Knowing how to highlight text in Word is one of the quickest ways to draw attention to key information, mark sections for review, or colour-code content across a document — and it works alongside other formatting tools like bold, italic, and underline in Word to give you full control over how your text looks.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to highlight text in Word using three methods, how to change highlight colours, how to remove highlights, and how to use a keyboard shortcut for faster highlighting.
Why Use Text Highlighting in Word?
Text highlighting makes important content stand out instantly without changing the text itself.
Common uses include:
- Emphasising key points in reports or research papers
- Marking sections for editing or review
- Colour-coding content by category or priority
- Studying notes and flagging important passages
- Improving readability in collaborative documents
Highlighting is particularly useful in long documents where you need to navigate quickly or hand off work to someone else — you can pair it with font colour changes in Word for an even clearer visual hierarchy.
Watch the Video Tutorial
If you prefer to see this in action, the full video walkthrough is below, showing each method step by step.
How to Highlight in Word: Step-by-Step
Word offers three ways to highlight text. The standard tool works for most situations, the continuous mode is better for reviewing long documents, and the keyboard shortcut is fastest when your hands are already on the keys.
Method 1: How to Highlight Text in Word Using the Text Highlight Color Tool
The Text Highlight Color tool on the Home tab is the most direct way to highlight text in Word.
Steps
- Open your Word document.
- Select the text you want to highlight.
- Go to the Home tab.
- In the Font group, click the dropdown arrow beside the Text Highlight Color button.
- Choose your preferred colour from the palette.
👉 The selected text is immediately highlighted in the colour you chose.
How to Change Highlight Colours
Word offers 15 highlight colours. Click the dropdown arrow beside Text Highlight Color and select a new colour. Popular choices include yellow, green, turquoise, pink, and orange — using different colours lets you categorise content at a glance.
Method 2: How to Highlight Text in Word Using Continuous Mode
Instead of selecting text first, you can activate the highlight tool and paint highlights as you read — useful when reviewing long reports or research papers.
Steps
- Go to the Home tab.
- Click directly on the Text Highlight Color button (not the dropdown arrow) to activate the tool.
- Your cursor changes to a highlighter pen icon.
- Click and drag over any text you want to highlight.
- Press Esc when finished to exit the highlighting tool.
👉 The tool stays active until you press Esc, so you can highlight multiple passages in one pass.
Method 3: How to Highlight Text in Word Using a Keyboard Shortcut
If you prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard, Word has a dedicated highlighting shortcut — worth adding to your Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet.
Steps
- Select the text you want to highlight.
- Press Ctrl + Alt + H.
👉 The last-used highlight colour is applied immediately. To change the colour, use the dropdown on the Text Highlight Color button first, then use the shortcut.
How to Remove Highlighting in Word
Removing a highlight takes the same steps as applying one.
- Select the highlighted text.
- Click the dropdown arrow beside the Text Highlight Color button.
- Select No Color.
👉 The highlight is removed. The text itself is unchanged.
Which Method Should You Use?
| Situation | Best Method |
|---|---|
| Highlighting a specific selection once | Method 1 — Text Highlight Color tool |
| Reviewing a long document and highlighting multiple passages | Method 2 — Continuous mode |
| Hands on keyboard, working fast | Method 3 — Ctrl + Alt + H shortcut |
| Removing an existing highlight | Method 1 — Select text → No Color |
Common Problems When Highlighting Text in Word
Highlight tool won’t apply colour
The tool activates a highlighting cursor — you must click and drag over the text after selecting the colour. Clicking the button without dragging won’t do anything. If the tool still won’t respond, check that the document isn’t in Read Mode or marked as final.
Can’t remove a highlight
If selecting the text and choosing No Color doesn’t work, the colour is probably shading rather than a highlight. Select the text, go to Home > Shading (the paint bucket next to the borders button) and choose No Color. Pasted web text often carries shading like this.
Stuck in highlighting mode
Press Esc to exit. If the cursor remains as a pen icon, click the Text Highlight Color button once to toggle it off.
Highlights not printing
Go to File → Options → Display and make sure Print background colours and images is ticked. Highlights are treated as background colour by Word’s print engine, so this setting must be on for them to appear on paper.
Pro Tips for Highlighting Text in Word
- Use colour consistently. Assign a meaning to each colour (e.g. yellow = action required, green = approved, pink = query) and stick to it across the document.
- Highlight before you comment. In collaborative documents, highlight a passage first, then add a comment — reviewers can spot the flagged text at a glance even before opening the comments panel.
- Combine with font colour for maximum contrast. Yellow highlight with dark blue font is one of the most readable combinations on screen and in print — see how to change font colour in Word for the full walkthrough.
- Remove all highlights at once. Press Ctrl + A to select all text, then choose No Color from the Text Highlight Color dropdown to strip every highlight in the document in one step.
- To blur text for a preview or answer sheet, see How to Blur Text in Word.
FAQs
How do I highlight text in Word?
Select the text, go to the Home tab, click the dropdown arrow beside the Text Highlight Color button, and choose a colour. The highlight is applied immediately.
What is the keyboard shortcut to highlight text in Word?
Select the text first, then press Ctrl + Alt + H to apply the last-used highlight colour.
How do I change the highlight colour in Word?
Click the dropdown arrow beside the Text Highlight Color button on the Home tab and select a new colour from the palette. The next highlight you apply will use the new colour.
How do I remove highlighting in Word?
Select the highlighted text, open the Text Highlight Color dropdown, and choose No Color. To remove all highlights in a document at once, press Ctrl + A first, then select No Color.
How do I stop highlighting mode in Word?
Press Esc to exit the highlighting tool and return to normal editing. You can also click the Text Highlight Color button again to toggle it off.
Why aren’t my highlights printing in Word?
Go to File → Options → Display and enable Print background colours and images. Without this setting, Word won’t print highlights.
What is the difference between highlight colour and font colour in Word?
Highlight colour applies a coloured background behind the text, like a physical highlighter pen. Font colour changes the colour of the text characters themselves. Both can be used together for maximum visual contrast.
Can I use a custom highlight colour in Word?
No. Word’s Text Highlight Color tool is limited to 15 preset colours. For a custom background colour behind text, use the Shading option in the Paragraph group on the Home tab instead.
Conclusion
Highlighting text in Word is one of the simplest formatting tools available, but it becomes genuinely powerful when you use it systematically — consistent colour coding, continuous mode for long reviews, and the keyboard shortcut for speed.
Once you have highlights in place, combining them with other text formatting makes your documents even clearer — learn how to use bold, italic, and underline in Word to build a complete formatting toolkit.
New to Word? This tutorial goes with Chapter 4 of the free Microsoft Word for beginners guide: Formatting text. It covers the basics step by step, with screenshots, short videos and practice files, and you can download the whole guide as a free PDF.
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