Microsoft: Excel for Windows gets a real dark mode

Microsoft's spreadsheet program Excel now also has an extensive dark mode under Windows. The US company announced this in a developer blog, and the change is available with the latest update of beta version 2502. Anyone using this can switch on dark mode under "View". If the other settings are correct, Excel will then go completely dark – This includes the tables themselves. Previously, the menu bars and other outer areas of the Excel window could be displayed in dark or black, but the tables themselves remained white. This can now be changed everywhere.

Office apps already with dark mode

Dark modes for apps and applications are designed to be easier on the eyes, improve accessibility, modernize the appearance and can reduce energy consumption with certain display technologies (OLED and AMOLED). Microsoft provided the Office apps on Android and iOS with this feature more than five years ago, and Office already supports a dark mode on macOS. However, there is still a lot of white space in Excel, for example. On Windows, Word, for example, can already be completely darkened. This can be done via "File" and then "Account", where the Office design can be changed so that the Microsoft applications become as dark as previously possible. It is not clear from the blog entry when the more extensive implementation for Excel will be available everywhere.

The company hasalso announcedin a blog post that Teams and Outlook now have access to a shared address book. Anyone using Microsoft Entra ID will no longer have to manage their contacts in two places. The change will ensure that users save time. Notes on contacts are now also synchronized. If problems arise when merging the two address books, a copy is automatically created, which is marked as a "Teams conflict" and can be checked.

(mho)