Dark mode is a feature that shows light text on a dark background. Because of the lower levels of blue light, it is more comfortable and better suited to dark environments. It can also appear as a more attractive alternative depending on the user and help improve device battery life.
Unfortunately on a PC environment dark mode is not an easy feature to enable; however, we have two different methods to do exactly that.
Using add-ons is an efficient way to enable dark mode in a PC environment. There are several possible add-ons including:
In this tutorial we are going to install the Dark Mode - Night Eye add-on.
Access the web store by selecting the three dot symbol ⋮ at the top right hand side of your browser, select Settings. A new tab will open - select Extensions which can be located at the bottom of the left hand menu on this view.
The extensions tab will now appear, select the menu symbol ≡ on the top left hand side of the screen, this will present the extension menu. At the bottom of this select Open Chrome Web Store. The store will open in a new tab.
In the search bar type “Dark Mode night eye” and press enter to see the search results
Select the extension Dark Mode- Night Eye and click on Add to Chrome, a pop up window should now appear. Select Add Extension. The extension will now be added to the Chrome browser.
With the extension now installed, open your spreadsheet, select the extension by clicking on the jigsaw symbol at the top left hand corner of the screen and selecting the extension. In the extension pop up menu you will see the power button symbol. Finally select turn on to enable the theme.
Another method to apply dark mode to your spreadsheet is to use chrome.flags
Please note that this method is experimental, may slow down your computer and can be used only on the Chrome browser.
In a new browser window type chrome://flags/ in the URL bar and press enter to access the experimental features.
In the search bar at the top type“dark mode”. This will display the Enable Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents flag. Click the drop down menu on the right hand side labelled “Default” and set this to Enabled
A bar will appear at the bottom of the screen to relaunch the browser, select this and Chrome will restart. Navigate to your spreadsheet to see the changes. The sheet remains white but the Menu ribbon, options, the slider, and the Sheet Names go into dark mode.
Turning on dark mode on a mobile device is usually quick and easy. With the spreadsheet app open, tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner and look for an option like View in dark theme or Enable dark mode. Once selected, the app should switch to the dark theme instantly.
To optimize your workflow, we recommend reading this article on how to automatically send an email from your spreadsheet.
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