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How do I stop my page background colour from changing back to white everytime I reopen the document?

Billie 20 Reputation points
2025-08-28T21:44:11.3033333+00:00

Hi, My Microsoft Word keeps changing my background colour and font every time I reopen a document, and I don't know how to stop it from doing that. I always change it from white to pastel blue or turquoise because white is too bright for me, and I struggle to read and write with a white background, and black is too dark. I usually change the font to a dark blue, but every time I reopen a document, the page colour has gone back to white and the font has changed to a much lighter blue than what I set it as. I've tried changing settings and switching to dark mode, as well as altering the default theme colours, but no matter what I do, it reverts to white when I reopen it.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
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  1. Anonymous
    2025-08-29T02:15:26.7833333+00:00

    Dear Billie,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

    Thanks for contacting us regarding your Word's issue. I am sorry for all the inconvenience you have experienced, and we will work together right now in order to resolve your case effectively.

    Firstly, for updating, Word treats Page Color as a visual preference, not part of the document content. That means:

    • It won’t save with the document unless you use a template.
    • It may reset when switching between Light/Dark Mode or reopening the file on another device.

    Hence, in order to fix your issues, kindly make your own template, and choose it whenever you want to use. Save Your Preferences in a Custom Template

    1. Open a new Word document.
    2. Set your preferred:
      • Page Color: Go to Design > Page Color and choose pastel blue or turquoise.
      • Font and Font Color: Go to Home > Font and choose dark blue.
    3. Go to File > Save As.
    4. Choose Word Template (.dotx)*.
    5. Save it in the default Templates folder (Word will suggest it).
    6. When you want to start a new document, go to File > New > Personal and select your custom template.

    This ensures your color and font settings are preserved every time.

    For your reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-change-or-delete-the-background-color-in-word-db481e61-7af6-4063-bbcd-b276054a5515

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5243901/why-does-my-word-font-colour-keep-defaulting-to-wh

    Please let me know if you have any further details and would like an update for your case.

    Best regards,

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".  

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

3 additional answers

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-08-29T17:21:36.72+00:00

    You will have to change the page color in your template, so that you can reuse the background color for each new document that you create in Word. You will almost certainly have to use a custom template, as modifying the Normal template won't necessarily succeed in the case of background colors.

    User's image

    Also, keep in mind that you have to select the option "Print background colors and images" at File > Options > Display.

    User's image

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-09-14T13:58:20.51+00:00

    Thanks for the share link. Looking at your template as well as a document based on that template, it seems to be working for me. I see the page color in Print Layout view and also in the preview shown at File > Print. See the screen shot below for an example.

    User's image

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  3. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-09-19T20:37:32.7966667+00:00

    I think I've figured out what's going on with it. My template changes the colour scheme from Office to Blue Warm because that's the only one that has the pastel turquoise that I need, but when I shut the document and reopen it, the colour scheme has gone back to Office, and I don't know how to stop it from doing that

    Thanks for the follow-up. If you choose a different Office Theme, that may change which colors are available in the document.

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