Background colour

Question

Hi 

I have tried to change the "white" background colour on excel word and outlook in windows 10 with our success. This use to be easy in previous versions but does not seem possible in windows 10.  I hate the "white" background and usually have it set at a light yellow to stop the brightness on my eyes, can you explain to a not very computer literate person how I can do this in windows 10.  As before once this colour is changed it is not printed out it is only shown on the computer.

I have also tried Word / File / Options / Personalise your copy...,  and again it cannot be done this way either?

An idiots guide on how to change this would be appreciated and hopefully it is not done by themes as this appears to change other settings that I do not want

cheers and hope to hear back fairly soon with a solution

Peter Miller

Answer 1

Hi Doug,

This may help very slightly with word and excel but not in outlook!!!!!, and is not quite what I am looking for.  Is there not ONE place where I can change the "white" background as before with previous windows??? (For all applications word excel etc etc)

if there is not, when is an update being developed to change all this, EASILY, in personalisation as before. There is a lot of complaints/comments/questions on the web in relation to this and it seems as if this is a definite need for an update? it seems daft to change something what worked for a lot of your customers, and a lot of customers found very useful???

If one is not being done, can I suggest one is actioned immediately as I think this will help a lot of people who find the "white" screen very tiring and obtrusive.

I look forward to your reply

Peter Miller

Answer 2

In some versions of Windows (I think the last may have been Windows XP; I never used Vista, but the option was gone in Windows 7), it was possible to change the "Window color," which, paradoxically, changed the color of the page in Word. Later versions of Windows changed the "Personalization" schemes and Windows themes in such a way that this was less obvious how to do this, if it is even possible. I used to use an ecru color for windows and pages but haven't done so for years now.

A background color in Word is harmless provided you don't enable "Print background colors and images."

Answer 3

I am not sure what you are referring to by "as before with previous windows" and it may be more appropriate for you to raise the issue in the Windows forum.

Apart from that, the places to make suggestions for changes are

http://excel.uservoice.com/

http://word.uservoice.com/

http://powerpoint.uservoice.com/

http://outlook.uservoice.com/

Answer 4

You can go to the Design tab of the ribbon and in the Page Background section of the ribbon, use the Page Color dropdown.

To save having to change it for every document, you could change it for the template from which you are creating the documents.  

However, you will probably want to have a macro that you would use when printing documents to change the Page Color back to No Color.