if someone prints such a document; it will print as normal.
Office’s dark mode is available in both Microsoft 365 or Office 2019 for Mac, but you must activate it by enabling your system-wide dark mode. You can’t enable dark mode separately for only Office apps while using your Mac in light mode.
To activate your Mac’s system-wide dark mode, use the toggle in your Mac’s Control Center or head to System Preferences > General and choose the “Dark” appearance. Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Mac will immediately enter dark mode.
You can choose not to use Dark Mode for individual Office apps if it’s enabled system-wide. For example, to disable Dark Mode for Word, head to Word > Preferences and select “Turn Off Dark Mode” under Personalize. You’ll have to repeat this step for each app separately. For example, to change this for Excel, head to Excel > Preferences.
In Microsoft Word’s preferences, you can also choose whether your Word documents will have a visually dark background color while you’re working on them. Choose from either “Dark Mode has a dark page color” or “Dark Mode has white page color” under Personalize.
By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.
Chris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek.
With over a decade of writing experience in the field of technology, Chris has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, IDG’s PCWorld, Digital Trends, and MakeUseOf. Beyond the web, his work has appeared in the print edition of The New York Times (September 9, 2019) and in PCWorld’s print magazines, specifically in the August 2013 and July 2013 editions, where his story was on the cover. He also wrote the USA’s most-saved article of 2021, according to Pocket.
Chris was a PCWorld columnist for two years. He founded PCWorld’s “World Beyond Windows” column, which covered the latest developments in open-source operating systems like Linux and Chrome OS. Beyond the column, he wrote about everything from Windows to tech travel tips.
The news he’s broken has been covered by outlets like the BBC, The Verge, Slate, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, ZDNet, The Next Web, and Techmeme. Instructional tutorials he’s written have been linked to by organizations like The New York Times, Wirecutter, Lifehacker, the BBC, CNET, Ars Technica, and John Gruber’s Daring Fireball. His roundups of new features in Windows 10 updates have been called “the most detailed, useful Windows version previews of anyone on the web” and covered by prominent Windows journalists like Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley on TWiT’s Windows Weekly. His work has even appeared on the front page of Reddit.
Articles he’s written have been used as a source for everything from books like Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff, media theory professor at the City University of New York’s Queens College and CNN contributor, to university textbooks and even late-night TV shows like Comedy Central’s @midnight with Chris Hardwick.
Starting in 2015, Chris attended the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas for five years running. At CES 2018, he broke the news about Kodak’s “KashMiner” Bitcoin mining scheme with a viral tweet. A wave of negative publicity ensued, with coverage on BuzzFeed News, CNBC, the BBC, and TechCrunch. The company’s project was later reportedly shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition to his extensive writing experience, Chris has been interviewed as a technology expert on TV news and radio shows. He gave advice on dark web scans on Miami’s NBC 6, discussed Windows XP’s demise on WGN-TV’s Midday News in Chicago, and shared his CES experiences on WJR-AM’s Guy Gordon Show in Detroit.
Chris also ran MakeUseOf’s email newsletter for two years. Nearly 400,000 subscribers received the newsletter complete with a handwritten tip every day.
Leave a Reply