How to Customize Office 2013 Backgrounds & Themes
In Office 2013, Microsoft’s latest productivity suite, the company decided to let users add a bit of “personality” to their applications with custom backgrounds and themes. They are subtle changes, to be sure, but if you’d like to change the look of Word, Outlook, or any other Office 2013 app, here’s how:
First, open an Office 2013 application; we’ll use Word 2013 for this article. Click the “File” button in the top left corner of the window to open the File & Info page. Next, select “Options” in the blue column on the left.
In the General tab, look under the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section. There are two drop-down boxes at the bottom: Office Background and Office Theme. First, backgrounds.
In the current shipping version of Office, there are 14 backgrounds to choose from. “Background” is a generous term, however, as these options only change a gray graphic in the upper-right portion of your Office apps.
A sample of some of the new backgrounds in Office 2013.
To change your background, select one of the items from the drop-down list and then press OK at the bottom of the “Word Options” window to enable your changes. You’ll instantly notice that the graphic in the top right banner of your window has changed.
You can further customize the look of Office with themes. To change your theme, head back to File > Options > General and this time select a drop-down option from the Office Theme box. Your three choices for theme are White, Light Gray, and Dark Gray. As before, select your theme and press OK to enable the change.
Office 2013 Themes (from left): White, Light Gray, Dark Gray.
Themes change the color of the menus and backdrop of the working area. Pages, email messages, and spreadsheet backgrounds are still white regardless of theme selection. While more noticeable than Office Backgrounds, the Themes are still a very subtle way to change the overall look of Office.
Microsoft’s new strategy is a strong push for a uniform user experience, resulting in few options for a user to customize the look of their Windows and Office installations. Still, if you’re looking for just a bit of flair, check out Office Backgrounds and Themes.
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30 thoughts on “How to Customize Office 2013 Backgrounds & Themes”
No they didn’t. They restricted users’ ability to add personality. “Backgrounds” couldn’t be any more pointless—a tiny splash of cartoon shapes up in the far right-hand corner. Who decided to call that a Background? And the choice of white, dark grey or one strip of colour—this is officially colorFUL—is mockingly called a theme? Who came up with this??
“Microsoft’s new strategy is a strong push for a uniform user experience, resulting in few options for a user to customize”
This is what Orwell was talking about, and he wasn’t being funny. Severely limiting customer choice becomes “a strong push for a uniform user experience.”
They’re the rules. That suit us. Comply, or get ignored/blocked/burned at the stake. But make sure you keep consuming.
Thanks for your input!
S-themer for Office
It hasn’t launched yet but from the website you can see how much of the UI is covered by S-themer (spoiler: it’s actually more than what is changed when you switch between the default themes). You will also find a signup form for a newsletter to stay up-to-date and a contact link for any questions.
Cheers,
Steven Kendrick
Creator of S-themer for Office
Is there a way to install a new theme or edit the default themes or create a new theme in Office 2013?
>choose between white, white or almost-white
I don’t think MS knows what “customization” means. Or “dark gray.” I wish they had a “black” theme, but based on these themes it’d be light gray at best. Anything else wouldn’t scorch my retinas with the fury of a thousand exploding suns, and we can’t have that now, can we?
I have a dark Windows theme installed, and switching to Office from anything sanely-designed requires a pair of sunglasses, welding goggles, and at least one 8-inch layer of solid lead.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/themes?ocid=w8_client_themes
This has been a complete disaster trying to implement new Office 365 (Latest Office 2013 version) across our company. EVERYONE is complaining that they are having difficulty seeing their work effectively. Eye strain is a common complaint.
SURELY, Microsoft has a solution or there is some company out there that has an add-in we can BUY to create a pleasant UI for Office 2013.
Really, How could Microsoft screw this up so badly and not have a decent fix by now. Office 2013 was released almost 2 years ago……..
Please tell me I am missing something……
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/themes?ocid=w8_client_themes
resulting in few options for a user to customize the look of their
Windows and Office installations. Still, if you’re looking for just a
bit of flair, check out Office Backgrounds and Themes.”
We are Borg…you will be assimilated…
I’m embarrassed to be a shareholder.
Productivity is certainly down due to all the changes that just makes it diffficult to see.
On top of this they do changes to things that worked to things that just take longer time to do.
Before I could right click and save a document to pdf or anything…now I must go through Export and so far it seems I can only save as pdf. Why do things like that? No reason..no gain…just pain.
Yes, I will recommend we all go back to Office 2010 here in the company, this is useless.
flat and grey
MS Office 2013 is THE most ugliest thing I have ever seen. Why can’t there be a decent design and colour scheme?
http://officethemehacker.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/darker-office-2013-theme-purple/
Anything even remotely close to this would be an excellent improvement.
Many thanks.