“Background color” in Word can mean Page Color, a text highlight, paragraph or table shading, or just Word’s dark display mode. Identify which one you see before changing the document. These controls affect different things.
Remove the document’s Page Color
- Open the document in desktop Word.
- Choose Design > Page Color > No Color. In some versions the command appears under Layout.
- Save the document and check Print Preview.
Page Color is a document-wide setting. Selecting text or a single page first does not limit this command to the selection. Microsoft’s Page Color instructions confirm the No Color path. If you need a colored area on only one page, use a suitable shape or text box and check its print layout instead of expecting Page Color to target one page.
If only text or a paragraph is colored
Highlight: Select the affected text and choose Home > Text Highlight Color > No Color. See Microsoft’s highlight removal guide.
Paragraph shading: Click in the affected paragraph or select the paragraphs, then choose Home > Shading > No Color. This is a separate control from highlighting and Page Color; Microsoft explains paragraph shading. For a colored table cell, select the cell and use the table’s Shading control.
If the page only looks dark on your screen
Word’s Dark Mode can display a dark page without changing the document’s actual page color. Try View > Switch Modes in desktop Word; Word for the web uses View > Switch Backgrounds. Microsoft says Dark Mode’s page display does not make the page print dark. See its Dark Mode guide and our Word Online dark mode guide.
If a gray background will not go away
Gray behind text usually comes from one of two sources that the Page Color and Highlight commands do not touch.
Field shading: Dates, page numbers, tables of contents, and form fields can show a gray box when you click them. This is only an on-screen marker and does not print. To hide it:
- Select File > Options > Advanced.
- Under Show document content, set Field shading to Never.
- Select OK.
Shading applied to the whole paragraph: Text pasted from a website often brings shading that Home > Shading does not fully clear when only part of the text is selected.
- Click in the paragraph, or select all the affected paragraphs.
- Open Home > Borders (the arrow next to the Borders button) and choose Borders and Shading.
- On the Shading tab, set Fill to No Color and Apply to to Paragraph. Repeat with Apply to set to Text if some gray remains.
- Select OK.
If the Shading button is grayed out, click inside ordinary document text rather than an image, text box border, or a protected area.
Quick troubleshooting
If No Color does not change what you see, try selecting a colored word: if only that text is affected, check Highlight or Shading. If the whole page appears dark only in your own Word view, check Dark Mode. If a background picture or watermark remains, use the separate watermark or object controls. Review Print Preview before changing more formatting.
Matt has been writing about Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft products since the days of Windows XP. He spends much of his time writing for sites like WindowBrain.com