It should come as no surprise that Microsoft Word has a literal myriad of features to offer to its users, being the most popular and arguably the best word processor out there for computers and all. Microsoft Word users can customize a boat load of different things – from changing text to adding and formatting graphical elements all the way to changing the color of a document's background. Yes, that's right – if you're typing up a document on Microsoft Word, you even gave autonomy over the color of the document's background. While documents created for professional purposes almost never require custom backgrounds or even custom background colors, customized background colors have tons of different other uses and often come in handy.

Changing the color of a Word document's background is possible in all versions of Microsoft Word, and also works basically the same (although a tad bit of variation does exist in the process depending on what version of Word you're using) in all versions of the word processor. In addition, like most other customization features and functionalities Microsoft Word has to offer, changing the background color in Word is a pretty simple procedure.

If you would like to change the background color of a Word document, here's how you can do so:

  1. Open the document you want to change the background color of.
  2. If you're using Word 2007 or Word 2010, navigate to thePage Layouttab in Word's toolbar. On the other hand, if you're using Word 2013 or an even newer version of Word, navigate to theDesigntab in Word's toolbar.
  3. Click onPage Colorin thePage Backgroundsection.
  4. Locate and click on the color you want the color of the document's background changed to. You can choose from a specific set ofStandard Colors, or a set ofTheme Colorsthat vary from user to user depending on whatThemethey are using. You can view and/or change yourThemeby clicking onThemesin theThemessection of the samePage LayoutorDesigntab thePage Colorbutton is located in. Once you click on the color you desire, the background color of the document in question will be changed to it. Note:If none of the colors you see in the palettes meet your preferences or interest you, you can create your own create your own color by clicking onMore Colors…. You can use the tools in both theStandardandCustomtabs of theColorswindow to come up with a color that perfectly fulfills your requirements. Once you come across such a color, click onOK.

It should be noted that there's a lot more that you can do to a Word document's background than just format it with one specific color. You can also add a gradient, texture, pattern or an entire custom image to the background of a Word document. To do so, simply click onPage Color>Fill Effects…, navigate to the tab of whatever fill effect you want to use and configure and apply the desired effect. You can reset the background color of a Word document back to default by simply clicking onPage Color>No Color.

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Kevin is a dynamic and self-motivated information technology professional, with a Thorough knowledge of all facets pertaining to network infrastructure design, implementation and administration. Superior record of delivering simultaneous large-scale mission critical projects on time and under budget.