Office 2016 keeps reverting color theme back to Colorful

Anonymous
2015-10-05T15:13:00+00:00

I installed Office 2016 as an upgrade to 2013.  Put the color scheme on grey (because annoyingly the awesome Black went away sometime in the preview.)  

Now I have a weird issue where every time I close all of the 2016 applications and then reopen one of the applications, the theme has changed from grey to colorful.  This applies to reboots or just closing them all and then later opening one back up.  Oddly as well today (10/5/2015) I walked away from the computer to talk to a co-worker in the next office.  When I came back, it was on colorful again.  However that is the only time it has changed itself while open.

It seems to work correctly when it is set to Grey.  So for instance, say I open Outlook and change the theme to Grey.  When I open Word or Excel, they are also Grey as they should be.

So I'm just throwing that out there as a potential bug

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Other

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

127 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2017-02-09T14:24:23+00:00

    Hugo

    To make sure you have all the variables of my system:

    My small business currently uses O365 Pro. 

    Full versions of Office are loaded on all machines.

    I have a PC and a laptop and I set BOTH machines to No background and White Theme

    Laptop is not turned on very often (so the PC should not be pulling anything from that machine)

    We use SharePoint for file document storage and sharing and most users have access to most files and sites.

    Current version of Office on my machine is Version 1611 (Build 7571.2109)

    ALSO, and of some interest, this morning I found my computer had rebooted (updated) and when I opened Any/All Office products they each had reverted back to Colorful Theme.

    I have checked Always use these values regardless of sign in to Officein options and we'll see if that helps.

    Thanks

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-07T21:50:32+00:00

    So then, the question is, will/can MS fix this and if so, when.  Seems reasonable to expect that the settings of one user would not be transferred to another user. 

    Yes, that is the question and only MS can answer it. But that is exactly the sort of question they never answer ...

    This forum is intended for questions that we, as users, can help others with.  If there is any chance (tiny as it may be) of you getting ANY reply (from MS) to your question you have to post it on the UserVoice forum. That is now the place to submit bug reports, like this, and also make change requests.

    “UserVoice.com” - MS Suggestion box sites

    You can use the Office or Windows 10 “feedback” (*c*r*)applets but then your suggestions just fall into a black hole. You get no feedback from MS about your feedback.


    A better place to submit this type of feedback the “UserVoice” forum. You can submit suggestions for “new feature requests”, “change existing feature requests” or actual “bug reports” to the forum either by “voting” and commenting on a similar existing suggestion or by creating a new suggestion for others to vote and comment on.


    When MS determines there is “enough” interest they will change the status of the post to indicate if they are going to work on it or ignore it.  What is “enough” interest is totally undefined. Some postings have been acted on with only a dozen or 2 votes and comments.  Others (like “bring back Picture Manager” continue to be ignored even though they have several hundred votes and comments.


    It is also a good idea to provide cross posted links.  Put a link back to this answers.com posting on UserVoice, and add a reply here with a link to your specific posting on UserVoice.


    Pointing to “uservoicpe” is a wasted effort.  That is just the high level identifier with no link to MS specific subsites!


    • MS has SEVERAL dozen sub sites.

    • MS does NOT have naming standards for those sub sites.

    • MS does NOT have a home page to guide people to all of the sub sites.

    <HINT HINT MS!>


    This next link is a collection of MS UserVoice.com sites I’ve encountered (I’m sure there are more):


    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows\_10-desktop/ms-suggestion-box-sites-at-uservoicecom/7397119c-6d48-49e6-8d94-7bd0a50d214f


    Go to UserVoice, either through specific links I’ve provided below or create your own suggestions there. That is where MS is looking specifically for this type of user feedback to bring them back to reality from what-ever lala-land they are working in when they make these “improvements”.  Comments (and votes) like these in UserVoice helped to convince MS to roll back the “phat QAT” buttons in 2016 and to at least partially undo the 2016 changes to the way the Pen input works.


    Please do copy the comments you’ve made here and paste them into comments in UserVoice. Also include a link to this question. If you do make a suggestion, copy the link to the UserVoice suggestion and post it back on this question so other people with the same problem can vote for it and comment on it. (You’ll get faster action that way.) Please get all of your friends and co-workers who use Office to vote for your issue!


    This blog has a picture to show MS really is looking at UserVoice sites:

    http://blog.indezine.com/2016/02/powerpoint-feedback-and-uservoice-does.html


    https://www.change.org/p/satya-nadella-microsoft-what-computer-users-want-changed-in-windows-10

    • Public petition site

    Here are links to some of my personal “favorite” specific suggestions:

    Restore pinned folders in Save options in all Office productshttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/12582018-restore-pinned-folders-in-save-options-in-all-offi


    Please, can we have the default tab stop signs back to the ruler!!! (Word teacher in trouble)https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9921564-please-can-we-have-the-default-tab-stop-signs-bac 


    Add a way to update all fields in a documenthttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/11685894-button-for-updating-all-fields-in-the-entire-documHThe initial suggestion is to add a button, I added a comment to add an “Option” to auto update all field codes (on assumption that documents are no longer all printed, may files are “e-documents” only.


    Office 2016 does not properly use Windows 10 Application title bar color selection  https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/15476307-office-2016-does-not-properly-use-windows-10-appic


    Reinstatement of the option to Pin Folders at:https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/12582018-restore-pinned-folders-in-save-options-in-all-offi


    Recently Used List Sort order: Date vs Alpha as of Oct 14 2016

    38 votes https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10137741-recently-used-list-sort-order-date-vs-alpha

    543 vote https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10261443-recent-files-pane-in-excel-2013-was-pretty-good-b

    Excel Suggestion “Under review” Nov 25, 2015 (wow, fast action) – Excel Done in October 2016 YAY!


    QAT buttons not showing custom imageshttps://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/12512571-qat-buttons-not-showing-custom-images


    Bring back Picture Manger to the Office 2016 Bundlehttps://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/12498702-bring-picture-manager-back-to-office-bundle ****As of Oct 1 2016 there are 226 votes

    115        Bring Picture Manager back to Office bundle

    057        Unhappy about Microsoft Office Picture Manager being removed from the Office Suite.

    031        Totally stinks that Office Picture Manager was removed! Why? So many of us are heavy photo users and used that as a key feature of Office

    007        Please bring back Microsoft Picture Manager for use on Windows 10 (Office 2016)!

    006        bring back office picture manager right away.

    005        MS Picture Manager is missing from Office 2013

    002        [Bring back MS Picture Manager! It was just right

    001        Bring back MS Office Picture Manager

    001        Please bring back the good old picture manager. Known from Office 2003 up to Office 2010.

    001        Make Picture Manager available on Office 2013


    Onedrive - put somewhere to see how much space I’ve used and how much I have****https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/7760340-put-somewhere-to-see-how-much-space-i-ve-used-and ****As of July 14, 2016, on only just the first 3 search result pages on “much” 75 Votes total

    30 votes              put somewhere to see how much space I’ve used and how much I have

    4 vote                  Show how much storage left and used

    9 votes                Show how much storage is left on the OneDrive app

    1 votes                to tell me how much space is left

    1 votes                Ensure how much space available is clearly shown in realtime

    6 votes                it will be good to show how much space has been used and how much space is still available

    2 votes                t should be available in the app how much free memory has been used, and how much still available.

    1 votes                add a space bar! Not a space bar like the keyboard, but one that says how much space you’ve used and how much you have left!

    5 votes                would be nice to see how much space I have available on my onedrive.

    1 votes                show how much available space you have left and percentage left available

    2 votes                Add a feature to tell the user how much space is left on OneDrive

    2 votes                Add remaining space in hamburger menu, it’s much easier to see it there.

    1 votes                SHOW ME HOW MUCH SPACE I HAVE LEFT ON MY APP

    1 votes                can you make it easier to see how much storage space remains?

    1 votes                Have a pie chart telling you how much storage you have used

    1 votes                I think a feature should be added to onedrive that tells you how much space you’ve used out of how much u have. EX 50.47mb/100.00gb

    1 votes                Have an easy to find icon that shows the size capacity of the account and how much has been used

    1 votes                I hope you will create an option to see how much space you have available from the phone.

    1 votes                very simple just show how much storage is left as new files are uploaded to the cloud

    2 votes                data useage, ie how much data have we used of cloud allowance and a start page to show that with quick links

    1 votes                I think there needs to be a storage meter or something to tell people how much of their storage limit the have used

    1 votes                The app needs a place that informs the user how much total storage space is being used (a feature of Dropbox).


    Petition to MS President to allow Windows Home users control Windows Updateshttps://www.change.org/p/satya-nadella-microsoft-what-computer-users-want-changed-in-windows-10 (The matching UserVoice site has been discontinued by MS)


    Don’t want Office 2016 tied to Userid -https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/10517283-allow-activation-without-the-need-of-a-ms-mail-acc

    Actually there are multiple threads with same point. As of Feb 1 2016 there are 785 votes on this question in multiple suggestions

    ALLOW Activation without the need of a MS mail account. 386 votes

    Office 2016 OEM without LiveID account 138 votes

    Office 2016 Activation and installation without an email account 172 votes

    return to the same process for activating Office 2016 that was used for all previous versions of Office. No “Live” accounts!  26 Votes

    The Office 2016 Activation process is impossible for business’s that purchase Microsoft licensing OEM. 70 votes

    Activation without a live account. 7 votes

    Need Office 2016 activation WITHOUT a Microsoft account! 6 votes


    Allow Business Admin Portal to manage Office 1-time payment licenses toohttps://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/11448504-allow-business-admin-portal-to-manage-office-2016


    Improve Highlightinghttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9389778-improve-highlighting

    Make the full spectrum of colors that are available in Shading also available in Highlighting. I often use Highlighting to mark important or unusual text streams and I would like to search for particular colors of Highlighting .


    Visio 365 monthly specifically for Consumer licenses -https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/10936428-visio365-monthly-for-consumer-365-users-and-oth


    Recreate the single text margin around page like 2010 and earlier -http://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9253599-bring-back-classic-text-boundaries- Marked as “under Review”, so there is some hope … <grin>


    Restore Radial Menu to OneNote439 votes total Feb 20 2016 ****148 votes Include radial menu in desktop onenote

      20 votes Radial Menu

    183 votes Bring back the radial fly out menu in the W10 Store version of OneNote -

      42 votes Bring back Radial Menu and Camera insert in Windows 10

      16 votes- Bring back Radial Menu for Windows 10 App

      25 votes- Keep the OneNote Windows 8 UI over the Windows 10 Beta UI

    plus a bunch more pen requests

    OFFICE- Get Back Older OneNote App with Radial Menu and Document Scanning / OneNoteMX / OneNote MXhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP5Y0c7-Qvg

    Note: Click on “Show More” in the YouTube description to see the OneDrive download link!

    The “Setup.bat” file uses PowerShell to “sideload” OneNote MX.

    Download and install desktop OneNote http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_2016-onenote/does-anyone-have-a-link-to-enable-me-to-download/a96d5463-3f5c-44df-8f5b-fa5c10257e54 ****The download link: https://www.onenote.com/download

    Ignore the misleading message “OneNote is already installed on Windows 10” and click the right link to the desktop version


    Add mind mapping to OneNote -https://onenote.uservoice.com/forums/327186-onenote-for-windows-windows-phone/suggestions/6160979-mindmap-functionality?page=4&per_page=20 


    Custom installation from Office 365 (2016) / Return MSI installer option - ****https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/9939513-custom-installation-from-office-365-2016


    Word 2016 Style Pane bug -mouse pointer wrong https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/11196345-word-2016-style-pane-corrupt-or-buggy-after-update


    Add Power Pivot back to Access (and to Excel in all bundles)https://access.uservoice.com/forums/319956-access-desktop/suggestions/10284183-add-pivot-charts-back-to-access


    Add BI/Power Pivot back to Excel in all bundles -https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/9018823-make-the-power-bi-family-Power Pivot-Power Query


    ‘Worksheet’ Tabs to Wordhttps://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10024812--worksheet-tabs-to-word


    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-07T18:15:57+00:00

    In another similar question the user identified that they were using multiple computers with a single email account log in. Logging out of Office and shutting all of the applications, starting one and setting the desired theme seemed to fix the problem for them. 

    So it suggests that one cause of this problem is the settings on the different computers were being picked up from the computer and saved in the user profile associated with the email account used to log in to Office 2016/365

    So then, the question is, will/can MS fix this and if so, when.  Seems reasonable to expect that the settings of one user would not be transferred to another user.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-07T18:08:27+00:00

    As DaveJermakiansaid the problem is how to STOP MS Office products from changing the color theme.

    I just had a case where I opened OneNote and it came up with the last document I had open but it opened with the colorful theme. When I closed OneNote (without making changes) and re-opened, it opened properly with the white theme.

    I suspect that this may have to do with opening shared documents (this OneNote document is updated by several people). The change in theme seems to happen when someone else updated the document after I closed it last. The case with documents opened from SharePoint is similar where I'm opening a document that someone else recently edited.

    And to add to the confusion, it may only be if the last person to edit the document had the colorful theme selected.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2017-02-04T18:01:18+00:00

    In another similar question the user identified that they were using multiple computers with a single email account log in. Logging out of Office and shutting all of the applications, starting one and setting the desired theme seemed to fix the problem for them. 

    So it suggests that one cause of this problem is the settings on the different computers were being picked up from the computer and saved in the user profile associated with the email account used to log in to Office 2016/365

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments