Forum Discussion
Full Dark Mode in Excel
I haven't read the many posts on this subject but here is my workaround.
I wanted a solution that allowed me to print the spreadsheet with the normal black font and white backround but only display a grey background on the screen because I get aura migraines from bright white screens.
I could not get dark mode to work for Excel Spreadsheet cells in Office 2021 Home and Student on Windows 11. (I think it is still in beta testing). Here is my workaround.
First, create a background color of your choice using MS Word. Here's how.
In Word, go to Design, Page Color, in the first column I chose this grey color called: "White, Background 1, Darker 35%".
Save the word document.
Open Snip n Sketch (or any other screen capture program). Capture the whole grey looking Word page.
Save it as a .jpg.
Open Excel in a new file.
Then choose Page Layout, Background, From File, browse and select the .jpg you created previously.
I recommend using a black foreground font color if you need to print the spreadsheet.
Here's the good part. The grey background will NOT print. It comes out white at print time.
For any other spreadsheets, simply repeat the part where you load in the .jpg into Excel using Page Layout, Background. You can use any color or darkness you want for the background by first creating it in Word.
Alternatively you may fill all sheet cells with grey and print using black & white option
- StairClimberAug 13, 2025Copper Contributor
Thanks Sergei. Your solution is easy to setup. One thing I prefer with the other method is that a cell will turn white when you start typing into it or if you double click the cell. When you click away from the cell it turns grey again. I also found the border color: white option to be easy on the eyes. I created some excel templates with varying degrees of grey-ness to make it easy to create new excel files that are already "dimmed".