How to change the theme of Office 2013

I should have said that Office itself has many features with outstanding design and programming,  but the flat look of Office 2013 is definitely NOT in that category. And  also, I have now switched back to Office 2010 and feel much more productive with its clearly-delineated design elements.

I am also considering switching back to to Office 10 because reading gray text as compared to black text is becoming torture.  I doubt the validity of the statement that gray text is easy on the eyes.  How does high contrast text injure eyes?  There is considerable variability in the part of the retina that is used for high acuity vision - the fovea.  The density of photoreceptors in the fovea can vary by a factor of two,  In addition there is considerable between-person variability in the distribution of red and green sensing photoreceptors in the fovea.  Blue detecting photoreceptors are not present in the fovea at all.  I always have difficulty reading baby blue text on a white background.

I use PowerPoint to give lectures and I always use text that stands out from the background - white on dark blue or yellow on dark blue.  I have never had a student tell me that less contrast is better.  Such slides are easier and faster to read.  I suppose that the same applies to text on monitors.

I think that websites are often designed by individuals who are into esthetics.  While a low contrast page may look cool and artsy to some, I find them to be user unfriendly.  Microsoft does this in Office 2013 and also on their web sites.  I recommend that they put in high contrast themes and let individual decide on what they want to use.  They may be surprised to find out that high contrast themes are preferred in lower-light conditions that are found at home vs. at work.  There may also be age related preferences in contrast.  Please do something ASAP.

Thank you for the feedback on Office’s new look. We are actively collecting, sorting and reading through feedback on Office 2013’s design and User Experience. As the audience for Office 2013 grows, we are being mindful of patterns and pain points that emerge from user feedback. While we do not have any additional Themes planned at this time, it is an issue we are watching very closely.

I agree with the others who have commented on the woeful appearance of Office 2013. As someone who has been in the IT industry for well over forty years, I can only say that Microsoft's User Experience team has failed miserably in this case, and frankly should be looking for new jobs.  Together with the general "flatness" of  the Windows 8 so-called Modern UI, It's yet another example of one part  of Microsoft  doing brilliant work while other parts fail miserably.

Okay, so we'll soon celebrate the second anniversary of the first comment on this thread. One would think that in all that time Microsoft would have read enough "pain points" to actually DO something about it. I would love to see some financial wiz tabulate the millions of dollars Microsoft is losing by individuals and large corporations not "upgrading" to Office 2013. It would be a shocker, I'm sure. 

As a huge fan of Microsoft for decades now I am at a total loss as to why the company has fallen so far. They've missed the boat on so many opportunities, from search engines to the cloud. They seem to always be playing catch up instead of being the industry leader they once were. It appears that they are so busy trying to be first at just one thing that they've lost what made them so successful in the first place. Office is the very foundation of everything Microsoft but it's being left to crumble with no response from Microsoft to their customers. Their arrogance knows no bounds now. Their motto with Office 2013 is "tell us what you want and we'll show you how to do without it". How hard can it be to restore what was in previous versions? We're all going blind trying to use Office with these three equally pathetic themes. We simply need some contrast. Is that too much to ask? It appears it is.