Office has never been the most attractive suite of software in the world and with good reason: it’s built around functionality. But at least the latest build is much easier on the eyes, especially in the dark. Not because it’s pretty of course, but because it now has a dark mode option, finally giving you the ability to do away with all of that glaring white.
Working at a computer all day is one of the worst things you can do to your eyes, but more and more of us make our livings that way, so it makes sense to take regular breaks, and to also run software that can mitigate some of that circadian-rhythm-disrupting blue light we’ve heard so much about. But a dark mode on software can be really helpful too, and now Microsoft’s office suite has it.
Available in the latest Insider build 16.0.6568.2016, you’ll need to be part of the Office Insider program to gain access. However once you have it, enabling the new dark mode is pretty simple. Just head into the options menu and under “Office Theme,” select “Black.”
Of course a dark mode isn’t all the new Office build brought with it. There’s also a new contact-searching function in Outlook which shows you pictures alongside names. And there are some new IFS, MAXIFS, MINIFS and SWITCH functions in Excel (as per Winbeta) and you can even send documents without having to leave the worksheet to do so.
One of the big features that Microsoft pushed with Office 2016 was collaboration, and so naturally it has continued to improve that feature as it rolls out further updates. This latest build has a new function which lets you see who is working on which slides in PowerPoint (if you have a joint project) as well.
