How to change the theme of Office 2013

My IT guy just installed Windows 2013 on my computer today. I was pretty excited considering how nice it was to upgrade to Windows 7 a couple years ago. However, between the flat look of the icons, the muted, small font that blends into everything, and the ridiculously bright THREE color choices of white, slightly white, and a little less white that we have, I immediately regretted my decision to upgrade. The first thing I did was Google how to make Outlook, a program I stare at for 40+ hours a week, better. Not only is there no way to change it, after doing some research I quickly discovered that this has been a problem your customers have been complaining about for two years. TWO.FREAKING.YEARS. Is this the result of someone in your Product Development Department declaring their love for 50 Shades of Grey? Because I am not impressed. This color scheme may work for programs like Word or Excel where you only have to deal with it in the top ribbon, but in Outlook there is just too much going on. If I wanted an optionless, cookie-cutter, bland product that was hard to read I would have purchased a Mac. I hope this is on your radar and you're currently in the process of adding these features to the next release cycle. Sadly, I am now stuck with this and cannot go back to Windows 7. But hey, as all your customers get headaches from straining too hard to read their emails on your super bright program, at least we'll have some cute sea creatures or some birds with twigs to stare at in the top right corner. So thanks for that.

Hey Michael,

I think everyone knows that there are only three lousy themes in MS Office 2013. it is insulting to other people's intelligence when you post the same canned answer instead of actually listening and writing an honest reply.

What happened to the old business rule "The Customer is ALWAYS RIGHT?

Perhaps you or one of your colleagues can get off  Facebook for a minute and put his Masters Degree and six-sigma blackbelt certification to good use and write a small memo to someone in management who may actually care about what's going on on the field.

Microsoft has lost touch with reality, just like politicians do. Very sad indeed.

Hello Michael and all forum contributor's.  The customer remains always right as displayed by the amount of users which continue to move into the Android phenomenon.  The reason Android is growing by leaps and bounds is because Corporate Microsoft continues to do as many of you state ignore the customer.  The Board of Directors at this point; Office 2013, Surface RT, Windows 8.1 should be afraid, very afraid.  I for one have a Windows 8 Touch Screen PC, and for the money I spent on it I could have gotten a very good android tablet with a very consumer friendly operating system.  After my recent purchase of Office 2013, I have started my search again for a new Android Tablet (PC).  As soon as I can make the change I will as there are many applications which emulate the Office Suite but are more consumer oriented.   As for Microsoft if you believe you don't need to listen to your customer base just remember these names; Pan American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, BlackBerry, SAAB and of course Apple yes Apple the same Apple Microsoft once had to bail out because of misjudging the market in 1997!  So Microsoft, ball is in your court!

Office 2013 Themes are terrible. Why the reversion to such an elementary level appearance? The more adult-level colors and options of choice in the previous version are huge stress reducers when you spend most of your 8-hour day working in Outlook, Word, and Excel. Why not give the option to choose from a variety of themes and appearances. As complex as Outlook is, I can't imagine that would be much of a challenge.

Sandy Lane

Abilene, TX