How can I remove 'Dark Mode' from Ms Office apps without disabling it across macOS?

apple.stackexchange https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/348653

Question

I am running macOS Mojave and have Dark Mode set as my default appearance in Apple > System Preferences > General.

I recently updated MS Office on my Mac and the latest MS Office update (i.e. version 16.20) supports Dark Mode. However, unlike many other apps, there is no way to enable/disable this appearance within the app itself.

Since I much prefer the usual appearance of my MS Office apps, but still want to use Dark Mode within macOS, how can I achieve this outcome?

Was it helpful?

Solution

To disable Dark Mode for MS Office only, you need to run a terminal command for each of the MS Office apps in question.

For example, if you wish to disable dark mode in MS Excel, follow these steps:

  1. Quit Excel if it’s running
  2. Launch Terminal (usually found in the Applications/Utilities folder)
  3. Enter (or copy and paste) the following command: defaults write com.microsoft.Excel NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool yes
  4. Now press return
  5. Enter (or copy and paste) the following command: killall cfprefsd
  6. Now press return

Now when you launch MS Excel it should appear as it it normally would without Dark Mode enabled.

NOTES:

  • To do this with the other MS Office apps, just change the command at Step 3 so that it’s referencing the app in question.
  • Each of the app names within the command must start with an uppercase letter (note the uppercase 'E' for Excel in the command at Step 3.
  • For PowerPoint, the app name must be spelt as follows: Powerpoint (i.e. only the first P is in uppercase, not both Ps)
  • To revert back to Dark Mode, follow the same steps but end the command at Step 3 with no instead of yes.

OTHER TIPS

An alternative would be to use an app called lights off or Night Owl. These both provide the option to turn off dark mode for specific apps:

With LightsOff you can easily and quickly switch between light and dark mode and even specify what mode you want on a per app basis.

This provides a checkbox interface where you toggle modes in all apps:

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