While Windows 10 includes several cool features such as Cortana, Xbox One game streaming, and Microsoft Edge web browser, there’s one feature I’ve been waiting on for the last couple of years—the ability to enable Dark Mode on Microsoft 365. Enabling Dark Mode on Windows 8 was simple—you just needed to be on the Enterprise or Pro version of the operating system and could enable it from within the personalization options.
Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to hide this setting in the Home and Business editions of Windows 10 (for no apparent reason). Thankfully, you can still enable Dark Mode in Microsoft 365 by following these steps.
Step 1: Open the app
To enable dark mode in Microsoft 365, first, open the app. You can do this by clicking on the app icon on your desktop or by searching for it in the Start menu. Once you find the app, click on it and select ‘Sign In’.
Next, enter your email address and password then click on the Sign In button.
Step 2: Scroll down to see an option for turning on dark mode: Scroll down until you see an option that says Turn On Dark Mode. When you’re ready to turn it on, just check the box next to Turn On Dark Mode and then press Apply.
Step 3: Turn off settings that make Windows go darker at night: If you want Windows 10 to return from its lighter daytime settings at night (or when your screen is dimmed), then uncheck these boxes as well before pressing Apply again. Continue reading to learn how to automatically adjust your brightness level based on the time of day.
Step 2: Open the settings
The first step is to open the settings. To do this, click on the three dots in the top right corner of the screen. Then, click on Settings. In the settings menu, click on Personalization. On the next page, under Choose your color, select Dark. If you are using Windows 10 Enterprise, you can select Windows Classic for the UI.
On macOS, it’s a little more complicated and there isn’t a simple setting that will turn on dark mode automatically. You can turn it on by following these steps:
- Open System Preferences > General > Appearance
- Select Light or Dark from Look > Feel dropdown
- Click OK – Restart your computer
- After restarting, go back into system preferences and change the look to light or dark again. Change it back to what you prefer!
Step 3: Scroll down to the Display Color section
To change your Office theme, scroll down to the Display Color section. If you don’t see this option, it may be because your Office plan doesn’t include Office themes. Or, if you’re an Office 365 subscriber, make sure you have the latest version of Office.
To turn on the dark mode theme:
- Under Choose your color, select the dark gray theme.
- Close and reopen any Office apps that you had open before you made this change so that the new theme takes effect.
- (Optional) Change the colors for specific programs: There are two ways to customize colors in Office 365 (desktop). You can either choose a preset scheme or create a custom scheme by following these steps:
- To set a preset scheme, go to File > Options > General tab > Colors, click one of the options under Preset schemes and then click Save.
- To create a custom scheme for all apps, go to File > Options > General tab > Colors and then click Advanced. From there you can set up your custom colors for each app from Schemes including Accent 1 and Accent 2 as well as Foreground and Background settings.
Step 4: Enable ‘Dark Theme’
If you’re using the Microsoft 365 app, you can enable dark mode by opening the app and going to Settings > Personalization > Colors. From there, select the ‘Dark’ option under ‘Choose your color.’ You’ll then need to restart the app for it to take effect. For those who use Microsoft Office on Windows 10 or MacOS, this process is the same; find the Settings tab on top of each app window and look for ‘Personalize’.
