Share via

How to change Office themes on Microsoft Word

Anonymous
2025-01-09T01:12:38+00:00

I want to start this by saying that I am NOT interested in changing the Microsoft Word theme to only one of the default themes (Black, White, Colorful, or Dark Grey). I am instead interested in being able to customize and change the look and appearance of my Microsoft Word with much more control in order to actually personalize it.

For example, I like the color scheme of the dark grey theme the most, however, i cannot stand having a solid white page background, as it's too harsh on the eyes. However, Microsoft's Black theme is not only far to high-contrast for my liking, but is somehow equally harsh on the eyes and harder to read. As such, i would like the option to actually be able to customize the appearance to fit what works best for me, personally, as opposed to Microsoft's terrible selection of color pallets. Even if i have to install a plugin on add-in, since I figure this likely isn't possible without something like regedit or modifying the program's code directly.

I'm about at the end of my rope with this thing, i have severe eye strain, and if I can't change the color theme to actually be something decent, I'll have to drop the Microsoft Office suite of products and get something that i can actually use without straining my eyes. Changing the basic color and appearance of a program should honestly be a default feature, especially when it's already an option, but just limited to 4 terrible colorways.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Charles Kenyon 166.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-01-09T07:07:51+00:00

    I changed the title of your post to distinguish between Office Themes (what you are asking about) and Word Themes.

    I know of no way to do what you want.

    Here is some of my writing on Word Themes to distinguish.

    [Quick] Style Sets and Word Themes in Microsoft Word

    Workaround:

    You can add a background color to your pages and not have that print.

    To have this automatic may take a macro. If you are interested, write back and I or someone else will assist.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-09T18:39:40+00:00

    Is there not even a way to change it via regedit or something? I've always had problems with Microsoft's terrible decisions regarding ui/ux design and what kinds of options it gives the user (the fact that they outright removed the option for having your taskbar at the top of the screen in Windows 11 is insulting), but to add the option to change an application's color theme, only to lock it to 4 terrible color palettes just seems absurd, so i figured there must be somewhere where those color themes are stored and thus, can be edited somehow.

    The fact that the themes are then shared across the entire suite of Office applications is also terrible - the Dark Grey theme is okay for Outlook, which is what I use at work, but since I use the same account on both my work and home computers, if i try to change my Word theme to black on my home PC, then when I log into my office computer and open Outlook, it is also changed to black - it seems like Microsoft has developed the single worst possible option of all the available ways you could implement this type of setting (as usual), and made it impossible to change or modify.

    Do you by chance know of any alternative word editors that aren't designed by idiots like Microsoft and allow for the user to change the application's color palette and theme?

    0 comments