Add A Highlight Effect To Text In Pages On Mac - Apple Support (BH)

• Apple
• • Store
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • Vision
  • AirPods
  • TV & Home
  • Entertainment
  • Accessories
  • Support
• 0+

Pages User Guide for Mac Open Menu Close Menu

• Communities

Pages Search this guide Clear Search Table of Contents

Pages User Guide for Mac

• Welcome
• What’s new
• Pages basics
  • Get started with Pages
  • Word processing or page layout?
  • Intro to images, charts and other objects
  • Create documents and books
    • Create a document
    • Intro to creating a book
    • Use templates
  • Find a document
  • Open or close a document
  • Save and name a document
  • Print a document or envelope
  • Work in Pages
    • Undo or redo changes
    • Use sidebars
    • Quick navigation
    • View formatting symbols
    • View layout markings
    • Rulers
    • Change the document view
    • Touch Bar for Pages
  • Customise Pages
    • Customise the toolbar
    • Set Pages settings
  • Use VoiceOver with Pages
    • Create a document using VoiceOver
    • Use VoiceOver to preview comments and track changes
• Add text
  • Select text
  • Add and replace text
  • Copy and paste text
  • Use mail merge
    • Add, change or delete a merge field
    • Manage sender information
    • Add, change or delete a source file in Pages on Mac
    • Populate and create customised documents
  • Use dictation to enter text
  • Accents, emoji and special characters
  • Enter text in another language
    • Format a document for another language
    • Use phonetic guides
    • Use bidirectional text
    • Use vertical text
  • Add the date and time
  • Add mathematical equations
  • Bookmarks and links
  • Add links
• Format text
  • Change the font or font size
  • Set a default font
  • Bold, italic, underline and strikethrough
  • Change the colour of text
  • Add a shadow or outline to text
  • Change text capitalisation
  • Use paragraph styles
    • Intro to paragraph styles
    • Apply a paragraph style
    • Create, rename or delete a paragraph style
    • Update or revert a paragraph style
    • Use a keyboard shortcut to apply a text style
  • Copy and paste text styles
  • Format characters and punctuation
    • Format fractions automatically
    • Create and use character styles
    • Ligatures
    • Add drop caps
    • Raise and lower characters and text
    • Format Chinese, Japanese or Korean text
  • Add a highlight effect to text
  • Format hyphens, dashes and quotation marks
• Align and space text
  • Set line and paragraph spacing
  • Set paragraph margins
  • Format lists
  • Set tab stops
  • Align and justify text
  • Set pagination and line and page breaks
  • Format columns of text
  • Link text boxes
  • Add borders and rules (lines)
• Format documents
  • Set paper size and orientation
  • Set document margins
  • Set up facing pages
  • Page templates
  • Add and manage pages and sections
    • Add pages
    • Add and format sections
    • Rearrange pages or sections
    • Duplicate pages or sections
    • Delete pages or sections
  • Document parts
    • Table of contents
    • Bibliography
    • Footnotes and endnotes
    • Headers and footers
  • Add page numbers
  • Change the page background
  • Add a border around a page
  • Add watermarks and background objects
  • Create a custom template
• Add images, shapes and media
  • Images
    • Add an image
    • Add an image gallery
    • Edit an image
  • Shapes
    • Add and edit a shape
    • Combine or break apart shapes
    • Draw a shape
    • Save a shape to the shapes library
    • Add and align text inside a shape
  • Add 3D objects
  • Add lines and arrows
  • Animate, share or save drawings
  • Video and audio
    • Add video and audio
    • Record audio
    • Edit video and audio
  • Set movie and image formats
• Position and style objects
  • Position objects on a page
    • Position and align objects
    • Place objects with text
    • Use alignment guides
    • Layer, group and lock objects
  • Change the transparency of an object
  • Fill shapes and text boxes with colour or an image
  • Add a border to an object
  • Add a caption or title
  • Add a reflection or shadow
  • Use object styles
  • Resize, rotate and flip objects
• Add tables
  • Create and style tables
    • Add or delete a table
    • Select tables, cells, rows and columns
    • Add or change table rows and columns
      • Add or remove table rows and columns
      • Move table rows and columns
      • Resize table rows and columns
    • Merge or unmerge table cells
    • Change how a table looks
      • Change the look of table text
      • Show, hide or edit a table title
      • Change table gridlines and colours
      • Use table styles
    • Resize, move or lock a table
  • Add and organise table data
    • Add and edit cell content
    • Work with different types of data
      • Format dates, currency and more
      • Create a custom table cell format
      • Format tables for bidirectional text
    • Highlight cells conditionally
    • Alphabetise or sort table data
  • Add formulas and functions
    • Calculate values using data in table cells
    • Use the Formulas and Functions Help
• Create and modify charts
  • Add or delete a chart
    • Add or delete a chart
    • Change a chart from one type to another
  • Modify chart data
  • Move, resize and rotate a chart
  • Change the look of a chart
    • Change the look of data series
    • Add a legend, gridlines and other markings
    • Change the look of chart text and labels
    • Add a border and background to a chart
    • Use chart styles
• Use writing and editing tools
  • Check spelling
  • Look up words
  • Find and replace text
  • Replace text automatically
  • Show word count and other statistics
  • View annotations
  • Set author name and comment colour
  • Highlight text
  • Add and print comments
  • Track changes
• Share and collaborate
  • Send a document
  • Publish a book to Apple Books
  • Collaborate with others
    • Intro to collaboration
    • Invite others to collaborate
    • Collaborate on a shared document
    • See the latest activity in a shared document
    • Change a shared document’s settings
    • Stop sharing a document
    • Shared folders and collaboration
    • Use Box to collaborate
• Manage and organise documents
  • Use iCloud Drive with Pages
  • Export to Word, PDF or another file format
  • Open an iBooks Author book in Pages
  • Reduce the document file size
  • Save a large document as a package file
  • Restore an earlier version of a document
  • Move a document
  • Delete a document
  • Lock a document
  • Password-protect a document
  • Create and manage custom templates
  • Transfer documents between devices
    • Transfer documents with AirDrop
    • Transfer documents with Handoff
    • Transfer documents with the Finder
• Troubleshooting
  • If you can’t add or delete a page
  • If you can’t remove something from a document
  • If you can’t find a button or control
  • If page formatting keeps changing
• Keyboard shortcuts
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Keyboard shortcut symbols
• Copyright

You can add colour behind any selection of text — individual characters, words or entire paragraphs — to create a highlight effect.

Note: You can also highlight text for review purposes by using tools in the review toolbar and commands in the Insert menu. These highlights don’t appear in printed documents. To learn more about this type of highlighting, see Add and manage comments.

Add a background colour to text

1. Select the text you want to highlight.

   If the text is in a text box or shape, clicking the text box or shape affects all the text it contains.

2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style button near the top.

   If the text is in a text box, table or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button.

3. In the Font section, click .

4. Next to Text Background, click either the colour well on the left or the colour wheel on the right and choose a colour.

   The colour well shows colours that match the template you’re using. The colour wheel opens the colour window, where you can choose any colour.

   

5. Click anywhere in the document to close the controls and apply the colour.

Tip: If you often add colours behind text, you can create a character style that uses a particular text background colour. Then you can choose that style from the Character Styles pop-up menu to highlight selected text with that colour. You can also create a keyboard shortcut to apply the character style.

Remove a background colour from text

If the colour you want to remove is behind selected words or lines and doesn’t extend from margin to margin, use this method to remove it.

1. Select specific text or click in the text.

   If a comment opens, click Delete in the comment. The highlight was added using the review toolbar. If no comment opens, continue with the next steps.

2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style button near the top.

   If the text is in a text box, table or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button.

3. In the Font section, click .

4. Next to Text Background, click the colour well on the left, then click the swatch in the bottom-right corner with the diagonal line.

Add a background colour to a paragraph

Use this method when you want the colour to extend from margin to margin as a block of colour.

1. Click the paragraph or select multiple paragraphs where you want the background colour to appear.

   Tip: If you don’t want subsequent paragraphs to use the background colour, add the colour after you press Return to begin a new paragraph, or add the colour when you’ve finished typing.

2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Layout button near the top.

3. In the Paragraph Background section, do one of the following:

   • Choose a colour designed to match your template: Click the colour well on the left, then select a colour.

   • Choose any colour: Click the colour wheel, then select a colour in the colour window.

Remove a background colour from behind paragraphs

If the colour you want to remove extends from margin to margin, you can use this method to remove it.

1. Select the paragraphs you want to remove the background colour from.

2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Layout button near the top.

3. In the Paragraph Background section, click the colour well on the left, then click the swatch in the bottom-right corner with the diagonal line.

If selection handles appear around the text when you click it and the colour isn't removed, the text is in a text box. The colour may be a colour fill for the text box. See