Microsoft is going darker with its dark mode feature in Word. In a recent blog post, Microsoft detailed the levels of darkness users can now attain.
Initially, Microsoft Words' dark mode only allowed users to dim the toolbar, ribbons, and surrounding area of a page. The more recent darker mode now allows users to darken the canvas further, granting them control of how much dimmer they wish to go.
Microsoft programmer Ali Forelli stated, "the long-requested feature has only been made more important thanks to the increasing amount of time we spend at our screens. It has become increasingly important to reduce eye strain and accommodate light sensitivity.”
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The most noticeable change in dark mode is when you switch white pages to a charcoal grey — the colors in documents will now be adjusted. When using reds, blues, yellows or other bright colors those will be slightly muted and reflected within in the overall color palette to better match the now darkened background.
The new darker mode update introduces a "Switch Modes" tab in the Word ribbon for easy switching between the dark and light canvas while also giving users the option to disable the dark canvas mode and stick to the normal dark mode.
This darker dark mode (let’s go with ‘double dark’) is currently available to beta testers of Office 365, so expect it to arrive in your Word program in the coming months. Microsoft has only made the new darker mode available to users of Microsoft 365, although you can choose the dark grey theme on Office 2016 and Office 2013.
Just keep in mind that documents you create while in dark mode be reproduced with a white background and black text, which is the default. If you wish to change your documents to have a black background and white text, you can, but just know that's how they will reproduce and print.
