Strange display or black screen when using Office programs

Overview

On a Windows computer, when using Microsoft Office programs (such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) some of the selected Office application windows do not display correctly, are unreadable, or the entire monitor goes black.  When using programs other than Office apps, the symptoms do not appear.

Procedures

Apply the following resolution:

1. Open any Microsoft Office program.
2. Click on the File tab in the upper left.
3. Select Options from the left navigation menu.
4. In the popup window, select Advanced from the left navigation menu.
5. Scroll down to the Display section and check the box to Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
6. Click OK.
7. Close all Office applications.
8. Restart your computer.

Cause

The Office app software tries to manage hardware graphics acceleration instead of letting the Operating System and/or graphics card software handle it.  Certain Dell monitors and Windows updates have been known to cause this condition.

Last Reviewed:  26-Jan-2023