Cell references hard to see on excel when Mac is in Dark Mode

I'm not sure if this is an App problem or an OS problem. Mods please relocate if needed.

Late 2012 27" iMac
Mojave 10.14.2
Excel for Mac 16.21.1

I have been using my Mac OS in Dark mode. I like this version, but it is causing a problem in Excel. When I enter or edit a formula in Excel, it appears in the formula bar, just above the rows and columns of the spreadsheet. As you enter various cell addresses, the cells are shaded in different colors in the spreadsheet, and the cell references in the formula bar are shaded to match.

The problem is the colors used for some of the cell references are practically invisible against the dark gray of the formula bar when the Mac is in Dark mode. I really don't want to have to switch back to light mode when using excel, so I hope someone knows how I can switch the formula bar from dark grey to white in Excel.

Thanks,
Jeff

I don't use Dark Mode, but I know exactly what you're talking about in Excel. I'd suggest clicking the little smiley face near the top right of the Excel window and report this as something that needs to be improved. I would suggest they fix it so that the formula bar turns white when you're editing a formula. I'm not sure if there's an option for this already in the UI...not with my Mac at the moment.

This same problem has cropped up in other applications. One that I'm very familiar with because I use it quite often is "Pathfinder" which is an enhanced file manager. After several updates from the developer and emails complaining of the issue, it was corrected.

I'm not sure what luck you will have with Microsoft but it doesn't hurt to let them know of the dark mode issue.

I also found this:

Excel & Mac Mojave Dark Mode
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Excel/Excel-amp-Mac-Mojave-Dark-Mode/td-p/297904

The work-around suggestion was:

Changing the default accent color in Mojave from graphite to white seems to fix the problem.

Click to expand...

The protest was:

Thanks, alangston, for the suggestion to change the default accent color in Mojave from graphite to white to fix the problem. Unfortunately, though, changing the accent color is system-wide on the Mac, which results in white highlighting being lost on white backgrounds wherever else this feature is used.

Click to expand...

I'd suggest giving that a try and seeing if it's an acceptable workaround for your taste until MS fixes this.