You can turn off dark mode in Word by changing the Office Theme and (optionally) the page color. Here’s a clear, up‑to‑date guide.

How to Turn Off Dark Mode on Word

1. Quick steps on Windows (Word 365, 2021, 2019)

  1. Open Word.
  2. Click File (top‑left).
  3. Click Account (bottom of the left menu).
  4. Find Office Theme on the right.
  5. Change it from Black or Dark Gray to White or Colorful.
  6. Press Esc or click back to your document.

This switches Word’s interface back to light mode (ribbon, menus, background).

2. Alternative path via Options (also Windows)

If you don’t see the theme on the Account page:

  1. In Word, click File.
  2. Click Options.
  3. In the General tab, scroll to Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office.
  4. Set Office Theme to White or Colorful.
  5. Click OK.

This does the same thing but through the main settings dialog.

Keep pages white even if app is dark

If your app is dark but you only care about the page:

  1. Go to File > Options.
  2. In General , under Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office , check Never change the document page color.
  3. Click OK.

Now the page stays white even when the interface theme is dark.

3. Using “Switch Modes” for page color

Recent Word builds add a “Switch Modes” toggle:

  1. Open your document.
  2. Go to the View tab.
  3. Click Switch Modes in the Dark Mode section.

This flips just the document page between black and white without changing the whole app theme.

4. On Mac (Word for Mac)

There are two layers on Mac as well: Word’s own setting and macOS dark mode.

A. Turn off Word’s dark page

  1. In Word, click Word in the menu bar.
  2. Click Preferences.
  3. Open General.
  4. In Personalize , either:
    • Uncheck Turn off Dark Mode (wording may differ by version), or
    • Select Dark Mode has a white page color to keep the page white even if the app is dark.

This makes your document page white again.

B. If macOS Dark Mode is forcing it

If Word follows system appearance, you can:

  1. Open System Settings on your Mac.
  2. Go to Appearance.
  3. Change from Dark to Light.

Word will then follow the system’s light appearance (if set to use system settings).

5. If your page is still not white

Sometimes it’s not dark mode, but a page background color:

  1. Go to the Design tab.
  2. Click Page Color.
  3. Choose White (or No Color).

This resets the document’s “paper” color.

Why this keeps trending

Dark mode vs light mode in Word keeps popping up in forums because:

  • People turn dark mode on once (or it syncs from system settings) and forget where it lives.
  • New updates add things like Switch Modes , which changes just the page, confusing what “dark mode” means.
  • Some prefer dark UI but absolutely need a white page for printing, proofreading, or screenshots, so they want a mix of both.

In short: to turn off dark mode on Word, change the Office Theme to White/Colorful under File > Account or File > Options > General, and if the page is still dark, use View > Switch Modes or Design > Page Color > White.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.