Is there an easy way to apply a dark theme to my excel windows: black or gray background on all cells, light text.
Ideally, this would be just a theme/view that could be applied, rather than actually changing the colors in the document itself.
Yes there is. This can be done in both Excel 2007 & 2010. I have 2010, so to change it go to
FILE > OPTIONS > GENERAL
These options are available there;
I would do as @CharlieRB suggests and additionally set a small background image, any color, or image that works for you. You can make this a default template as well if you like. Not sure how printing will work for you, but you could set a custom view to deal with printing, if that is an issue.
Page Layout>Background
Create and select a small image
ok so i just figured out a solution, but it comes with drawbacks. you can use windows aero to change the default color of all programs which will do exactly what you're asking for, but will affect most standard programs as well. so here's what you do:
This will change the background color of excel, word, etc. Hope this helps.
So, this is not my answer and I found this 'workaround' from a reddit user u/towndown8. He posted this image, and I am posting the link. Hopefully, it helps people as it helped me.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/UZmAk.jpg
this is the original thread I got it from: https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/b9fo97/dark_mode_question_how_to_get_the_worksheet_to/
For those who are writing about Options and General Settings, you haven't read the question properly. You're offering application theme ideas. The OP is asking for the cells themselves to be dark mode.
A solution is here: How to make MS Excel cells display dark background with white text instead of the reverse which is default?
if you're okay with macro-enabled Excel documents.
Office 365 now has dark mode for Mojave OS on Mac. It just came out today for the Insiders Fast track updates. I've been looking forward to this for years.
I don't prefer the insider's updates, because I don't want to test Excel for Microsoft. Also, the updates come too often, disrupting my work flow.
Can't wait!
I have managed to get my Excel, Word and Notepad to all show light gray background by default by changing the Windows Theme, which works well for me. I have windows 10 and Office 2016 and have been struggling with this for a long time. I had to create a new theme and change the Window Color to gray.
I'm trying out a macro-based approach - have recently written this: https://stu0292.github.io/ExcelDarkMode
The idea being a personal workbook macro (so it runs for any workbook, including non .xlsx) that toggles the colours on the cell styles.
It's not perfect but feedback/contributions welcome.
I use the following Excel VBA code to toggle all sheets in a workbook between Dark Mode and Light (default) Mode. The code uses the background color in cell A1 of each sheet to determine how to toggle the colors.
Sub darkModeToggle()
Dim sh As Worksheet, r As Range, dark As Boolean
Dim borderTypes As Variant, border As Variant
borderTypes = Array(xlEdgeLeft, xlEdgeTop, xlEdgeBottom, _
xlEdgeRight, xlInsideVertical, xlInsideHorizontal)
For Each sh In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
Set r = sh.Range("A1") 'toggle color based on A1 of each sheet
With sh.Cells
If r.Interior.ThemeColor = xlThemeColorDark1 Then dark = True
If dark Then
.Interior.ThemeColor = xlThemeColorLight1 'cell color
.Font.ThemeColor = xlThemeColorDark1 'text color
Else
.Interior.ThemeColor = xlThemeColorDark1
.Font.ThemeColor = xlThemeColorLight1
End If
For Each border In borderTypes 'border color
.Borders(border).TintAndShade = -0.14996795556505
Next
End With
Next sh
End Sub
I wasn't able to figure out a way to change the IDE colors using code, so I just do it manually using Tools>Options>Editor Format. The values for the above image are:
And the Light (Default) Mode values are:
In Excel 365 (2205):
Dark mode for menu:
Dark mode for cells, see the instructions below:
Create new cell style:
White font:
Black background:
Apply new cell style to all cells:
Result:
Yes, you can change the color from the theme. Go to File and click below "option" and general seetings.