Office 2010 is a great office suite, but it can be difficult to change the default color scheme. Here are some tips to help you change the default color scheme:

  1. Open the Office 2010 Start screen and type “color” in the search bar. The “Color Management Tools” window will open.
  2. In this window, you can select a color scheme or set a new one.
  3. To set a new color scheme, click on the “New Color Scheme” button and enter a name for your new scheme. The name must be unique and not used by other users of Office 2010.
  4. To change the default color scheme, click on the “Default Color Scheme” button and select a different color from the list of colors that are available.

In this example we are using Microsoft Word, but it works the same way in Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint as well. Once you change the color scheme in one Office application, it will change it for all of the other apps in the suite.

Change Color Scheme

To change the color scheme click on the File tab to access Backstage View and click on Options.

In Word Options the General section should open by default…use the dropdown menu next to Color Scheme to change it to Silver, Blue, or Black then click OK.

Here is what Black looks like…who knows why Microsoft decided to leave the blue around the edges.

This is the default Blue color scheme…

And finally we take a look at the Silver color scheme in Excel…

That is all there is to it! It would be nice if they would incorporate other color schemes to Office 2010, as some of you may not be happy with only three choices. If you’re using Office 2007 check out our article on how to change the color scheme in it.

Also, The Geek has a cool article on how to set the Color Scheme of Office 2007 with a quick registry hack.