What you need to know
- Office Insiders can now test out dark canvas mode on Microsoft Word.
- Dark canvas mode swaps pages over to match the dark background of the rest of the app.
- Microsoft started testing dark canvas mode in Word on Windows in February.
Microsoft Word has had a dark mode for years on macOS, but Office Insiders can now test out a mode that's even darker (via OnMSFT). The latest Insider version of Word for macOS has an option for a dark canvas that makes the pages of your documents match the dark background of the rest of the app. This is a much truer dark mode, but it can take some getting used to.
The new dark canvas option first appeared in testing on the Windows version of Word in February. Now, Insiders on macOS get to test it out as well. You can set Word to dark mode on macOS separately from changing the theme settings on macOS.
Enabling the new dark mode only takes a few steps within Word:
- Open Word.
- Open Settings.
- Select General.
- Select Appearance.
- Select Dark.
Using the new dark mode can take some getting used to. It effectively inverts the text and page colors of your documents. Any text that's not black is left untouched, so you can still make sure your documents are as colorful as you'd like.
If you're on Windows and want to try out the new dark theme, known as black theme on Windows, use our guide on how to change the color theme of Office apps. You may also need to enroll in the Office Insider program.
