Forum Discussion
JulienTheriault
Aug 03, 2022Brass Contributor
Full Dark Mode in Excel
Currently you can set Office Theme to Black which acts as a dark mode. In Word, setting this to Black makes the page dark and the text white when it is set to “Automatic”. I was wondering if anyo...
Tony_Baynes
Dec 14, 2022Copper Contributor
abhishekolympics I have previously used the same method of inserting a black background and changing the text to white, and it works very well. I think there is also a setting where the grid line colour can be changed as well. The problem is that, in a work environment, most people continue to use the normal spreadsheet view. Having a button, as in MS Word, to change to a black background with light coloured text, would be ideal.
AdrianParker
Jan 07, 2023Brass Contributor
The easiest way to do this is to use templates.
Firstly, you have to declare where you want personal templates to be saved.. Using file explorer, create a folder under Documents called Personal Templates, go into that folder and click the location bar so that you can copy that full path.. you'll need it in the next bit..
Now back in Excel go to File > Options > Save and paste the path value in the 'Default Personal Templates Location', and press ok.. this is where any templates you create will be stored.
Create a brand new spreadsheet so everything is completely empty and only a single sheet1.
Press CTRL-A to select all of the sheet and set the background colour, font colour, and border colour
To set the background colour, press the arrow next to the Fill Colour option and choose More Colours > Custom Tab, and set the background to #101010 which is RGB(16,16,16), and press Ok.
Ensuring all of the sheet is still selected, set the font colour to white in the usual way.
Finally set the border colour. For the border, press the arrow and choose More Borders (at the bottom of the border list). Set the Color to the bottom left of the grey cells "White, Background 1, Darker 50%", then press the Outline and Inside buttons to select all cell borders and press ok.
So now we have a dark background sheet with visible cell lines and white font.
Ensure you clear an test text before the next step..
To save it choose File - Save As and use Browse to select the folder you set in the first part for personal templates. Change the Save as Type dropdown to 'Excel Template (XLTX)', and give the file a meaningful name such as Blank Dark.xltx and press ok. Now when you do a file New, you can choose that template to start by looking in the personal tab.. once you've used it once, it will appear in the top of the screen to make it easier to select.
If you need to create multiple sheets, then simply highlight sheet1 and Copy, insert a new sheet and then Paste, the new sheet will then be dark too. If you regularly use multiple sheets, you can always add a 2nd sheet and save it as another template "Blank Dark 2Sheet.xltx" for example.
Hope this helps someone.. As a developer, I do everything I can to avoid looking at white screens all day.
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Adrian Parker
- Shawn_WheelockAug 28, 2023Copper ContributorThis is amazing; thank you so much!
- ckk563Mar 23, 2023Copper Contributor
This was EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you very much for this little trick!AdrianParker
- AdrianParkerJan 07, 2023Brass Contributor
Slightly more complex is how to set the dark template to be the default when you open either a new spreadsheet or just add a sheet.
In Excel, go to File > Options > Trust Center and click Trust Center Settings. Then select Trusted Locations on the left.
Double click the "Excel default location Excel Startup" and it will display the path so that you can copy it.
Now, the template you created for the dark theme with a single sheet on it, copy it to that folder and rename it to Book.xltx And also copy it and name it Sheet.xltx.
Now, whenever you create a new spreadsheet or even a new sheet, it will have the dark theme.
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Adrian Parker
- mathew6789Aug 29, 2024Copper Contributor
AdrianParker Nice work. The only trouble is that if you ever need to print something, you have to either convert it back or waste a heap of ink. Not worth the hassle for me. Microsoft really ought to create a proper dark-mode for older versions of Excel.
- mamachughOct 17, 2023Copper Contributor
AdrianParker Thank you so much!
- BXavierMar 09, 2024Copper ContributorOkay so in reviewing, it looks like this macro will do a nice job of changing colour of the worksheet to dark mode - but when it's time to print something, we're CERTAINLY not going to want to print what we're seeing on the screen! So if I want to work in dark theme/mode but print in a "normal" view, I'm going to have to toggle each and every time I want to print my worksheet? This is not a good workaround for the scenario outlined here. I too struggle to work on documents that have a glaring white background with dark text, and with Word and Outlook I don't have to - and when I need to print an email or Word document, it automatically prints it in "standard" acceptable formats. How do we create a macro that will apply the appropriate stylings to an Excel worksheet BUT still prints with a white background and black text??? THIS is the solution that is truly needed in order to be functional in practical applications...
- msarin24Aug 18, 2023Copper Contributor
AdrianParker This part of your suggestion (where you mention the Trust Center locations) did not work for me. I'm a Microsoft 365 subscriber so I'm using the latest version of the Office suite.
The previous suggestion works for new workbooks but I need the dark mode enabled for opening existing workbooks as well.