How to Change the Background Color in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word defaults to a plain white canvas — practical, but not always ideal. Whether you're designing a branded document, reducing eye strain, or creating a template that stands out, changing the background color is a straightforward process once you know where to look. The tricky part is that Word offers multiple ways to add color to a page, and they don't all behave the same way.

The Difference Between Page Color and Shading

Before diving into steps, it's worth understanding that Word treats background color in two distinct ways:

• Page Color applies a color to the entire document page, visible on screen but — by default — not printed.
• Paragraph Shading applies a color block behind specific text or sections, and does print by default.

This distinction trips up a lot of users. If you've ever set a background color and then wondered why it didn't show up in print, that's the Page Color setting at work.

How to Change the Page Background Color

This is the most common method for giving your entire document a colored background.

1. Open your Word document.
2. Click the Design tab in the ribbon (in older versions of Word, this may be under the Page Layout tab).
3. Click Page Color on the right side of the ribbon.
4. Choose a color from the theme palette, standard colors, or click More Colors to enter a custom hex or RGB value.

Your page background will update instantly. You can also select Fill Effects from this menu to apply gradients, textures, patterns, or even an image as the background — useful for design-heavy documents.

Making the Page Color Print

By default, Word suppresses page background colors when printing. To enable it:

1. Go to File → Options → Display.
2. Check the box labeled Print background colors and images.
3. Click OK.

This setting applies to all documents on that installation of Word, not just the current file.

How to Apply Background Color to Specific Text or Paragraphs 🎨

If you only want color behind a section of text — not the whole page — you'll use Shading instead.

For paragraph-level shading:

1. Select the paragraph(s) you want to highlight.
2. Go to the Home tab.
3. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Shading button (the paint bucket icon in the Paragraph group).
4. Choose your color.

For character-level highlighting:

1. Select your text.
2. Use the Text Highlight Color button (also in the Home tab) to apply a highlight color — similar to a marker effect.

Note: Text highlight color and paragraph shading are different tools with different color palettes. Highlight colors are limited to a preset list; paragraph shading lets you pick any custom color.

Background Color Options at a Glance

Version and Platform Differences Worth Knowing

The steps above apply to Word for Windows and Mac in Microsoft 365 and recent standalone versions (2016, 2019, 2021). A few things vary depending on your setup:

• Word for the Web (the browser-based version) has limited background color support. Page Color may not be available, and some formatting won't carry over identically to the desktop app.
• Word on mobile (iOS/Android) has a stripped-down ribbon. Background color options are limited and accessed through the formatting menu, but the full range of Page Color settings typically isn't available.
• Older versions (Word 2010/2013) place Page Color under the Page Layout tab rather than Design.

Dark Mode vs. Document Background Color

One common source of confusion: Dark Mode in Windows or macOS does not change your document's background color in Word. Word's canvas typically stays white regardless of your OS display settings, unless you've enabled Word's own dark mode through File → Options → General → Office Theme.

Even then, Word's built-in dark canvas is a display preference — it doesn't modify the actual document background color or affect how the file looks when opened on another device. 💡

How Themes and Templates Interact With Background Color

If you're working with a Word template or a document with an applied theme, background colors may already be baked into the design. Changing the Page Color manually can sometimes conflict with theme settings, resulting in unexpected formatting behavior. In those cases, modifying the theme itself — via Design → Themes — gives you more consistent results across the whole document.

Similarly, if you're sharing the file with others, keep in mind that background colors render differently in PDF exports versus printed output versus screen viewing. A deep navy background that looks sharp on screen may produce heavy ink usage when printed, or appear washed out depending on the PDF viewer.

The Variables That Shape Your Experience

Getting the right background effect in Word isn't just about finding the right menu — it depends on several factors that vary from one user to the next: which version of Word you're running, whether you're working in the desktop app or browser, whether the document needs to print or only display on screen, and whether you're working within a pre-designed template or a blank document.

The mechanics are consistent, but the best approach for one setup doesn't automatically apply to another. 🖥️