Highlight one word in word

Highlight selected text

  1. Select the text that you want to highlight.

  2. Go to Home and, select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  3. Select the color that you want.

    Note: Use a light highlight color if you plan to print the document by using a monochrome palette or dot-matrix printer.

Highlight multiple parts of a document

This method is best for highlighting multiple parts of a document because the Highlight tool stays on until you decide to turn it off.

  1. Go to Home and select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  2. Select the color that you want.

    The Text Highlight Color button displays the selected color, and the mouse pointer becomes a Hightlighter Pointer Icon when you point to the area of your document that contains text.

    Note: Use a light highlight color if you plan to print the document by using a monochrome palette or dot-matrix printer.

  3. Select the text or graphic that you want to highlight.

  4. To stop highlighting, select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color Button image and select Stop Highlighting, or press Esc.

    The mouse pointer becomes a i-beam mouse pointer when you point to your document.

Remove highlighting from part or all of a document

  1. Select the text that you want to remove highlighting from, or press Ctrl+A to select all of the text.

  2. Go to Home and select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  3. Select No Color.

Quickly find highlighted text

  1. If you are using Word 2016 or Word 2013, select Find > Advanced Find.

    If you are using Word 2010, select Find.

    The Find and Replace box appears.

  2. Select Format > Highlight.

    Click Find and then click Advanced Find

    If you don’t see the Format button, select More.

  3. Select Find Next.

Highlight selected text

  1. Select the text that you want to highlight.

  2. Go to Home and select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  3. Select the color that you want.

    Note: Use a light highlight color if you plan to print the document by using a monochrome palette or printer.

Highlight multiple parts of a document

This method is best for highlighting multiple parts of a document because the Highlight tool stays on until you decide to turn it off.

  1. Go to Home and select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  2. Select the color that you want.

    The Text Highlight Color button displays the selected color, and the mouse pointer becomes a Hightlighter Pointer Icon when you point to the area of your document that contains text.

    Note: Use a light-toned highlight color if you plan to print the document by using a monochrome palette or printer.

  3. Select the text or graphic that you want to highlight.

  4. To stop highlighting, select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color Button image and select Stop Highlighting, or press Esc.

    The mouse pointer becomes a i-beam mouse pointer when you point to your document.

Remove highlighting from part or all of a document

  1. Select the text that you want to remove highlighting from, or press Ctrl+A to select all of the text in the document.

  2. Go to Home and select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.

    The Text Highlight Color options are shown on the Home tab.

  3. Select No Color.

Quickly find highlighted text

  1. Select Find > Advanced Find.

    The Find and Replace box appears.

  2. Select Format > Highlight.

    Click Find and then click Advanced Find

    If you don’t see the Format button, select More.

  3. Select Find Next.

Highlight selected text

  1. Select the text that you want to highlight.
  2. Go to Home and, select the arrow next to Text Highlight Color.
  3. Select the color that you want. Note: Use a light highlight color if you plan to print the document by using a monochrome palette or dot-matrix printer.

Contents

  • 1 How do you highlight specific words in Word?
  • 2 How do you highlight certain parts of a text?
  • 3 How do I select text in Word without clicking and dragging?
  • 4 How do you highlight specific text in a cell?
  • 5 How do you highlight text that Cannot be highlighted?
  • 6 How do you highlight cells based on a list?
  • 7 How do you highlight words separately?
  • 8 How do you highlight words without a mouse?
  • 9 How do I move highlighted text in Word without dragging?
  • 10 Can I use an IF formula in conditional formatting?
  • 11 How do I display specific text based on values in another column?
  • 12 How do you conditional format multiple conditions?
  • 13 What is Ctrl cut?
  • 14 How do I highlight and copy text from a blocked site?
  • 15 Why won’t My Mac Let me highlight?
  • 16 How do you highlight a cell if it doesn’t match another cell?
  • 17 How do you highlight matches on sheets?
  • 18 How do I conditional format a row based on another row?
  • 19 How do I selectively copy text?
  • 20 What are the 4 alignment options?

How do you highlight specific words in Word?

Highlighting Found Text

  1. Press Ctrl+H.
  2. Click the More button, if it is available.
  3. In the Find What box, enter the text you want to find and highlight.
  4. In the Replace With box, enter ^&.
  5. With the insertion point still in the Replace With box, click the Format button.
  6. Click the Highlight option.

How do you highlight certain parts of a text?

How to highlight text using your keyboard. To highlight with the keyboard, move to the starting location using the arrow keys. Then, hold down the Shift key, and press the arrow key in the direction you want to highlight. Once everything you want is highlighted, let go of the Shift key.

How do I select text in Word without clicking and dragging?

Click the “Select” drop-down menu in the Editing group on the ribbon and choose “Select All.” All of the body text on the pages will be highlighted. You can now format it, cut, copy, align the text and more. The keyboard shortcut “Ctrl-A” will accomplish the same result.

How do you highlight specific text in a cell?

What to Know

  1. To highlight a cell, select a cell or group of cells, go to Home > Cell Styles, and select the color to use as the highlight.
  2. To highlight text, select text by double-clicking the cell, then press left mouse and drag across the text.
  3. To create a highlight style, go to Home > Cell Styles > New Cell Style.

How do you highlight text that Cannot be highlighted?

Place the cursor near the text you need to copy. Then press the Windows key + Q and drag the cursor. You should see a blue box that you can now highlight the text by dragging the cursor.

How do you highlight cells based on a list?

Highlight Items From a List

  1. Create a list of items you want to highlight.
  2. Select range A2:A7.
  3. On the Ribbon’s Home tab, click Conditional Formatting, then click New Rule.
  4. Click Use a Formula to Determine Which Cells to Format.
  5. For the formula, enter.
  6. Click the Format button.
  7. Select a font colour for highlighting.

How do you highlight words separately?

To select items that are not next to each other, follow these steps:

  1. Select the first item that you want. For example, select some text.
  2. Press and hold CTRL.
  3. Select the next item that you want. Important Be sure to press and hold CTRL while you select the next item that you want to include in the selection.

How do you highlight words without a mouse?

Hold down the “Ctrl” key and the “Shift” key. Press the right arrow key to select the word to the right, or press the left arrow key to select the word to the left. Select one character at a time by holding down the “Shift” key and and using either arrow key (right or left).

How do I move highlighted text in Word without dragging?

Hold down the Ctrl key and right-click where you want the selected text moved.

Can I use an IF formula in conditional formatting?

The answer is yes and no. Any conditional formatting argument must generate a TRUE result, meaning that at a literal level, your conditional formatting rule is an If/Then statement along the lines of “If this condition is TRUE, THEN format the cell this way”.

How do I display specific text based on values in another column?

To display text based on another cell, you have to use the conditional function IF. The function displays the value in the first argument (“Bottom 50%”) if the condition is met, otherwise it displays the text “Top 50%”.

How do you conditional format multiple conditions?

To highlight cells according to multiple conditions being met, you can use the IF and AND Functions within a Conditional Formatting rule.

  1. Select the range to apply the formatting (ex. B3:E11)
  2. In the Ribbon, select Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.

What is Ctrl cut?

Keyboard Command: Control (Ctrl) + X. Remember “X” as. The Cut command is used to remove text or images from the screen you are currently working on. “CUT” moves the information to your virtual clipboard, where it is stored until it is overwritten by the next “cut” or “copy” command.

How do I highlight and copy text from a blocked site?

Simply press Ctrl-u while you are on the site to display its source code. This works in most browsers including Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. It is still necessary to find the text or content that you are looking for in the source. Use Ctrl-f to jump directly to it.

Why won’t My Mac Let me highlight?

To fix that, please try one of the following: Change your Fade In custom page/text colors to light-on-dark under Preferences > User Interface > Page Colors. Uncheck Preferences > User Interface > Use system selection color to use Fade In’s built-in color instead (which shouldn’t have the same problem)

How do you highlight a cell if it doesn’t match another cell?

To highlight cells where the value is not equal to another value, you can create a Conditional Formatting custom formula .

  1. Select the range to apply the formatting (ex. B3:E11).
  2. In the Ribbon, select Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.

How do you highlight matches on sheets?

Here is how to make this in Google Sheets:

  1. Select the data that you want to get highlighted when a match is found.
  2. Click on the Format button in the menu.
  3. Click on Conditional Formatting.
  4. In the ‘Conditional formatting rules’ pane that open, click on the ‘Format cells if’ option.
  5. Select the ‘Custom formula is’ option.

How do I conditional format a row based on another row?

Highlight Rows Based on a Multiple Criteria (AND/OR)

  1. Select the entire dataset (A2:F17 in this example).
  2. Click the Home tab.
  3. In the Styles group, click on Conditional Formatting.
  4. Click on ‘New Rules’.
  5. In the ‘New Formatting Rule’ dialog box, click on ‘Use a formula to determine which cells to format’.

How do I selectively copy text?

How to Copy and Paste Text from Multiple Locations in Microsoft…

  1. Select the block of text you want to copy.
  2. Press Ctrl+F3.
  3. Repeat the two steps above for each additional block of text to copy.
  4. Go to the document or location where you want to paste all of the text.
  5. Press Ctrl+Shift+F3.

What are the 4 alignment options?

There are four main alignments: left, right, center, and justified. Left-aligned text is text that is aligned with a left edge. Right-aligned text is text that is aligned with a right edge.

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You’ve seen printed documents with sections of text that had been highlighted with a marker in yellow or some color. You can highlight text in MS Word documents without printing them out and using a marker. Keep reading to find out how.

Table of Contents

How to highlight text in MS Word

We’ll look at two types of highlighting. The first is highlighting one or more words alone or within a sentence.

Highlight one or more words in Word

examples of highlighting using the highlight feature in microsoft word

Examples of highlighting done using the highlight feature in Microsoft Word

To highlight text in Microsoft Word, select the text you wish to highlight. Then:

  • Open the Home tab of the ribbon.
  • In the first section of the Home tab you’ll see the Paste section. The next section to the right is the text section where you can change fonts, font sizes, and more. In this section look for a small icon on the bottom row that looks like a tiny marker above a colored line.
  • Click that marker icon to open a panel of colors you can select to highlight your text.
  • Choose a color.

highlight text button in microsoft word

The text highlight button in Microsoft Word

You should now see your text highlighted with the color you chose. Word is actually placing a colored background behind those words that you selected. The remainder of the sentence will not be highlighted.

NOTE: If you have your computer set to dark mode, you may have white text on a dark background. In this case, some highlight colors may be barely visible or not at all against the dark background. However, if you print the page or view it in light mode with a white background, you will see that the highlight is indeed there.

Highlight an entire paragraph in Microsoft Word

You can easily highlight an entire paragraph or more in MS Word using the previously mentioned method of selecting all of the words in the section you wish to highlight, then using the highlight button.

Highlight words, sentences, or paragraphs in MS Word using Shading

use shading to highlight text in MS Word

Examples using the Shading feature to highlight text in Microsoft Word

The second type of highlighting we’ll learn allows us to highlight the full width of the entire paragraph block.

Word provides another method of highlighting single words, entire sentences, and paragraphs, but it calls it shading. Here are some differences between highlighting and shading.

  • More colors are available with shading than when you use the highlight button in the Home tab.
  • Shading allows you to highlight words with a patterned color. Basic highlighting allows colors only.
  • Highlighting all of the text using the select and highlight method mentioned previously highlights only the text and the blanks between words. It does not highlight the entire margin to margin block that shading provides.
  • Shading can be used to place a color background behind an entire paragraph from left margin to right margin even if it is a one word sentence. If your document or design called for it, you could have two or three words centered with a rectangle shaped background from left margin to right margin.

You’ll find the Shade function hidden away under the Design tab. With the Design tab open, look all the way to the right for a button/icon labeled Page Borders. If you mouse over that button, the tooltip will say Borders and Shading.

shading in microsoft word

The shading control in Microsoft Word

To shade specific words:

  • Select the text.
  • Under the Design tab, click the button labeled Page Borders on the right end of the ribbon.
  • From the box that opens, select the Shading tab.
  • On the left side, click inside the box below the Fill label.
  • Choose your shade (highlight) color. If you don’t see exactly the color you need, select the More Colors… button below the current color choices. From there you can find practically any color you could wish for.
  • On the right side, you should see a square with your selected words in it. Below that square, click in the box to choose Text or Paragraph.
  • To highlight only the text you’ve selected, choose Text. To highlight the entire paragraph block which extends from the left margin beyond the last word to the right margin, choose Paragraph.

I’ve included photos of a Microsoft Word document that illustrates the use of the different highlighting and shading uses that I’ve discussed in this article.

I consider the Word’s shading function to be more useful than the highlighting function if you need any more than the most basic highlighting—select a word and highlight it with one of fifteen colors.

With a little forethought, the shading function can be quite useful in laying out a document with accented sentences, creating signs, or designing pamphlets.

You can find more tips for using Microsoft Word here.

You’ll find video tips for using Microsoft 365 here.

How highlight in Word works

Learn how to highlight in Word, how to remove highlight / unhighlight in Word, find and replace highlight, etc.

In Word, you can highlight text on the screen much like you can highlight text on paper using a highlighter. In this article, you will find general information about how highlight in Word works. The basic information about highlight applies to both the built-in highlight functionality and the functionality of the DocTools HighlightManager add-in.

There is no difference between highlight added using the DocTools HighlightManager add-in and using the built-in highlight functionality in Word. The difference is that DocTools HighlightManager add-in makes the work much faster and more flexible.

15 available highlight colors

Word offers 15 highlight colors. For years, Word users have asked for more colors or the option to customize highlight colors, but so far with no luck.

Word highlight colors and their names

Figure 1. Word highlight colors and their names.

Many of the 15 highlight colors available are too dark to use in most cases – for example, you can’t read black text on any of the darkest highlight colors.

Personally, I use yellowbright greenturquoise and, in a few cases, red. The colors are rather glaring but I find they are the only ones that work.

Even if the Gray 25% is light enough to read the text, I don’t use it since it is impossible to distinguish it from selected text and from fields with field shading turned on.

In addition to the 15 highlight colors, there is a No Color which removes highlight.

Back to Table of Contents 

How to show or hide highlight on screen and in print

  • Highlight is neither font formatting nor paragraph formatting
  • Highlight in Word documents is placed in its own layer that you can either show or hide

Even if it may look so, highlight in Word is not applied as font formatting or paragraph formatting like e.g. color shading. If you check the formatting of highlighted text, you will not see the highlight listed anywhere.

The display of highlight is managed via an option in Word:

  • To show highlight both on the screen and in print, turn ON File Options Display Show highlighter marks. See Figure 2 below.
  • To hide highlight both on the screen and in print, turn OFF File Options Display Show highlighter marks. See Figure 2 below.

Note that the Show highlighter marks setting is a global Word setting. It applies to all documents.

When you turn off Show highlighter marks, any highlight in documents will only be hidden, not removed. As soon as you turn on the setting, the highlight will appear again, if any. The highlight will also be visible if the document is opened on another computer with the setting turned on. 

To display highlight on the screen and in print, turn on Show highlighter marks

Figure 2. To show highlight on the screen and in print, turn on Show highlighter marks.

When you select a highlight color using the built-in functionality of Word, that color will be set as the default highlight color, i.e. the same color will be applied the next time you click the Text Highlight Color icon in the Home tab of the Ribbon or in the Mini Toolbar.

As opposed to the built-in functionality, the selection of a specific highlight color using the Apply Highlight command in the DocTools HighlightManager add-in will not affect your next highlight operation. The add-in lets you apply any highlight color with a click.

How to print without highlight

As explained above, you can turn highlight on and off, without removing the highlight from the document.

To print without highlight but keep the highlight in the document:

  1. Turn off display of highlight as explained above (see Figure 2).
  2. Print.
  3. Turn highlight on again, if you want.

In the DocTools HighlightManager add-in, you will find a command for quickly turning on and off the display of highlight instead of digging deep into the Word Options dialog box.

Highlight and track changes

Changing highlight in a document is not registered by track changes. Even if track changes is on, Word will not regard a highlight change as a revision.

The difference between highlight color and shading color

You should be aware of the difference between highlight and shading.

As mentioned above, the number of highlight colors is limited. On the other hand, you can apply any color of your choice via the Shading tools in Word. This may make users want to use shading instead of highlight in order to get access to more colors. However, the two types of coloring work in totally different ways.

As explained above, highlight in Word is neither font formatting nor paragraph formatting. The highlight lives in its own layer in Word and can be turned on or off for all content. The same is not possible with shading.

If you apply a shading color to content using a color from one of the Shading tools in Word or via the Borders and Shading dialog box, that color is applied as formatting of text, paragraphs, table cells or entire tables.

This means that the shading is applied as a characteristic or an attribute of the text, paragraph, table cell or table itself.

You can’t turn on and off shading for an entire document as you can with highlight. You can easily select all and set the shading to No Color. However, once you have removed the shading, you can’t easily apply it again if spread across the entire document. This means that it may not necessarily be a good idea to use shading as a substitute for highlight.

Highlight is often used as a temporary marking of content, e.g. during the editing process. Shading may more often be used as permanent formatting that is meant to remain in the finished document.

A color selected from a Shading palette is either font, paragraph, or table formatting

Figure 3. A color selected from a Shading palette is either font, paragraph, or table formatting.

A shading color you apply via a Shading palette or via the Borders and Shading dialog box is applied as one of the following types of formatting depending on the conditions and what you select:

  • Font formatting applied to text
  • Paragraph formatting applied to entire paragraph(s)
  • Table cell formatting applied to entire table cell(s)
  • Table formatting applied to entire table(s)

Back to Table of Contents 

How to highlight in Word using the built-in functionality

You can apply highlight in different ways using the built-in functionality in Word. See METHODs 1-4 below. When you apply highlight to selected text in Word using the built-in methods described below, Word doesn’t retain the selection but collapses the selection so the insertion point is placed after the selection afterwards. Since you may often want to apply e.g. formatting to the same selection immediately after applying highlight, this is not always practical.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you decide whether or not to keep the selection after highlighting text. It can help you save time. 

METHOD 1 – How to highlight selected text via the Ribbon

  1. Select the text to be highlighted.
  2. Select Home tab > click the arrow in Text Highlight Color icon and click the desired highlight color. The currently selected color works as the default highlight color and is shown in the icon. If you want to apply that color, you can just click the icon. (To remove highlight, select No Color).

How to highlight in Word – the Text Highlight Color options in the Home tab in the Ribbon

Figure 4. The Text Highlight Color options in the Home tab in the Ribbon.

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What is the default highlight color in Word?

The default highlight color in Word is the highlight color currently shown in the Text Highlight Color icon.

When you click one of the 15 colors or No Color, that color becomes the default highlight color.

The default highlight color will automatically be used by Word for the next highlight unless you select another color.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you use any highlight color without changing the default highlight color.

METHOD 2 – How to highlight selected text via the Mini Toolbar

If you have the Mini Toolbar enabled, you can also apply highlight via that toolbar:

  1. Select the text to be highlighted.
  2. In the Mini Toolbar that appears when you have selected text, click the arrow in the Text Highlight Color icon and click the desired highlight color. The currently selected color works as the default highlight color and is shown in the icon. If you want to apply that color, you can just click the icon. (To remove highlight, select No Color).

The highlight tools in the Mini Toolbar are identical to the ones on the Home tab in the Ribbon.

The Mini Toolbar only appears when you have selected text and if, at the same time, the option File > OptionsGeneral > Show Mini Toolbar on selection is turned on. See Figure 5 below.

The Mini Toolbar is only shown if the Show Mini Toolbar on selection option is turned on.

Figure 5 The Mini Toolbar is only shown if the Show Mini Toolbar on selection option is turned on.

The Text Highlight Color options in the Mini Toolbar are the same as in the Home tab of the Ribbon

Figure 6. The Text Highlight Color options in the Mini Toolbar are the same as in the Home tab of the Ribbon.

METHOD 3 – How to highlight using a shortcut

Word has a default shortcut assigned to highlight:

  • Alt+Ctrl+H 

You can both apply highlight and remove highlight using the Alt-Ctrl-H shortcut. Note that this shortcut only works with the currently selected default highlight color so you still have to first make sure the desired color has been selected, either via the Home tab or the Mini Toolbar.

As opposed to how the Alt-Ctrl+H shortcut works, the DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you assign shortcuts to each individual highlight color – customizable shortcuts have been assigned to the most useful highlight colors beforehand so they are ready for use at once. This means that the add-in makes it possible to apply any highlight color simply by pressing a keyboard shortcut without first switching color.

How the Alt+Ctrl+H shortcut works

You must select text before pressing the Alt+Ctrl+H shortcut. What happens when you press the shortcut depends on the situation. See the examples below:

Shortcut to highlight in Word – The gray text is selected – no highlight has been applied beforehand

Figure 7. No highlight applied to the selection beforehand.

EXAMPLE 1
If the selected text is not highlighted beforehand, Alt+Ctrl+H applies the highlight color that is currently selected as the default highlight color in Home tab > Text Highlight Color.

NOTE: If the currently selected default color is No Color, no highlight will be applied even if you press the shortcut.

The yellow text is selected – no highlight has been applied beforehand

Figure 8. Entire selection highlighted beforehand.

EXAMPLE 2
If the entire selected text is already highlighted (same color or mixed colors), Alt+Ctrl+H removes the highlight. This means that it works as a toggle: It adds or removes highlight depending of the selection.

The gray, yellow and green text is selected – highlight has been applied to part of the text beforehand

Figure 9. The selected text is partly highlighted beforehand.

EXAMPLE 3
If the selected text is partly highlighted, i.e. some of the text is highlighted and other is not, Alt+Ctrl+H applies the highlight color that is currently selected as the default highlight color in Home tab > Text Highlight Color.

NOTE: If the currently selected default color is No Color, Alt+Ctrl+H removes highlight from the selection.

Back to Table of Contents 

METHOD 4 – How to highlight without first selecting text

If you click the Text Highlight Color icon on the Home tab or in the Mini Toolbar without first selecting text, the cursor changes to the icon shown below (enlarged here). You can then highlight text by dragging across the text that is to be highlighted.

NOTE: If you drag across text that is already highlighted, the highlight will be removed.

Highlighter icon

Figure 10. Highlighter icon

To exit the highlighter mode, do one of the following:
Press the Escape key OR
Click the Text Highlight Color icon on the Home tab or in the Mini Toolbar OR
Select Stop Highlighting from the Text Highlight Color tools on the Home tab or in the Mini Toolbar.

Note that the DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you apply any highlight color to a paragraph without first selecting the entire paragraph – you only need to press a shortcut.

How to unhighlight in Word

Unhighlight is the same as removing highlight. See below.

How to stop highlighting in Word

If you click inside text that is highlighted and start typing, the new text you type will inherit the highlighting from the existing text. If you want to stop highlighting text when you type the new text, you can for example do as follows – all carried out via the keyboard:

  1. Type the first new character, then press and hold the Shift key and press the Left Arrow key to select the typed character.
  2. Press Alt+Ctrl+H to unhighlight the selected character you just typed.
  3. Press the Right Arrow key once to move after the typed character (or you can just delete the character when finished typing in step 3).
  4. Then continue to type the new text.

Getting rid of highlight may be referred to as either removing highlight or unhighlight. You may also think of it as how to remove highlighted text in word even if you want to keep the text and only make the highlighting go away.

To get rid of highlight in Word – or unhighlight – you can follow the steps described for applying highlight using METHOD 1, METHOD 2, METHOD 3 or METHOD 4 above but with the difference, that you select No Color instead of one of the 15 colors.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in provides tools that let you quickly remove highlight either from the selection or from all paragraph(s) that are fully or partly included in the selection. This means that you don’t need to spend time on first selecting the entire paragraphs to remove highlight.

How to remove highlight from a paragraph number or bullet

If you are working with Word documents with automatic numbering, you may have struggled with how to unhighlight a number in Word. The same may be true for bullets in bulleted paragraphs.

Paragraph marks and trailing spaces (spaces at the end of a paragraph) never show highlight. However, they may be highlighted – but you can’t see it.

If only the number or bullet of a paragraph is highlighted, it is because the paragraph mark of that paragraph is highlighted.

To remove highlight from a number or from a bullet, select the paragraph mark and remove the highlight. You can also select the entire paragraph or the last part of the paragraph as long as you make sure the paragraph mark is included in the selection. Then the highlight will disappear from the number/bullet. See the illustration below.

TIP: Turn on formatting marks (Ctrl+Shift+8) so you can see the paragraph marks and other non-printing characters. Paragraph marks look like this: ¶

To remove highlight from a number or bullet, select the paragraph mark and unhighlight it

Figure 11. To remove highlight from a number or bullet, select the paragraph mark and unhighlight it.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in provides a tool that lets you quickly remove highlight from numbered or bulleted paragraphs. You only need to click a button to remove highlight from any bullet or number in the selection or in the entire document.

Back to Table of Contents 

How to remove light yellow highlight that does not disappear when selecting No Color

You may experience that you open a document in which some areas are highlighted with a light or pale yellow color (see figure 12 below). The color differs from the bright yellow color in the highlight color palette. If you try to remove the light, yellow highlight by selecting No Color from the highlight palette, nothing happens.

Such pale, yellow highlight is most likely a result of the document being protected. The yellow color is used to show which areas of the document you can edit. You can turn off the highlight but it will be turned on again if you close and reopen the document. As opposed to normal highlight colors, the light, yellow color does not print. It is shown on the screen only.

Example of highlight that shows which areas you can edit in a protected document

Figure 12. Example of light, yellow highlight that shows which areas you can edit in a protected document.

To remove the light yellow highlight:

  1. In the Ribbon, select Review tab > Restrict Editing.
  2. In the Restrict Editing pane that opens, turn off Highlight the regions I can edit. See figure 13 below.

You can also open the Restrict Editing pane from the Developer tab > Restrict Editing.

o remove the light, yellow highlight, turn off Highlight the regions I can edit

Figure 13. To remove the light, yellow highlight, turn off Highlight the regions I can edit.

Back to Table of Contents 

How to replace highlight colors in a document

You can use Find in Word to search for highlight. You can also use Find and Replace to e.g. search for highlight and remove it or to apply highlight to a search string – or to replace one highlight color with another. See the examples below about how you can use Find and Find and Replace in relation to highlight.

How to find highlight

As you will learn below, the built-in functionality of Word does not let you search for a specific highlight color. As opposed to that, the DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you find any specific highlight color.

Word does not let you search for specific highlight colors.

If two or more paragraphs in succession are highlighted, Word will not find them as one instance of highlight. Word interprets each paragraph as one instance of highlighting. This means that Word finds highlight in one paragraph at a time.

To find highlight in Word using the Find and Replace dialog box:

  1. Press Ctrl+H to open the Find and Replace dialog box. If you only want to find highlight, you can use the Find tab in the dialog box. If you want to replace highlight, make sure the Replace tab is selected.
  2. To find highlight, make sure the insertion point is in the Find what field.
  3. To expand the dialog box so all options are shown, click the More button.
  4. Select Format (bottom of dialog box) > Highlight. The word «Highlight» will now be shown below the Find what field. See Figure 15 below.
  5. If you want to find highlight no matter the text, leave the Find what field empty, otherwise enter the relevant text.
  6. Add other search criteria as needed and use the buttons in the dialog box to find and/or replace.

TIP: You can find both Highlight and Not highlight
If you select Highlight from the Format menu in the Find and Replace dialog box twice, the text below the Find what or Replace with field changes from Highlight to Not highlight. See Figure 15 below.

This means that you can search for and replace with both highlight and no highlight.

If you select Format > Highlight a third time, Not highlight is cleared.

To clear all Format criteria from the Find what or Replace with field, click in the relevant field, then click the No Formatting button. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Spacebar to clear the formatting.

The Find and Replace dialog box lets you search for or replace withHighlight

Figure 14. The Find and Replace dialog box lets you search for or replace with Highlight.

How to remove highlight in Word – Example: You can search for Highlight and replace with Not Highlight

Figure 15. Example: You can search for Highlight and replace with Not Highlight.

How to replace one highlight color with another

You may sometimes want to change highlight color in Word.

You can use the Find and Replace command to replace one highlight color with another. To do this:

  1. Select the new highlight color you want as the default highlight color (via the Text Highlight Color in the Home tab or the Mini Toolbar).
  2. Press Ctrl+H to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
  3. In both Find what and Replace with, add Highlight (see How to find highlight above for help. Leave the text fields empty unless you want to search for specific text and/or replace with other text.
  4. If you want to replace any highlight, no matter the color, with the new color, click Replace All. If you only want to replace a specific color, use the Find Next button and click Replace only if relevant – repeat Find Next.

As opposed to the built-in functionality in Word, the DocTools HighlightManager add-in lets you find any specific highlight color and replace it with any other highlight color, leaving all other colors unchanged.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in also has a Find command that finds the next highlight in the document without you needing to set up the search in the Find or Find and Replace dialog box.

Back to Table of Contents 

How to copy only the highlighted text to another document

The built-in functionality of Word does not have a special feature for copying only highlighted text.

You could save a copy of the document and use Find and Replace to delete all text that is not highlighted. To do that:

  1. Press Ctrl+H to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
  2. Click in the Find what field and select Format > Highlight twice until the text Not highlight is shown below the field. Leave the field empty.
  3. In the Replace with field, type ^p in the field.
    The ^p replaces the found non-highlighted text with a paragraph mark. This will split the remaining highlighted text in paragraphs. Otherwise, the result could be that many highlighted instances end in one paragraph.
  4. Click Replace All.

The result may not always be useful since all the highlighted text remains with context.

The DocTools HighlightManager add-in includes a command for extracting highlight to a new document. Using that command, you can quickly create a document that includes the highlight, incl. metadata about each found instance.

Troubleshooting highlight

PROBLEM 1 – Highlight it is not visible on the screen

If you apply a highlight color to selected text and no color appears, the problem is likely to be one of the following:

  • You have selected No Color instead of a color.
  • The selection if of a type that can’t be highlighted.
  • The Show highlighter marks setting is turned OFF. See how to turn on highlight marks.

PROBLEM 2 – Why can’t I remove highlighting in Word?

If you try to remove highlight using the methods described above and if that doesn’t remove the color, the reason may be that the color is not applied using highlight.

See PROBLEM 4 below for further details about how to get rid of other types of colors than highlight.

PROBLEM 3 – How to remove yellow highlight in Word?

A yellow background color on text in Word may not always be highlight. If you try to remove highlight using the methods described above and if that doesn’t remove the yellow color, the reason may be that the color is not applied using highlight.

See PROBLEM 4 below for further details about how to get rid of other types of colors than highlight.

PROBLEM 4 – The color doesn’t disappear when I attempt to remove highlight

What to do if you can’t remove highlighting in word? The reason may be that what looks like highlighting isn’t highlighting at all but another type of coloring.

If you select text that seems to be highlighted and try to remove the highlight and if this does not make the color go away, the reason may be that it is not highlight but one of the following:

  • The color is a warm yellow highlight color added by the Find feature
  • The color is color shading
  • The color is light yellow and is showing which areas you can edit in a protected document
  • The color is light gray field shading making it possible to distinguish fields from normal text
  • The color is light gray Form Field shading making it possible to see where to fill in fields

See below for help on how to remove the five types of color.

How to remove yellow highlight added by the Find feature

If you use the Find feature in the Navigation Pane, Word highlights all occurrences that match your search criteria. You can, for example, remove the highlight by pressing the Escape key once.

How to remove color shading

  1. Selected the text from which you want to remove the color shading.
  2. Select Home tab > Paragraph group > Shading menu > No Color.

Note that shading can be applied to part of a paragraph, entire paragraphs, table cells, or entire tables. However, selecting No Color from the Paragraph group can remove shading from any of the types.

How to remove the light yellow color from a protected document

See how you remove light yellow highlight from a protected document above.

How to remove gray field shading

In documents with fields, I recommend having field shading set to always be displayed. The shading is visible on the screen only and does not print (more information about field shading). However, you can turn off field shading or set it to be displayed only on field(s) that are selected:

  1. Select File > Options > Advanced.
  2. In the Show document content group, select Field shading > Never or When selected.
  3. Click OK.

Example of a field with fields shading

Figure 16. Example of a field with fields shading.

I strongly recommend having field shading shown always. If you can’t distinguish fields from other content, you risk making manual changes inside fields. The result will be that such changes are gone when you update fields.

How to remove gray Form Field shading

Word documents that are created as forms that are to be filled in by users may be created using a special type of fields: Form Fields. In newer versions of Word, forms that use Form Fields are referred to as Legacy Forms since Word now also lets you create forms using content controls.

If you see gray shading that can’t be removed using any of the methods above, Form Fields may be in use. You can quickly find out by pressing Alt+F9 to show field codes. If the areas with the gray shading now appear as { FORMTEXT }, { FORMCHECKBOX }, or { FORMDROPDOWN }, Form Fields are in use.

Example of Form Field without and with Form Field shading and example of Form Field showing field code

Figure 17. Example of Form Field without and with Form Field shading and example of Form Field showing field code.

It is practical to have Form Field shading turned on since it makes it easy to see where to fill in data. However, you can turn the Form Field shading off:

  1. On the Developer tab > Controls group, click Legacy Tools.
  2. Click the Form Field Shading icon to turn off the shading of Form Fields.

If you can’t see the Developer tab, see How to show the Developer tab in Word.

Form Field shading can be turned on and off via Developer tab > Controls group > Legacy Tools

Figure 18. Form Field shading can be turned on and off via Developer tab > Controls group > Legacy Tools.

Back to Table of Contents 

PROBLEM 5 – No highlight is applied when I press Alt+Ctrl+H

As explained above, Alt+Ctrl+H is the default shortcut assigned to highlight. If you press Alt+Ctrl+H and nothing happens, the problem is likely to be one of the following:

  • You have not selected any text or the selection if of a type that can’t be highlighted.
  • The currently selected highlight color in Home tab > Text Highlight Color is No Color,

Back to Table of Contents 

PROBLEM 6 – How to customize highlight color in Word?

The quick answer is: You can’t create custom highlight colors in Word. The colors are restricted to the 15 colors shown in Figure 4 above.

You might use color shading instead of highlight. When it comes to color shading, you can define any color you want. However, highlighting and color shading are very different as explained above.

Back to Table of Contents 

How to apply or remove highlight via macros (VBA)

Below, you will find small examples of macro code related to highlight. If you record a macro in Word to find out what code to use for highlighting, the result is macro code that also changes the default highlight color to the color you apply. As you will see in the code samples below, you can apply or remove highlight via VBA without changing the default color. 

EXAMPLE 1: Apply yellow highlight to the selection without changing the default highlight color that is shown in the Text Highlight Color icon:

Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow

EXAMPLE 2: Remove highlight from the selection without changing the default highlight color that is shown in the Text Highlight Color icon:

Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight

EXAMPLE 3: Select bright green as the default highlight color that will be shown in the Text Highlight Color icon: 

Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen

Back to Table of Contents 

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Highlight can be useful in many Word documents, not least during the editing process. This article has explained how highlight in Word works. You have learnt how to highlight, how to remove highlight / unhighlight, how to solve different problems with highlight, etc. I hope this article helps you work more efficiently with highlight in Word.

  1. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 1

    1

    Откройте документ Word, если вы еще этого не сделали. Чтобы открыть документ, наведите курсор на нужный файл и дважды щелкните по нему левой кнопкой мыши. Как вариант, можно сначала открыть программу Microsoft Word, а затем выбрать нужный файл из списка недавних документов.

  2. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 2

    2

    Выделите фрагмент текста, который хотите выделить цветом. Для этого наведите курсор на начало текста, щелкните левой кнопкой мыши и, удерживая кнопку, переместите курсор на конец выделяемого фрагмента, затем отпустите кнопку. Фон выделенного текста станет голубым.

  3. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 3

    3

    Щелкните по кнопке «Цвет выделения текста». Она выглядит как желтая полоска с изображением карандаша и буквами «ab» над нею и расположена на Панели инструментов в верхней части окна Microsoft Word. Когда вы щелкнете по этой кнопке, выбранный фрагмент будет выделен желтым цветом.

    • Если вы не видите данной иконки на Панели инструментов, перейдите на вкладку Главная (расположена в верхнем левом углу окна).
    • Если вы хотите изменить цвет выделения текста, сначала нажмите на направленную вниз стрелку, расположенную справа от кнопки Цвет выделения текста, а затем выберите нужный вам цвет в выпадающем меню.

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  1. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 4

    1

    Откройте документ Word, если вы еще этого не сделали. Чтобы открыть документ, наведите курсор на нужный файл и дважды щелкните по нему левой кнопкой мыши. Как вариант, можно сначала открыть программу Microsoft Word, а затем выбрать нужный файл из списка недавних документов.

  2. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 5

    2

    Убедитесь, что в документе нет выделенного текста. Вы сможете выделять цветом разные фрагменты текста, щелкая курсором и перемещая его по тексту, однако для начала работы необходимо, чтобы в документе не было выделенного текста.

  3. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 6

    3

    Щелкните по кнопке «Цвет выделения текста». Она выглядит как изображение карандаша и буквы «ab», расположенные над желтой полоской. Вы найдете эту кнопку на Панели инструментов в верхней части окна Word. Если вы не видите нужной кнопки, нажмите на вкладку Главная в левом верхнем углу экрана. Когда вы щелкнете по кнопке Цвет выделения текста, рядом с курсором мыши появится изображение карандаша.

  4. Изображение с названием Highlight in Microsoft Word Step 7

    4

    Перемещайтесь по тексту и выделяйте нужные фрагменты. Как только нашли нужный, наведите курсор на начало фрагмента, щелкните левой кнопкой мыши и, удерживая ее, переместите курсор в конец выделяемого текста. Отпустите кнопку мыши — выбранный фрагмент будет выделен цветом, заданным по умолчанию. Сделайте так с каждым фрагментом текста, который необходимо выделить.

    • Если вы хотите изменить цвет выделения, щелкните по направленной вниз стрелке, расположенной справа от кнопки Цвет выделения текста, и выберите нужный цвет в выпадающем меню.

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In Microsoft Word, highlighting words is not just selecting any text by mouse or by double-clicking on it. Imagine when you are reading any book and want to mark or display any important point you’ll use a highlighter pen. In a Word document, you can do it in a similar way.

MS Word users can highlight a single line of text, a paragraph, or a whole document. It is as simple as highlighting in Google Docs.

For highlighting text or grammatical errors Grammarly and ProWritingAid is the best tool you can use for free in MS Word.

You can highlight the phrase as well as change the highlighted color. Below are a few Microsoft Word highlight shortcut keys that help you add color behind the text. So how to highlight in Word using a keyboard?

Open Microsoft Word on desktop. Then select the color which you want to use for highlighting in Word documents, you can also change the color from the color palette from the menu as shown.

Shortcut for highlighting in word, Microsoft word highlight shortcut

After choosing a highlighter color, now select the entire text which you want to highlight and then press Ctrl + Alt + H hotkey which is the Microsoft Word highlight shortcut command from the keyboard. See the example below-

Shortcut for highlighting in word, Microsoft word highlight shortcut

Shortcut key to remove highlight in Word

In a Word document, to remove the color highlighting text using keyboard shortcut keys, just select text and press Ctrl + Alt + H shortcut again.

Shortcut to highlight in Word

To highlight all text and images during writing, you can use keyboard shortcuts to highlight them within the Microsoft Word document. Some basic commands are-

  • For permanent highlighting, select all text and press Ctrl + Alt + H from the keyboard.
  • Put the cursor at the starting position and then hold the Shift key and click at the end position of the last paragraph. You can also use Ctrl + A for that.

Microsoft Word highlight shortcut for line

  • There is a shortcut to highlight an entire line in word also, select a particular line by just double-clicking on it.
  • Now press Ctrl + Alt + H from the keyboard
  • A single line will be get highlighted.

Learn: How to anchor a picture in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word logo on a gray background

If you want to emphasize important text within a Microsoft Word document so that it’s not overlooked by the reader, you can use Word’s highlighting tool. You can also search for highlighted text within the document. Here’s how.

Highlight Text in a Word Document

You can easily highlight specific text in Microsoft Word. To do so, open a Word document that contains the text you want to highlight. You’ll need to select the text by clicking and dragging your cursor over the text.

Once you select the text, a pop-up menu will appear above the selected text. Click the down arrow next to the “Text Highlight Color” icon to display a drop-down menu with several colors to choose from. You can also find this option in the “Font” group of the “Home” tab.

Color template in Word

Click the highlight color to apply it to the text. Light color highlights print better with monochrome palettes and printers.

Highlighted text in word

You can also consecutively highlight text in multiple parts of a document. To do this, select your highlight color from the “Font” group of the “Home” tab before selecting the text you want to highlight.

Highlight colors in font group

After you select the highlight color, your cursor will become a highlighter. You can now continually highlight text throughout the document.

Press the “Esc” key on your keyboard to exit highlight mode.

RELATED: How to Highlight Text in Your PowerPoint Presentation

Remove Highlighting From Text in a Word Document

You can also remove the highlighting from text in a Microsoft Word document. To do this, click and drag your mouse over the highlighted text to select it. If your Word document contains a lot of highlighted text and you want to remove all of the highlights, you can press Ctrl+A to select all of the text in the document.

Highlighted text that is selected

Next, click the “Text Highlight Color” icon in the “Font” group of the “Home” tab and then select “No Color” from the drop-down menu.

Remove color from text option

The highlight is now removed from the text.

Search for Highlighted Text in a Word Document

If your Microsoft Word document is long and you want to quickly find highlighted text, you can use the advanced search function.

Open your Word document that contains the highlighted text and select the down arrow next to “Find” in the “Editing” group of the “Home” tab. Next, click “Advanced Find” in the drop-down menu.

Find option

The “Find and Replace” window will appear. In the “Find” tab, select the “More” option.

More option

In the “Find” section, select the “Format” option. Next, click “Highlight” in the drop-down menu.

Highlight option in format tab

You can now find each instance of highlighted text by clicking the “Find Next” button.


Highlighted text, when used properly, allows the reader to quickly grab important information from your Microsoft Word document without having to read the text in its entirety. Be mindful of the text you highlight within your content.

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When you want certain text in your document to stand out, you can use a handy built-in tool. Here’s how to highlight text in Word.

Ever used a highlighter pen to make certain sections of text pop out to you on a page? Great for making notes, but there’s a problem—highlighting a piece of paper is final. You can’t erase the color from your paper when you’re done.

In Microsoft Word, things are a bit different. Unlike real highlighter pens, you can replicate the highlighter effect in Word, but you can find and remove your highlights.

This lets you go through and review your highlighted points using Word’s Find feature, but you can also remove any text highlights afterward. It’s easy to learn how to apply, remove, and find highlighted text in Word—here’s what you’ll need to do.

How to Highlight a Selection of Text in Word

If you plan only to highlight one portion of text using a single color, you can do this in just seconds in Word.

To highlight a section of text in Word:

  1. Select your text. You can do this by simply dragging through it with your cursor.
  2. Go to the Home tab.
  3. Click the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color button.
  4. Choose the color you want to use from the drop-down menu.

Choose a color to highlight text in Word

Once you choose a color from the drop-down menu, your selected text will update immediately to show a highlighted background in that color.

How to Highlight Multiple Selections of Text

If you have several portions of text you want to highlight, you can still use the highlighter tool to make your text stand out.

You don’t have to use the method above to do this, however, as there’s an easier way to select multiple text sections. Once you enable the highlighter, it will remain turned on until you turn it off, allowing you to highlight additional areas.

To highlight multiple sections of text in Word:

  1. Press Home on the ribbon bar.
  2. Select the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color button and select a color from the drop-down menu.
  3. Your cursor will change to show a blinking text cursor with a marker attached. Select the text you want to highlight by dragging through it with your mouse.
    Highlight enabled cursor
  4. Repeat this step with any other sections of text you want to highlight.
  5. When you’re done, press the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color button.
  6. Select Stop Highlighting.

Stop highlighting text in Word

You can do this when the highlighter tool is active if you want to change colors. Click the Text Highlight Color button, choose another color, and then continue to drag through your text portions to highlight them.

How to Remove a Highlight From Text

You can do this using the Text Highlight Color tool when you want to remove highlights from your text in Word. This allows you to remove highlights from specific text or your entire document.

To remove highlights from selected text in Word:

  1. Select the specific text you want to unhighlight or select all of the text in your document using Ctrl + A.
  2. Press Home on the ribbon bar.
  3. Press the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color button.
  4. Select No Color.

Remove highlight using No Color

You don’t need to manually scroll through your document to find portions of text that you’ve highlighted. Thanks to the Find feature in Word, you can locate any highlighted text quickly.

Find Specific Highlighted Text

Maybe the highlighted text you’re looking for contains a particular word. If so, use these steps to find it:

  1. Go to the Home tab.
  2. Click the arrow next to Find, then select Advanced Find.
  3. When the Find and Replace window opens, enter your search term in the Find What box at the top.
  4. Click More on the bottom left.
  5. Click the Format drop-down box at the bottom below Find and select Highlight.
  6. Hit the Find Next button.

Find highlights with a keyword

When you run the search, you’ll see any highlighted text that matches your search term. At this point, click Find Next to cycle through your search results, or press Cancel to close the window.

Found highlights with a keyword

Find All Highlighted Text

To find all of the text you’ve highlighted in your Word document, repeat the steps above, but eliminate Step 2. You don’t need to use an Advanced Find here, and make sure to leave the Find What box empty.

When you click Find Next, you’ll see the first portion of highlighted text found. Continue to click Find Next to cycle through and see each additional section of the highlighted text in your document.

Find all text highlights in Word

When no further instances are found, you’ll see a message letting you know.

Finished searching message

Pack Away Your Highlighter

Fifteen nifty colors, a handy method for finding your highlighted text, and an easy way to remove it afterward—you can pack away your physical highlighter pen and use Word’s highlighter tool to start making notes instead.

For more, take a look at how to find and replace formatting in Word or how to clear all formatting in your Word document.

Are you interested in upcoming tutorials for Microsoft Word? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook to stay in the loop!

Become a professional master in Microsoft Word by learning these useful tips and tricks to help you management your emails better and work more productivity.

Table of Content

  1. CTRL Key Shortcuts
  2. Save as PDF
  3. Scroll Zoom
  4. Add a Horizontal Line
  5. Shrink One Page
  6. Have Word Read To You
  7. Add Random Text
    1. rand()
    2. rand(paragraphs,sentences)
    3. lorem() (for Latin Text)
  8. Convert Text to Table
  9. Insert Hyperlinks
  10. Insert Date/Time
  11. Insert a File Path/Location
  12. Insert a Screenshot/Screen Clipping
  13. File Share Email
  14. AutoCorrect
  15. Triple Click to Highlight a Paragraph
  16. Show Formatting Marks


1. CTRL Key Shortcuts

In Microsoft Word, the CTRL key can be used to navigate through your document more efficiently.

  • Hold CTRL and press Right Arrow to go right one word at a time.
  • Hold CTRL and press the Left Arrow to go left one word at a time.
  • Hold CTRL and Backspace to delete a whole word at a time.
  • CTRL + SHIFT + Right Arrow will highlight one word at a time
  • CTRL + END to move cursor to the end of the line.
  • CTRL + HOME to move cursor to the beginning of the line.
  • CTRL + Page Up to move up one page.
  • CTRL + Page Down to move down one page.
  • CTRL + UP Arrow to move cursor up one paragraph at a time.
  • CTRL + Down Arrow to move cursor down one paragraph at a time.


2. Save as PDF

If you need to share your document in a fashion that can not be edited by others and will preserve the pagination and formatting as you’ve designed it, save it as a PDF. This file format (Portable Document Format) was developed by Adobe in the early 1990s as a way for people to share documents and have it appear exactly the same no matter what computing platform is use to view it from. There are other benefits of PDF as is the defacto standard for business documents.

Follow these step to save your Microsoft Word document as a PDF:

  1. Open the Word document you want to create a PDF of.
  2. From the menu bar, click File > Save As, as highlighted in the illustration below.
  3. From the drop-down list, find and select PDF (*.pdf) and then click Save.

    Microsoft Word - Save As PDF


3. Scroll Zoom

You can quickly zoom in and out of your Microsoft Word document with this easy keyboard and mouse combination.

  1. Press and hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard.
  2. Then scroll your mouse wheel forward and backward to zoom in and out, respectively.

CTRL and Mouse Wheel Combination


4. Add a Horizontal Line

Easily add a horizontal line across your page, extending from the left margin to the right margin, by typing three hyphens (---) and then pressing Enter

In Word, a horizontal line is a type of border. To delete it, perform the following:

  1. Place the cursor immediately above the horizontal line.
  2. On the Home tab, click the arrow next to the Borders and Shading button.
  3. Click No Border.

5. Shrink One Page

As you finalize your Word document, you may find yourself with the last page looking a bit odd by it having just only a few lines of text. You can use the Shrink One Page feature of Microsoft Word to easily have it attempt to adjust your document to include those few lines of text without having to print that last extra page. It does this by reducing the size and spacing of your text with adversely affecting the overall presentation of your document.

Before using this feature, we’ll need to make the Shrink One Page icon accessible to us on our Quick Access Toolbar by performing this one-time setup:

  1. Click on the down arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize
  2. Select More Commands from the list of options that appears.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize Options List
  3. In the Word Options dialog box, from the Choose Command From drop-down list, select All Commands.
  4. From the list of commands, scroll down to find and highlight Shrink One Page.
  5. Click the Add button to add the Shrink One Page option to your Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word - Word Options - Shrink One Page
  6. Click OK to close the dialog box.

The Shrink One Page option is now accessible through your quick access toolbar. To use this feature, simply follow these steps:

  1. Highlight all the text in your Microsoft Word document (you can press CTRL + A)
  2. Then click on the Shrink One Page icon, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Quick Access Toolbar - Shrink One Page Button



6. Have Word Read To You

Microsoft Word has a built-in text-to-speech feature that is able to read your document to you. You’ll be able to hear it speak your text out loud. Having Microsoft Word read aloud is a great feature for the visually-impaired. For others, this feature can be a time saving by having Word read to you while you are working on other things.

Before using it, we’ll need to make the Speak icon accessible to us on our Quick Access Toolbar by performing this one-time setup:

  1. Click on the down arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize
  2. Select More Commands from the list of options that appears.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize Options List
  3. In the Word Options dialog box, from the Choose Command From drop-down list, select All Commands.
  4. From the list of commands, scroll down to find and highlight Speak.
  5. Click the Add button to add the Speak option to your Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word - Word Options - Speak
  6. Click OK to close the dialog box.

The Speak option is now accessible through your quick access toolbar. To have Word speak your text, simply follow these steps:

  1. Highlight the text you want Microsoft Word to read to you.
  2. Click on the Speak icon, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Quick Access Toolbar - Speak Button

You can stop speak at anytime by clicking on the Speak icon again.


7. Add Random Text

At times, you may find a need to quickly add filler text into your Microsoft Word document preview your document flow or a set of document design format. Word allows you to use one easy-to-use command to quickly populate your document with English or Latin text.

rand()

The =rand() will quickly add a few paragraphs into your document. To use, follow these steps:

  1. In your document, position the Microsoft Word cursor (not your mouse cursor) where you want random text to be inserted. The cursor needs to be at the beginning of a line. It does need to be a blank line, the cursor just needs to be at the beginning. This command will not work if you attempt to use it within a sentence.
  2. Type =rand()and press Enter. Random text is now added to your document as illustrated below.
  3. Word =rand() example

rand(paragraphs, sentences)

The rand command allows you to customize the random text generated by specifying the number of paragraphs and the number of sentences per paragraph to created.

For example to generate 2 paragraphs with 6 sentences each, follow these steps:

  1. In your document, position the Microsoft Word cursor (not your mouse cursor) where you want random text to be inserted. The cursor needs to be at the beginning of a line. It does need to be a blank line, the cursor just needs to be at the beginning. This command will not work if you attempt to use it within a sentence.
  2. Type =rand(2,6)and press Enter. Random text is now added to your document as illustrated below.

    Word =rand(paragraphs,sentences) example

lorem()

Instead of English text, you can use the lorem command in insert random Latin text. You use this command in the same manner as rand as illustrated above. In its simplest form type in =lorem() and press Enter.

To specify the number of paragraphs and sentences to generate, use command syntax is lorem(paragraphs, sentences).As an example, to insert 3 paragraphs with 4 sentences each, type =lorem(3,4) and press Enter. The result is illustrated below.

Word =lorem(paragraphs,sentences) example


8. Convert Tabbed Text to Table

If you create rows and columns of text using tab, you can easily convert them into a table using the built-in Convert Text to Table feature in Microsoft Word. This feature will also work if you have a delimited list (e.g, comma delimited text). To use, follow these simple steps:

  1. In Microsoft Word, highlight your text.
  2. From the menu bar, click Insert tab > Table > Convert Text to Table, as illustrated below.

    Word - Convert Text to Table

  3. In the dialog box that appear, define the criteria for the text you want to convert to a table then click OK.

    Word - Convert Text to Table Options

  4. Your tabbed text (or delimited text) is now converted into a table, as illustrated below.

    Word - Convert Text to Table - Illustrated



9. Insert Hyperlinks

You can add links to websites (or even to a different section of your document) into your document easily. This enables your reader to click on the hyperlink to go to the external resources. This is a great tool to use if you want to share or reference additional information from websites.

To insert a hyperlink, follow these steps:

  1. Highlight the text you make to make a hyperlink
  2. Press CTRL + K
  3. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box that appears, select one of four available choices
    1. Link to Existing File of Web Page
    2. Link to Place in This Document
    3. Link to Create New Document
    4. Link to E-mail Address
  4. Enter the URL or select the target destination for your link
    1. For links to a web page, enter the website address (URL), as illustrated below.

      Microsoft Word - Insert Hyperlink

    2. For links to a place within your document, select the position from the list of available places
    3. For a link to create a document, specify the folder path for your new file
    4. For e-mail address, enter the email address in textbox provided
  5. Your highlighted text will now turns to a blue clickable hyperlink. To test the link, hold CTRL then click on the link.

10. Insert Date/Time

You can quickly insert the current date and/or time into your document with the Date & Time button. This feature enables to define whether to insert the current date only or with the time. You are also able to define the format of how the date and time should appear. This is a great time saver if you constantly need to add date or time into your document, such as for your work logs, laboratory workbooks, and similar.

Before using it, we’ll need to make the Date & Time icon accessible to us on our Quick Access Toolbar by performing this one-time setup:

  1. Click on the down arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize
  2. Select More Commands from the list of options that appears.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize Options List
  3. In the Word Options dialog box, from the Choose Command From drop-down list, select All Commands.
  4. From the list of commands, scroll down to find and highlight Date & Time.
  5. Click the Add button to add the Speak option to your Quick Access Toolbar.

    Microsoft Word Options - Insert File Path

  6. Click OK to close the dialog box.

The Date & Time option is now accessible through your quick access toolbar. To have Word insert the current date and time into your document, simply follow these steps:

  1. Position your cursor in your document where you want to insert the file path.
  2. Click on the Date & Time icon, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Quick Access Toolbar - Insert File Path

  3. From the Date & Time dialog box, select the format on how you want your data/time to appear then click OK.

    Microsoft Word - Date & Time Dialog Box

The current data and/or time is now inserted into your document.


11. Insert a File Path/Location

As you and your colleagues share Word documents with each other, you may find yourself needing to know where a particular document is saved. This is particularly the case if you have a printed copy of the document or the document was emailed to you as an attachment. By using the Insert File Path command in Microsoft Word, you can easily include the full file path of your document so others can locate it when needed (e.g., network file share).

Before using it, we’ll need to make the Insert File Path icon accessible to us on our Quick Access Toolbar by performing this one-time setup:

  1. Click on the down arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize
  2. Select More Commands from the list of options that appears.
    Microsoft Word Quick Access Toolbar Customize Options List
  3. In the Word Options dialog box, from the Choose Command From drop-down list, select All Commands.
  4. From the list of commands, scroll down to find and highlight Insert File Path.
  5. Click the Add button to add the Speak option to your Quick Access Toolbar.

    Microsoft Word Options - Insert File Path

  6. Click OK to close the dialog box.

The Insert File Path option is now accessible through your quick access toolbar. To have Word insert the file path of your document, simply follow these steps:

  1. Position your cursor in your document where you want to insert the file path. A good spot may be on your cover page or in the document footer.
  2. Click on the Insert File Path icon, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Quick Access Toolbar - Insert File Path

Your document’s file path is now inserted into your document.



12. Insert a Screenshot/Screen Clipping

Microsoft Word includes a built-in feature to enable you to easily insert a screenshot (or screen clipping) into your document without the need of using the Print Screen key on your keyboard and then using Microsoft Paint to crop your image. This feature provides you with a list of selectable thumbnail preview of the windows you have open (windows that are minimized will not be included in this list).

To insert a screenshot into your Word document, follow these steps:

  1. In your Microsoft Word document, position the cursor where you want the screenshot to be inserted.
  2. From the menu bar, click on Insert > Screenshot.
  3. From the list of thumbnail images, click to select the screenshot you want to insert, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Insert Screenshot

  4. Your screenshot is now inserted and you can resize and re-position as needed.

Screen Clipping

If you need the ability to manually select a specific area of your screen to capture and insert into your document, use the Screen Clipping feature. You’ll be able to select a rectangular area of your screen to capture and insert.

You access this feature as follows:

  1. In your Microsoft Word document, position the cursor where you want the screenshot to be inserted.
  2. From the menu bar, click on Insert > Screenshot > Screen Clipping.
  3. Using the drawing pointer that appears, draw a rectangular area of your screen to capture.
  4. Your screenshot is now inserted and you can resize and re-position as needed.

13. File Share Email

If you are like most, you will often need to share your Microsoft Word documents with your team or colleagues for peer review, edits, and feedback. With the Share feature in Microsoft Word, you can quickly and easily attach open Microsoft Outlook and attached your document with a few clicks of the mouse.

Follow these steps to use this feature:

  1. While in Microsoft Word, click File > Share > Email.
  2. Click Send as Attachment.

Microsoft Word - Share - Email as Attachment

An Outlook new message window will automatically open with your document attached.


14. AutoCorrect

The AutoCorrect feature can be used to automatically insert frequently used text or sentences with a simple short keystroke combination. Long disclaimer statements, reference terms, and any other long series of text can easily be inserted by typing in just a few letters.

  1. In Microsoft Word, click on File > Option.
  2. In the Word Options dialog box, select Proofing from the left side bar.
  3. Then click the AutoCorrect Options button.

    Outlook Autocorrect Option

  4. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, type in a short key stroke combination you want to use and type in the sentence(s) you want Word to automatically replace it with. In the example below, we use the key strokes !safe to have Word insert the sentence Safety is our #1 priority and everyone's responsibility!

    Outlook AutoCorrect Example

  5. Click Add and the OK button.

Now, as you edit your document, when you type !safe and press Space Bar, Word will automatically replace it with Safety is our #1 priority and everyone's responsibility!

This is a quick and easy shortcut to type in repetitive text into your documents.


15. Triple Click to Highlight a Paragraph

This tip quickly highlights the entire paragraph. Simply triple click on your left mouse button anywhere within a paragraph to highlight.


16. Show Formatting Marks

There are many formatting options in Microsoft Word that you can use to make your document look perfect. These include spaces, tabs, and page breaks. Why many of these are visible as you edit your document, there are some that are not. This can be a cause of frustration if you are trying to format text but are not getting the desired effect as invisible formatting are working against you.

You can have all the formatting options used in your document become visible by using the show/hide formatting mark option in Microsoft Word. Do one of the following to show and hide the formatting marks.

  1. Click on the paragraph symbol ¶ on the toolbar to show/hide, as illustrated below.

    Microsoft Word - Show/Hide Formatting Marks Button

  2. Or press CTRL + SHIFT + * to show/hide.

Once displayed, formatting marks are shown, as illustrated in the example below.

Microsof Word - Formatting Marks Example


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