Phenquestions
Back in 2012, when Microsoft released the Preview build of Office 2013, the dark gray theme was missing from themes list. Users who tried and tested Office 2013 Preview sent feedback to Microsoft requesting to include the dark gray theme in the final version of the Office 2013. Despite that, the office team offered a light gray theme in Office 2013 and named it as Dark Gray!
For those who have been missing the dark gray theme while using Office 2013, here is a good news. Microsoft has included a dark gray theme in its newest version of Office suite for desktop, Office 2016.
As you likely know, Office 2013 includes only three themes: White, Light Gray and Dark Gray. The Dark Gray theme in Office 2013 isn't actually dark and is bright compared to the Dark Gray theme in Office 2010.
Unlike Office 2013, Office 2016 comes with a total of five themes: White (identical to the one in Office 2013), Colorful (new theme), Light Gray (same as in Office 2013), Medium Gray (known as Dark Gray in Office 2013) and Dark Gray (new theme).
As you can see in the above picture, unlike the Dark Gray theme in Office 2013, the Dark Gray theme offered in Office 2016 is actually dark and easy on eyes. For many, this might sound like a small feature but there are millions of users around the world complaining about the lack of this actual Dark Gray theme in Office 2013.
With default settings, Colorful theme is set as the default theme in Office 2016. The colorful theme shows each Office 2016 application in different color. Although the default Colorful theme is elegant, it's not for users who prefer to have an easy-on-eyes theme.
If you prefer using the Dark Gray theme, which is not applied by default, please follow the given below directions to change the default theme to Dark Gray in Office 2016.
Enable Dark gray theme in Office 2016
Method 1
Step 1: Open any Office 2016 application.
Step 2: Click File menu and then click Options.
Step 3: Under the General tab (selected by default), look for the option named Office Theme.
Step 4: Select Dark Gray theme from the drop-down menu and then click OK button to apply the selected theme.
Note that the newly selected theme will appear on other Office applications as well. For instance, if you have set Dark Gray as the theme in Word, the same theme will appear in Excel and PowerPoint applications as well.
Method 2
Step 1: Launch an Office 2016 application.
Step 2: Click the File menu and then click Account.
Step 3: On the right-side, under Office Theme section, select Dark Gray theme. That's it!
Hope this helps!
