How to Highlight Text in Microsoft Word

When you are reading a long textbook or a dense legal document, you might want to mark specific sentences so you can find them quickly later. In the physical world, you would use a neon yellow highlighter pen.

Microsoft Word has a digital version of this exact tool, allowing you to paint a bright background color behind any text without altering the color of the actual font.

How to Highlight Existing Text

If you have already typed out your document and simply want to highlight a few key phrases, follow these steps:

1. Use your mouse to click and drag over the text you want to highlight.
2. Look at the ribbon menu at the top of the screen and make sure you are on the Home tab.
3. In the “Font” section, look for an icon that looks like a marker with a thick line of color underneath it (usually yellow). This is the Text Highlight Color tool.
4. Click the small arrow next to the marker icon.
5. A small palette of colors will drop down. Click on the bright yellow square (or any other color you prefer).

Your text will instantly have a bright colored background, drawing the reader’s eye immediately to that sentence.

How to Use the Highlighter as a Pen

If you are proofreading a 20-page document and need to highlight dozens of different sentences, clicking and dragging over and over again is exhausting. You can turn your mouse cursor into a continuous highlighting marker.

1. Make sure no text is currently selected.
2. Go to the Home tab and click directly on the marker icon itself (not the drop-down arrow).
3. Move your mouse down to the document. You will notice your cursor has changed into a tiny marker pen.
4. Now, click and drag over any text. As soon as you let go, it will be highlighted.
5. You can scroll down and highlight another sentence, and another, without ever going back to the ribbon menu.
6. When you are finished, press the Esc key on your keyboard to turn your mouse cursor back to normal.

How to Remove Highlighting

If you accidentally highlighted the wrong word, or you are finalizing a document for professional publication and need to strip all the neon colors away, it is very easy to remove.

1. Highlight the text that currently has the background color. (If you want to remove all highlights in the entire document, press Ctrl+A on Windows or Cmd+A on Mac to select everything).
2. Click the small drop-down arrow next to the Text Highlight Color marker icon on the Home tab.
3. Select No Color from the menu.

The colored background will instantly vanish, returning your document to a clean, professional state.