The coolest and scariest part of Star Trek was when they faced the Romulans with their cloaking devices. They couldn’t see where they were until it was too late. Cloaking was a great weapon to have, but not to fight against.
Dark mode on your computer is like cloaking for your eyes. When you use dark mode in Google sheets, you will find all kinds of advantages for you and your eyes.
In the last decade, dark mode has been one of the most popular features of multiple operating systems. Now dark mode is finding its way into more and more apps and computer programs.
Google Sheets is an application that many people have to look at all day. The strain on their eyes can take its toll. Now there are options to put Sheets in dark mode and put on a healthy cloak for your eyes.
We are going to show you how to turn on dark mode in Google Sheets, no matter what device you are on.
The Benefits of Dark Mode for Google Sheets
If you haven’t heard of dark mode, you may be asking, “What is dark mode?” Dark mode is when you have a black background with white text on your device. Most devices are set up for a white background with black text.
Dark mode won’t fix the fact that you are looking at a screen all day, but it can help relieve some eye strain. This is especially true if you work in a low-light environment.
Another benefit of using the dark theme for your devices is it reduces your battery usage. Many phones have OLED displays, and they use less energy when showing a dark background.
Saving the phone battery is one reason many move over to the dark theme as much as possible on their phones.
Dark Mode in Google Sheets on Your iOS Devices
On your iPhone or iPad, you can turn your dark theme on for the entire device. This will often translate to the individual apps. Go to your settings app and scroll down to the “Display & Brightness” button.
Click that button and you will see the option at the top for light or dark mode. You can pick one or let your device choose based on the time of day. If you select automatic, your device will go back and forth between them.
If Google Sheets is not showing the dark screen, there is a simple way to change it in the app. At the top of the app home page, you will see three lines representing the menu at the top of the page.
Click those lines and go to the settings line near the bottom. Then click on the theme line. Once you click that, you will get three options: Light, Dark, System Default. You can pick the one you want, and then exit out.
If you want one specific file in Google Sheets to display in light mode, you can set that on the file. Open the file you want to change and click the three buttons at the top. There will be an option that says “View in light theme.”
Click it and that individual file will be shown in light theme, even if all the other files show in dark theme.
Dark Mode in Google Sheets on Your Android
Android devices will give you similar options as iOS devices. You can set up dark mode across the entire device. You do this by going to the settings tab and hitting display. Then the options for light and dark will be at the top.
Some Android devices will give you an option to switch back and forth between light and dark mode with one button. If you swipe down from the top, the menu will have a button that says dark mode you can tap.
If you tap it your phone will instantly go to dark mode system-wide. Tap it again and it will go to light mode. These changes will often show up instantly in your Google Sheets files.
You also have the option right in the Google Sheets app to change the setting. Hit the menu button on the top left. Tap the “choose theme” tab and you will have the options dark, light, or system default to choose from.
Android also lets you change the setting for any individual Google Sheets file that you want to. Go to the menu of the individual file you want to change, and the theme option will be there to make it light or dark-themed.
Dark Mode in Google Sheets on Your Computer
Using dark mode in Google Sheets on your computer is a little more complicated. Google does not offer this as a feature in their settings at this point. There are a couple of workarounds that could help.
If you use Chrome as your web browser, it has a way to force a system-wide dark mode on all the websites you visit. This will apply to Google Sheets, as well as all the other sites you visit.
Go to your browser search and put “chrome://flags.” This will pull up options for experiments to use with the Chrome browser. Search in the bar for “Force Dark Mode for Web Contents” and you can choose to install it.
There is also an extension you can add to your Chrome called “Google Docs Dark Mode.” It will turn all Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides into dark mode without affecting other sites.
Living in the Dark
Dark mode in Google sheets is possible, no matter what device you are on. You can try it out and see how you like it and save some strain on your eyes and your battery.
For more tech tips and news, check out more of our articles. We write them so you can always stay up to date in the fast-moving world of tech.
