The full interface, including the canvas, now uses dark

May 11, 2021 17:56 GMT  ·  By

Dark modes are cool, there’s no doubt about it, and for most people, they’re also the easier way to work on a computer during the night even bright colors and white backgrounds could easily become a nightmare for the eyes.

This is the reason Microsoft has been working on bringing a dark mode to all of its apps, including Microsoft Office, with a full dark theme released for Windows users earlier this year.

And now, Microsoft is bringing the full dark mode to Word on the Mac desktop as well, essentially turning the whole UI to black when users press a single button in the ribbon.

All you need to do is open Microsoft Word on your Mac computer, and then go to Settings > General > Appearance > Dark to enable the dark mode. Next, you should be able to see a new button under View > Switch mode that lets you easily jump between the two visual styles.

“With Dark Mode, you’ll notice that the previously white page color is now a dark grey/black. Colors within your document will also be shifted to accommodate the new color contrast. Indeed, reds, blues, yellows, and other colors will be shifted slightly to mute the overall effect of the color palette and look more visually pleasing with the new dark background,” Microsoft explains.

Current available in the beta channel

At the same time, Microsoft also gives users the option to enable the dark mode but stick with a white canvas.

“The dark canvas does not convey how your document will print, or the default view your collaborators will see when they open it. To confirm the default view (white canvas), use the Switch Modes button to flip the page color to white. Never want to see a dark canvas? Go to Word > Preferences > General > Personalize and select the Turn off Dark Mode option to disable both the dark Office theme and the dark page color, or the Dark Mode has a white page color option to continue using Dark mode with the white page background,” it says.

The feature is currently part of the Beta channel, so it’ll take a while until it becomes available for everybody.