My font color changed to white

In Word, the default color is "Automatic," which would usually mean black text on a bright background and white text on a darker background. Sometimes, Word gets it wrong, though.

Resetting font and paragraph formatting may sometimes help, as suggested by Hendrix-C. You can use Ctrl+SpaceBar followed by Ctrl+Q.

Hi @Sarah Mensing,

Based on your sharing, there are also some reports from other users about the behavior that Word text in table unexpectedly turn white and it's usually caused by the text color being set to Automatic or a table style / direct formatting layer that keeps re‑applying the “white” formatting.

To clearly clarify which cause the issue, you can try these steps to narrow down the situation:

• First, try fixing the white text by selecting them inside the table cell(s) > press Ctrl + Spacebar to reset character formatting > go to Home tab > Font Color > set color to Black
• If it still refuses to go black, go to the Font Color dropdown > check whether it’s set to Automatic. If it is, explicitly choose Black (not Automatic). Automatic can auto-display as white on darker backgrounds.
• If the issue still persists, it’s likely coming from the table style. Now click in the table > go to Table Design > in Table Styles, right‑click the style > modify Table Style and ensure the Font color is explicitly set

Moreover, you can gather more details in these threads to see whether the situations they experienced are the same as you are

• Text colour in table showing as white on PC - Microsoft Q&A
• Font colour not applying to top left cell in Word using table style - Microsoft Q&A
• Table Style won't let me change header row text color - Microsoft Q&A

Please understand that my initial response does not always solve the problem immediately. However, you can try these steps and let me know if it works. If not, we can work together to find a solution.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out in the comments under this post. I will be happy to assist you further.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your response.

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