How to remove black background (not a Dark Mode issue)

[drw]

Hello,



I have joined this forum because I ran into an issue with Word that I have not been able to resolve.

When I open a new document, there is a black bar that goes across the top of the page where the text begins. When I press Enter the black bar follows. When I add a white highlight color to the text the side margins are still black.

When I open an existing document the entire page is black and the text remains the same color (usually black) so it is not visible unless I change it to white.

This issue started a couple days ago. I have no idea how/why and I have not found a way to remove the black background.

Temporary work-arounds are to put the document in Dark Mode or use the online version of Word through Microsoft 365. In Dark Mode the text is white so I can read the document.

How do I remove this black highlight color/bar from Word?

See attachments for an example of what it looks like.

Thank you.

-DRW