Add automatic dark mode in Microsoft Office

[VincentJoshuaET]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\UI Theme value should just be also changed for automatic dark theme.

[Armin2208]

Thanks for the idea and providing me the right Registry Key.
Sadly Office always reverts this Value back to the UserConfig.
I set it to 4, I start word, it's dark. I close Word, reopen it, again white and the value is set to 0.
I could block access, but when users can't change the theme anymore in the apps itself. 😭

[xtprion]

Well, what if you give us another option, so since user know that they'll lost access to change theme via apps itself, they will have an option to use it or not.

[Armin2208]

@xtprion your are smart lol

[VincentJoshuaET]

Any update on this?

[Armin2208]

I never did something

[jpweytjens]

Are you considering to add this option with the warning mentioned above?

[udobehm]

It was awesome if the office theme would change too. Maybe some more keys/code needs to be changed in order the theme will not only change but also stay till your app would change it again. What does the Office support say to this?? Can they help you (easily) implementing this function?

[udobehm]

Ok, I see. But thanks for investigating it!

[kcorax]

Just donated. More coming if you find a solution for this.

[Armin2208]

@kcorax you know how life works haha

[berot3]

Can't wait for this to happen! For me it doesn't make much sense to you your auto-switcher until office is not switching along too (sorry).

Also, I think there are quite a lot who are using office, especially in the office! 😃

[kcorax]

I'm afraid I've confirmed it's not possible though. Even if you intercept messages to the app. The only option would be to write directly in memmory like game trainers do, but that would be extremely fragile code. There's no point in encouraging a productivity app to crash for aesthetics.

[douglangille]

Is there something in this powershell script that might help? I hacked away at the scheduled tasks in ADM and made something workable based on this, but I have to deal with a PS window popping up. It'd be better in-app if at all possible.

https://www.cloudappie.nl/change-theme-officeproplus-powershell/

[Armin2208]

thanks for sharing @douglangille

[Armin2208]

Is there something in this powershell script that might help? I hacked away at the scheduled tasks in ADM and made something workable based on this, but I have to deal with a PS window popping up. It'd be better in-app if at all possible.

https://www.cloudappie.nl/change-theme-officeproplus-powershell/

thanks to this site I was able to re-create the powershell as c# code. It works very well. Thanks again for sharing, 2.4 will bring Office theme switch! :)
BUT NO it's not possible to change the office theme while one program is running. You need to restart office to see the changes.

[Armin2208]

I updated the Beta release under releases. You can now test Office theme switch. Thank you!

[kcorax]

Donated as promised

[juhaszp95]

Hi There,

I think the Office theme switch still doesn't really work (it doesn't switch to night mode for sure - I'm using Office 365). However, you can set Office to set its theme according to the system mode. However, if I set that, that setting seems to go away / be overriden somehow by Auto Dark Mode. I wonder if I could prevent Auto Dark Mode from interfering with my Office setting, such that it would follow the system setting (set by Auto Dark Mode) effectively? (I see there is a "Microsoft Office (legacy)" switch on the Apps tab, but I'm not sure what that does if anything. It was set to "Adapt to system" so far.)

[Spiritreader]

Hi There,

I think the Office theme switch still doesn't really work (it doesn't switch to night mode for sure - I'm using Office 365). However, you can set Office to set its theme according to the system mode. However, if I set that, that setting seems to go away / be overriden somehow by Auto Dark Mode. I wonder if I could prevent Auto Dark Mode from interfering with my Office setting, such that it would follow the system setting (set by Auto Dark Mode) effectively? (I see there is a "Microsoft Office (legacy)" switch on the Apps tab, but I'm not sure what that does if anything. It was set to "Adapt to system" so far.)

The office theme switch doesn't work for 365, which is intentional because MS added an option for Office to follow the system theme. The ADM option is only meant for older versions that are still using the year-style version number.

Two things you can try:

1. Set it to "let the app decide" and see if that works.

2. You can set it to "disabled" (as it should be for non-legacy office) and ADM will not modify the office theme registry keys anymore.
   MS have changed the theme definitions for newer versions. Since those versions include a "follow system theme" option on their own, it's no longer necessary to use ADM for it.

Sadly detecting office versions are a bit convoluted, so the user has to make the correct decision whether to tell Office to follow the system them or try the auto dark mode legacy implementation if the first option isn't available on their installed Office version.

[juhaszp95]

Many thanks! The ”let the app decide” mode seems to work for me (coupled with setting Office to follow the system theme). Feladó: Sam ***@***.***> Küldve: 2023. február 10., péntek 22:46 Címzett: AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode ***@***.***> Másolatot kap: juhaszp95 ***@***.***>; Comment ***@***.***> Tárgy: Re: [AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode] Add automatic dark mode in Microsoft Office (#24) Hi There, I think the Office theme switch still doesn't really work (it doesn't switch to night mode for sure - I'm using Office 365). However, you can set Office to set its theme according to the system mode. However, if I set that, that setting seems to go away / be overriden somehow by Auto Dark Mode. I wonder if I could prevent Auto Dark Mode from interfering with my Office setting, such that it would follow the system setting (set by Auto Dark Mode) effectively? (I see there is a "Microsoft Office (legacy)" switch on the Apps tab, but I'm not sure what that does if anything. It was set to "Adapt to system" so far.) The office theme switch doesn't work for 365. It's only meant for older versions still carrying the year version number. Two things you can try: 1. Set it to "let the app decide" and see if that works. 2. You can set it to "disabled" (as it should be for non-legacy office) and ADM will not modify the office theme registry keys anymore. MS have changed the theme definitions for newer versions. Since those versions include a "follow system theme" option on their own. Sadly detecting the office versions are a bit convoluted, so the user has to make the correct decision on whether to tell Office to follow the system them or try the auto dark mode legacy implementation if the first option isn't available on their version. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#24 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIUOS3S3ZGI5BTGHIN7TSUDWW2ZJXANCNFSM4HK3EZBQ> . You are receiving this because you commented. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AIUOS3RLNVRXP6EKD2QDUCDWW2ZJXA5CNFSM4HK3EZB2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOKUCOAAI.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >