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 anyone had an idea if Microsoft is planning to release this same thing for Excel too? Right now Excel when using the dark theme makes everything dark except the cells. Which kind of makes no sense to me. This is where your eyes are most of the time. It needs to be a proper fully dark theme. Is there a way to get a full dark mode without manually setting the background color of the cells dark and the text white? Can a plugin be made to do that while keeping the actual cell background “empty” and the text “Automatic”? Is there already a plugin that does that? Thanks!

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. -- Adrian Parker

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. -- Adrian Parker

AdrianParker thanks, but I would prefer a true black mode. I know we can fake it, but I don't want to change the cell formatting. I want a different display of the grid.

This is a one-click solution https://github.com/stu0292/ExcelDarkMode

I have the same interest as JulienTheriault, having recently lost part of my vision I found that activating the Windows “dark mode” has been helpful in continuing my work as an engineer. Like wise I am perplexed why the dark mode is not applied to worksheets in Excel. The band-aid fix of using contrast themes is not useful. Using contrast themes reduces the worksheet to two colors, obliterating any highlighted (color filled) cells, colored text and colored boarders. I have found that using an inverted color filter to be more useful, colored text and cells are still visible. Unfortunately, if you have set Windows to “Dark Mode” inverting the colors will bleach out the ribbons, tabs and commands above the worksheet and you will need to toggle back-and-forth to access commands and the worksheet. But this is just a better band-aid, the worksheet not changing to a full dark mode is the problem that needs to be addressed. Repeating JulienTheriault questions:Is there a way to get a full dark mode?Is there already a plugin that does that?Can a plugin be made?Window settings referenced:Dark mode:Settings > Personalization > Colors, choose your mode, Dark (a key board short cut is not available)Contrast Themes:Settings > Accessibility > Contrast ThemesKeyboard shortcut: left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen to toggle between the previously sleeted theme and “none”.Note: contrast theme’s are different than “Themes” that are a submenu of “Personalization”Inverted Color Filter:Settings > Accessibility > Color Filters >The inverted filter has worked best for meKeyboard shortcut: Window Logo Key + Ctrl + C (The Keyboard shortcut needs to be turned ON in the settings menu)

Full Dark Mode in Excel | Microsoft Community Hub

58 Replies

JKPieterse
Silver Contributor
Aug 08, 2022
The only way I know how to get this is by turning on High contrast in Windows. I expect that is not what you want to do 🙂
- JulienTheriault
  Brass Contributor
  Sep 20, 2022
  That is in fact not what I want to do. I don't want to have to switch the High contrast option on & off all the time just to get a black worksheet. I want it to work like Word does, show the page black and text white but in reality it's a white page with black text.
- TomJ812
  Copper Contributor
  Sep 13, 2022
  I have the same interest as JulienTheriault, having recently lost part of my vision I found that activating the Windows “dark mode” has been helpful in continuing my work as an engineer. Like wise I am perplexed why the dark mode is not applied to worksheets in Excel. The band-aid fix of using contrast themes is not useful. Using contrast themes reduces the worksheet to two colors, obliterating any highlighted (color filled) cells, colored text and colored boarders. I have found that using an inverted color filter to be more useful, colored text and cells are still visible. Unfortunately, if you have set Windows to “Dark Mode” inverting the colors will bleach out the ribbons, tabs and commands above the worksheet and you will need to toggle back-and-forth to access commands and the worksheet. But this is just a better band-aid, the worksheet not changing to a full dark mode is the problem that needs to be addressed. Repeating JulienTheriault questions:
  
  Is there a way to get a full dark mode?
  Is there already a plugin that does that?
  Can a plugin be made?
  
  Window settings referenced:
  Dark mode:
  Settings > Personalization > Colors, choose your mode, Dark (a key board short cut is not available)
  
  Contrast Themes:
  Settings > Accessibility > Contrast Themes
  Keyboard shortcut: left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen to toggle between the previously sleeted theme and “none”.
  Note: contrast theme’s are different than “Themes” that are a submenu of “Personalization”
  
  Inverted Color Filter:
  Settings > Accessibility > Color Filters >
  The inverted filter has worked best for me
  Keyboard shortcut: Window Logo Key + Ctrl + C (The Keyboard shortcut needs to be turned ON in the settings menu)

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Full Dark Mode in Excel

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