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Microsoft Word Page Black. When Changed to White font is 'cloudy' and barely visible. Can someone please help me restore Word to how it was before?

Anonymous
2021-08-17T10:31:54+00:00

My Microsoft word docs are all the sudden white text on a black background. I followed a thread to change the page colour but then the font is now slightly translucent and barely visible (even when I highlight the text and change to black). I at least wanted to save the white page as the default setting, I did this, but when I close and open a new blank document it's still black? Can someone help me please. photos attached.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | MacOS

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2021-08-17T13:40:00+00:00

    The article content re Dark Mode is accurate. The feature is globally controlled in System Preferences but can be managed within the Preferences of individual documents.

    It's just the allusion to Colorful/Classic for window coloring no longer is valid. Note that there is no instruction on how to go about applying either of them because the Preference no longer exists. I have no idea why that part of the article content even remains.

    Quite frankly IMO that entire article needs to be taken down & replaced. Note also that it explicitly states:

    This is a subscriber-only feature This feature is available only to Microsoft 365 Subscribersfor Windows desktop clients.

    then goes on to provide illustrated direction on how to manage Dark Mode on a Mac.

    This is just one example. There are other articles which are just as self-contradictory & impertinent. It's especially frustrating when accessing Help from within a Mac Office program... the user typically is presented with hits which pertain strictly to the Windows product. I realize that Microsoft claims to be striving for parity on the 2 platforms but apparently nobody has told them that they aren't there yet. Small wonder that users are confused & bewildered - the developer can't even get it right.

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2021-08-17T12:36:54+00:00

    Just an FYI Stefan: That article is out of date. Although the part about Dark Mode is relevant the option for Colorful v. Classic Office Theme existed only in Office 2016 which now is obsolete. I'm not even sure it exists in updated versions of that release.

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  3. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-08-17T12:06:39+00:00
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-08-17T10:50:11+00:00

    Hi FletcherJarvis,

    Thank you for querying in this forum.

    From your description, it seems that your Word appears white text with black background, and you have tried referring another thread to change page color, however, when you close and open a new blank document, it still shows black background.

    May I know if my understanding is right? If so, If you want to use dark mode with light page, you can go to Word > Preferences > General > Personalize and select Dark mode has a white page color, then your Word will show dark mode with white page background.

    If you don't want to use Dark mode in Word, you can also go to Word > Preferences > General > Personalize and select Turn Off dark mode.

     For your reference: Change the look and feel of Office

    If the scenario above is not consistent with yours, to better understand your situation, could you provide the information below?

    1. Could you provide the version of your Word? You can go to Word > About Word and provide the screenshot of it.
    2. Could you provide the steps about how you change the page colour? May I know if you just go to Design tab and click page colour to change it?

    Your understanding and patience will be highly appreciated. I hope that you are keeping safe and well!

    Best Regards,

    Sukie

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