The new Word 2019 and 365 has built-in dark theme. Follow these steps to enabled dark mode in Microsoft Word.
A lot of applications nowadays have a built-in dark mode. When enabled, the entire user interface will turn to the ‘dark side’. As you can guess, the dark mode will not only be easy on your eyes due to the reduced overall white light but it looks pretty good too. Just like any other application, Microsoft Office also added the dark mode option to all its newer office applications. As such, you can easily enable the dark mode in Word. When turned on, the entire Word user interface, except for the document panel will use dark mode.
Though the options are not available in older versions, as long as you are using either Office 2019 or Office 365, you can turn on the dark mode from Word settings. In fact, Word gives you two types of dark modes. i.e, black and dark gray modes.
In this quick and simple guide, let me show you the steps to change Office theme and enable the dark mode in Word 2019 & 365 versions.
Enable dark mode in Word
To enable dark mode in Word, follow the steps give below.
- Open Word in Windows.
- Click on the “Options” option on the sidebar.
- Select the “General” tab in the Word Options sidebar.
- Select the “Black” or “Dark Gray” option from the “Office Theme” dropdown menu.
- Click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
That is all. It is that simple to turn on dark mode in MS Word. If you are stuck or need more detailed steps, follow the below sub-section.
Detailed steps
1. First, open the Word application. To do that, open the Start menu, search for “Word” and click on the top result.
2. After opening the Word app, click on the “Options” option at the bottom left corner. If are on the document screen, you have to first click on the “File” button at the top and then click on the “Options” option.
3. The above action will open the Word Settings window. Here, click on the “General” tab on the sidebar. This is the tab that shows all the general and theme-related options in Word.
4. On the right panel, select the “Black” or “Dark Grey” option from the Office Theme dropdown menu. You will see this option under the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section.
5. Also, make sure that the “Disable dark mode” checkbox next to the dropdown menu is UNCHECKED.
6. Once you select the option, click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
As soon as you save the changes, the dark theme or dark mode will be applied almost instantly. In fact, you can see it in action immediately.
If you ever want to change the office theme to light mode or light theme, follow the same steps but select the option “White” from the Office Theme dropdown menu in step 4.
That is all. It is that simple to enable dark mode in Word.
I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, check out how to open recovery files (ASD) in Word.
