How to change the theme of Office 2013

Oi..... Microsoft's - do you ever listen to your customers???

This has been going on for month & months, look at the previous posts, as well as the other 3 threads all saying the same thing... ITS TOO BRIGHT!

No one is the same and we like a bit of choice, so to try and fit us into the "You only get White, Grey, Dark Grey (which isn't really dark)" is preposterous. Please, please give us the ability to make changes to all aspects of the background, i.e. darker and less offensive - your turning people away from what generally could be a good product.

P.S. Its not just the banner background in Outlook were moaning about and want to change (what you call Office Background and Office Theme ) its the main body reading panes as well - come on, pull you finger out and action these simple requests from your customers.

I've been following with great interest the media's reporting of the upcoming release of Windows 8.1, which is designed to fix many consumer complaints about the operating system.  The first report I saw a few weeks ago included a link to a website that listed the fixes expected to be a part of 8.1. In today's paper there was an Associated Press article by Ryan Nakashima that stated a preview of 8.1 is now available for download, mostly intended for Microsoft partners and technology developers but downloadable by anyone. Neither of these reports indicate that fixing the color scheme is part of 8.1.

This, however, is the statement that brought me back to this forum to post:  "Julie Larson-Green, the head of Microsoft's Windows division, said the update, rapid by Microsoft standards, 'shows how much more responsive our engineering has become.' " OMG, could this woman be more out of touch? This forum and others across the internet are loaded with comments by stressed users about how much we hate the inability to customize the color scheme, yet it does not appear this is an issue addressed by the responsive engineering team at Microsoft.

Like many Windows 8 users, I've adjusted to the whole tile concept. I rarely use anything on the tile screen. I just click on the Desktop tile and go about my business. But these developers of 8.1 are working on making the tile experience better and getting more apps available. These folks seem really disconnected from the consumers' needs.

Or maybe I'm just confused that the problems of Office 2013 could be addressed by an upgraded Windows release.

I just got a new PC which came with Windows 7 and Office 2013 Pro. I was "upgrading" from my old laptop with Windows XP and Office 2003 Pro. Having been a fan of Microsoft all the way back to Windows 1.0 I was expecting great things considering I was moving up ten years. To say that this "upgrade" has been a huge disappointment would be a gross understatement. 

Whoever made the decision to limit the themes to shades of grey should be fired. I am older and my vision has deteriorated a little. I needed the high contrast available with the myriad of themes offered in previous versions. With either the "light grey" or the "dark grey" I can barely see anything. Outlook is a complete disaster. It's all so washed out I can't distinguish anything.

This is a huge step backwards and down right contemptuous of your customers. Don't you guys test these things out before launching them on the public? This is the worse example ever of Microsoft force-feeding their own wishes instead of listening to customers.

Unless the themes are greatly enhanced to the point I can pick one I can actually see I will have no choice but to return my new laptop and go back to my seven year old one with Windows XP and Office 2003. I cannot believe that Microsoft is not listening to the thousands and thousands of complaints from users on this vital issue. I read post after post where companies are not going with Office 2013 because users HATE these limited themes. Come on, Microsoft! Pay attention! You're losing MILLIONS of dollars here.

First Windows 8, then Office 2013 ... I really don't get it. Are Microsoft's employees tired and bored of being rich and now are trying to sabotage their products? Is anybody in charge there with some common sense? Do they use desktop computers to do work?  do they use their own products or have they all migrated to Mac and Google Apps as a lot of people are doing? ... don't get me started about the clueless,  clown in charge ...

anyway, I tried to get used to the 2013 UI for a couple of days but I can't.  I searched the web looking for any 3rd party app that would allow me to skin it back to the 2010 UI, or even something better with more choices and brighter colors, but no luck.

 I can't deal with this Windows 3.1 UI anymore, it hurt my eyes and it hurt my spirits  :s  I’ll revisit it once they come out with a fix (office 2013.1?) or I’ll wait for 2014 if I haven’t move on to non-ms solution...