Selected Text Randomly Illegible in Microsoft Office 365

Question

Ever since Windows 11 & Installing Microsoft Office 365, I've encountered a seemingly random issue that affects the following Office applications: Word, Classic Outlook, Excel.

With seemingly random onset, my selected text will become illegible due to the selection indicator matching the text color.

For example, in the first screenshot, I am using the "colorful" Office Theme and my selected text indicator becomes black. With the exception of changing my office theme to "Black", the selection continues to remain black and consequently, illegible. Interestingly, when I change the office theme from Colorful to "Black", said selection indicator becomes white but is still illegible (image 2). This issue is identical in outlook but never coincides with an occurrence in Word or Excel. Another interesting piece of information is that when the issue manifests itself in Excel, it is never obstructive because I can still see the contents of the cell.

I have scoured forums to resolve the issue and have attempted to disable dictation, narrator, accessibility, etc., to no avail. The only solution I've found has been closing all active instances of the application and reopening.

Any help would be appreciated. This has been an ongoing issue since 2025 at least.

Issue in Outlook (with Colorful Theme Selected) showing the Message/Reading/Compose pane:

Issue in Outlook (Colorful Theme Selected) Showing the Conversation/Inbox Pane:

Manifestation of Issue in Excel (Clearly less annoying since it does not render cells illegible):

Answer 1

Hello Jonathan

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum

I understand that you are encountering issue with Office app when text is selected, it will become illegible due to the selection indicator matching the text color. This issue affects the following Office applications: Word, Classic Outlook, Excel.

Here are some troubleshooting methods for you to try:

You said you have try changing accessibility setting, but have you try turning off Window voice recognition:

• Right-click on the Start button and select Settings.
• Navigate to Accessibility from the left-hand menu.
• Scroll down to the Interaction section and select Speech.
• Toggle Windows Speech Recognition to Off.

Try disabling Hardware Graphics Acceleration in your Office app

Office can mis-render selection colors with GPU acceleration active.

• Go to File > Options > Advanced
• Scroll to Display
• Check Disable hardware graphics acceleration
• Restart Office

Also try Office online repair to see if it fixes the issue, refer to this site for instruction:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/repair-an-office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b

I notice that based on your description, this issue occurs when your Office app is in colorful theme. So, switching to different theme to use is a good workaround option.

I suggest you submit feedback on Microsoft feedback hub too to make this issue known, this get Microsoft to notice and Improve Office apps in the future.

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472

Feel free reply back to this post if you need further assistance, I'll be happy to help.