Word text highlighting changed

Question

Word text highlighting changed

Charles Turner - Building510BQH 0

In word for example the home tab has and did have the text colour and highlight, with many colours/shades. This has now changed to a few, only bright and not user friendly.

Why has this been changed as now its making more work to go into other menus borders- shading etc etc etc, to get to it and change add....

It was on a drop down menu in home that is still there and now instead of adding to it you have reduced it and made more work for us!??? this is crazy, its didn't need to be changed at all???

Can you please put it back as this is not an improvement its a disadvantage!!?? more time taken.

thanks please advise changes back.

0 comments

1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

John Korchok 232.8K Volunteer Moderator

Sorry, I'm not clear what change you're seeing. Posting screen shots may help clarify your issue.

The highlight colors in Word have not changed in many years.

The font color can be set using Home>Font>Font Color, which displays 10 theme colors, 10 standard colors and 50 color theme variants, as it has done since Word 2007 was released 18 years ago.

Charles Turner - Building510BQH 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T15:39:15.8+00:00

Hi, cant seem to get the shot, but basically in the home tab, you have the Text highlight colour which had more than it does now is what Im looking at, its gone to the Borders Tab and shading is in that, so it has moved as Ive used it before ok...? its been reduced to the 15 colurs only no shading?

Thansk
John Korchok 232.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-05T16:03:19.1966667+00:00

Sorry, you may be thinking of a different command. The text highlights have been the same for over 20 years (I have Word 2003 installed, so I was able to check).

To get a wider variety of colors, please continue with your workaround of selecting text, then using Home>Paragraph>Borders and Shading>Shading, then applying a color to the selection.

You can also vote for this Feedback Suggestion requesting more highlight colors.
Jay Freedman 207.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-11-05T16:30:17.4+00:00

Besides the menu choices, there are separate buttons in the Home ribbon for the Highlight tool (in the Font group) and the Character Shading tool (in the Paragraph group). The dropdowns from these buttons contain the same color choices as they have since Word 2003.

Share via

Word text highlighting changed

1 answer

Your answer