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Why does my Excel have a new look?

A day or two ago, my Excel opened up and looked different. My other office programs still look the same. Does any one have an explanation? It used to look like the screen shot of Word below, except in green. How do I make it go back to the normal green bar at the top?

Thanks!

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Hello,

This forum is a user-to-user support forum. My name is Charles and I am a fellow user with decades of experience using Microsoft Word. I have written extensively on using Word and have authored help articles on the Microsoft site.

Someone on the design team decided that this is better for them. The only way to have them change it back or at least make it optional is by sending feedback, but not here.

Please don't shoot the messenger! I am a fellow user trying to help you use the Office that is rather than the one that should be. If you assign a rating to my response, please rate my response, rather than how you feel about the program!

The people who can make changes to Excel seldom, if ever, read anything that is posted in this help forum.

You can use the Feedback mechanism in Office to let developers know what you want.
https://support.office.com/article/How-do-I-giv...

If you do, you can include a link to this thread to further explain the problem.

See also https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

I hope this information helps.

Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

Stay well
Charles Kenyon
Attorney at Law
Madison, Wisconsin
wordfaq[at]addbalance[dot]com

The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word
https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm#Overview

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Ok... so its from the Microsoft side of things... like it was done on an automatic update? That seems so weird that they would do it to Excel, but not the rest of the Office suite? Did this happen to other people, too?

Thanks for the info!

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They made a seemingly trivial change to the aesthetics because it is a very visible change (even though users don't like it) that even a user manager can see. "MS is 'improving" Office, so the ongoing cost of 365 subscriptions is worth it ...",

.

It is yet another example of a change that MS forces on users that it would have been trivial for them to give user choice to in the options dialog.

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Happened to me too and I dislike it.

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Hi, Can you check Office themes>File>Account>Office Theme>Change to colourful

Microsoft Office Professional 2021
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013
Microsoft Office Professional 2003
Windows 10 Professional
HP ProBook 470 G4

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Which specific version of Office are you running?

At the moment, something seems to be wrong with perpetual versions of Excel, because that program receives feature updates which would normally be reserved for subscription versions of Office programs. Only Excel is affected. I'm seeing it here, running Office 2021, where Excel has the "new look" while Word 2021 does not.

Image

Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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The update has not affected 2019 Excel.

Microsoft Office Professional 2021
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013
Microsoft Office Professional 2003
Windows 10 Professional
HP ProBook 470 G4

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That is good to know. Thanks.

Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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I'm running Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016

My screens look exactly like yours - one with the change and one without. I think I would be more accepting if all of the Office suite made the change. I would suck it up and deal with it, but one program with the change and all the others without is annoying and abrasive - I swap between them all day when I'm working and the inconsistency is driving me crazy.

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That sort of helped - it brought back the green bar at the top, but didn't adjust the tabs and such. Now it looks like this:

Image

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Last updated March 30, 2025 Views 4,779 Applies to: