How to Reset Word Content Control Colors to Default

A user on a Microsoft Office forum recently asked: “I changed the color of several Plain Text Content Controls in my document to red for testing. Now I want to change them back to the original light blue ‘default’ color, but there is no ‘Reset’ button in the Properties dialog. Picking ‘Automatic’ doesn’t seem to match the original look. How do I get the default color back?”

This is a common frustration because the Content Control Properties menu doesn’t provide a “Clear Formatting” option for the control’s bounding box and tab.

Method Comparison: UI vs. Automation

Depending on whether you have one control or one hundred, the best approach varies.

Method	Best For	Speed	Precision
Properties Dialog	Single controls	Fast	Medium (Manual selection)
VBA Macro	Batch resetting	Very Fast	High (Programmatic default)
Style Modification	Theme-consistent docs	Medium	High (Syncs with UI)

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Option 1: The Manual “Automatic” Fix

Microsoft Word defines the default color of Content Controls as wdColorAutomatic. While this usually defaults to the standard light blue, it can sometimes be affected by your document’s Theme.

1. Click inside the Content Control you wish to reset.
2. Go to the Developer tab on the Ribbon. (If you don’t see it, go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon and check Developer).
3. Click Properties in the Controls group.
4. In the Color dropdown, select Automatic.
5. Click OK.

Note: If “Automatic” looks black or a different color than the light blue you expect, your document theme colors may have been altered. In this case, you must manually select the light blue shade from the “Standard Colors” section of the palette.

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Option 2: Bulk Reset via VBA (Recommended)

If you have a large template with many controls, resetting them one by one is tedious. You can use a simple script to force every control back to the system default.

Tested on: Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 (Version 2408) as of 2024.

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic for Applications editor.
2. Go to Insert > Module.
3. Paste the following code:

Sub ResetContentControlColors()
    Dim cc As ContentControl

    ' Loop through all content controls in the active document
    For Each cc In ActiveDocument.ContentControls
        ' wdColorAutomatic is the default system color (Light Blue)
        cc.Color = wdColorAutomatic
    Next cc

    MsgBox "All Content Control colors have been reset to default."
End Sub

4. Click inside the code and press F5 to run it.
5. All bounding boxes and tabs will immediately revert to the default system color.

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Option 3: Adjusting via the XML Structure

For advanced users who don’t want to use macros (e.g., in .docx files where macros are prohibited), you can reset colors by toggling the “Appearance” setting.

1. Select the control and open Properties.
2. Change the Show as dropdown from “Bounding Box” to “None” and click OK.
3. Re-open Properties and change it back to Bounding Box.
4. Word will often re-initialize the control with the default theme color.

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Troubleshooting & Related Questions

Does changing the control color change the text color?

No. The ContentControl.Color property only affects the “UI” elements—the thin border (bounding box) and the title tab that appears when you click the control. To change the color of the text inside, you should apply a Character Style via the “Use a style to format text typed into the empty control” checkbox in the Properties menu.

What if the controls are locked?

If your VBA script throws an error, the controls might be protected. You can modify the script to temporarily unlock them:

cc.LockContents = False
cc.Color = wdColorAutomatic
cc.LockContents = True

Can I set a specific Hex color instead of “Automatic”?

Yes. In VBA, instead of wdColorAutomatic, you can use RGB(R, G, B). For example, to set it to a specific shade of blue: cc.Color = RGB(0, 102, 204)

Will these colors show up when I print the document?

By default, Content Control bounding boxes and tabs are non-printing elements. They are design-time visual aids. Resetting the color to default or changing it to bright red will not affect the printed output unless you are using specific “Legacy Forms” or have “Print drawings created in Word” settings configured in a very specific, non-standard way.