Excel font color doesn change on changing windows high contrast mode

rvsw · 06 Sep 2018

Because of problems with my eyes, I often use windows in high contrast which is essentially as I understand, can be described as of Windows theme with dark colours. When I start Microsoft Excel 2010 on Windows 7 in high contrast mode, the Microsoft Excel background is black and the foreground is white like any other application in Microsoft Office, including Microsoft Outlook 2010.

When I send a Microsoft Excel file to someone else who is not using the more conventional Windows themes, their background is white. Since the foreground is also white, they do not see anything.
I face the same issue if I ever change my theme setting from high contrast to conventional Windows 7 themes.
I have to manually select the entire worksheet and then change the foreground colour to black
.
But this is not a problem in Microsoft Outlook. For example, if I have any drafts in Microsoft Outlook 2010 and I change the Windows key from high contrast to conventional Windows 7, then the foreground and background colour automatically change.

And this is the same behaviour that I see in other Windows application including notepad.

I have looked around for answers on this but could not find anything. I also looked in Microsoft Office settings but again there was no success. So I'm posting this query here in the hope of a solution.

If the direct solution is not possible, is there a possibility of a workaround in which I open Microsoft Excel and it automatically detects if Windows is in high contrast mode or at least the default background colour and then adjust the foreground colour? I was hoping to include this as a macro in Microsoft Excel so that I can send it to recipients of my Microsoft Excel file and they can run it instead of me asking them every time to change the foreground colour
. Thank you for any inputs

Paul Black · 06 Sep 2018

Hi rvsw,

I think you will probably need to use something like a Workbook Object in Excel VBA. You could then use the method Workbook_Open(). Code placed in this method will execute when you open the Excel Workbook.

I am sure that there is somebody here that will be able to write some VBA code to do this for you!

The recipient will of course need to have Macros enabled!

Excel Options > Trust Centre > Trust Centre Settings > Macro Settings > and tick the desired Macro Setting.

I hope this helps!

rvsw · 06 Sep 2018

Thank you for your prompt response. I will check the workbook object. Yes I understand that the recipients need to have their macros enabled in Microsoft Excel.

However, I was hoping that this would be the last option. I was hoping to find some configuration setting that can be modified so that this behaviour is not seen.