All iPads MS Word for iPadOS 16/17, dark page background

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

Hello!
I have a 2018 iPad Pro here with iPadOS 17 beta on it and Word gives me the option to use a dark page background.
This is fantastic, of course, since I love to have just about everything in dark mode.

I also have an iPad Air 5 here that's still on iPadOS 16 (I don't want to use betas on it because it's more of a daily driver for me).
On that one, Word does not offer to use a dark page background.

Both iPads are using the same Word version.

Can anyone confirm that dark page background is something that's an iPadOS 17 feature?
Or does anyone have more information about this?

 

[Digitalguy]

In my experience it's not an option. I have it on 16 but not on 17 since I have an older version of Word. In the latest versions it's white. Is your Word the latest version?

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

Yeah, they’re both the exact same version number.

I wonder if it’s some kind of A/B testing where they didn’t enable certain features for some users but only for others.
But that would seem… odd for final versions available on the AppStore.

 

[Digitalguy]

Yeah, they’re both the exact same version number.

I wonder if it’s some kind of A/B testing where they didn’t enable certain features for some users but only for others.
But that would seem… odd for final versions available on the AppStore.

Just to be 100% certain, when you open the app from the App Store, does it say Open or Update?

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

Just to be 100% certain, when you open the app from the App Store, does it say Open or Update?

“Open” on both.
I even deleted it on the one that didn’t offer the dark background to be sure.
No luck

 

[Digitalguy]

it's very strange, just to give some context I had it working on IOS 15 as well, but when I updated Word it went away, currently I have it only one iPad where I have not updated Word. In no iPad version I find an option to enable/disable it. Do you have an option? If so, where?

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

On the one iPad where I get the dark background, I have two options for it xD

 

[Digitalguy]

So strange I don't have any of those options in my versions with or without dark background. Must be a regional thing...(I am in Switzerland). Wish I could choose...

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I‘m in Sweden. But despite having two iPads on iPadOS 17 now, and one on latest 16, all with Word freshly installed, I only have it on the iPad Pro still…

I might post about it in the Microsoft Office forums or something.