Change color of "selected" (highlighted) text in Word 2008 for Mac

[Eric74]

Word now uses a light blue, which I find hard to see against the white
background. Can this color be changed?

Thanks.

[pjon...@officeformac.com]

As far as I know there is no way. I don't know why the change. In Office 2004 they were black which is much more readable.

[CyberTaz]

There's no option in Word -- It's controlled by the OS X System Preferences
for Appearance which you can change to whatever you want.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 5/16/10 12:35 PM, in article
3C17CEA6-6435-43B0...@microsoft.com, "Eric74"

[Eric74]

"Selected" text is in a light blue color, which is difficult to see against
the white background. Is there any way to change this color to a different
color which is more easily visible?

Thanks.

[Rob Schneider]

Previously answered. See the thread you started 16/05/10 17:35.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

[Patty Winter]

In article <C8DBE7F3-D00C-4490...@microsoft.com>,

Hmmm, Bob already answered your question earlier today, but if you
really did miss it, he explained that you set this from Mac OS X
System Preferences. Specifically, go into the Appearance window and
choose a color from the Highlight Color list. (The bottom entry on
the list is "Other," where you can choose your own color from all
of the usual OS X color options.)

I, too, found the default blue a bit hard to see and switched to
Purple some time ago.

Patty

[zedsdea...@gmail.com]

I found this by accident (Word for Mac, 2016). I had a difficult time with this as well both alone and with MS support staff. What I found on my own (and believe me I am not terribly techinical) was a thread on changing the colour of the 'page' in the 'design' tab. From here I chose a very light grey colour which changed the colour of the text highlight function. Here is where I got the idea: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Change-the-background-or-color-of-a-document-6ce0b23e-b833-4421-b8c3-b3d637e62524

[mikego...@gmail.com]

> > Word now uses. a light blue, which I find hard to see against the white

> > background. Can this color be changed?

Thanks all those who replied, as I was hunting for solutions :)

I have checked and both 'MacOS system highlight' and 'Microsoft Word page color' solutions are valid. However changing page color is not desirable as this value is save in the document and applies only to the Page View. The system option requires Word to restart, which makes initial testing of colors tiresome but is a more coherent use of MacOS features.

More importantly, the highlight color needs to be more visible when in Accessibility high-contrast mode - which is great for distraction free or nighttime writing. Word for Mac 2016 has a Focus Mode but it requires an Office 365 Subscription. Without this, a distraction free, "night mode" can be achieved by setting Word in Fullscreen, hiding its ribbons and using system Accessibility features (Display > Invert + Grayscale + Differentiate + Increase contrast + Display contrast up a notch).

Finding the right highlight color is tricky as text color does not always invert, and Word for Mac appears to overlay a shade of the system highlight color. So when in high-contrast mode a system highlight color that was good for the system was not clear enough in Word, and when it was clear enough for Word it was too strong for the system. For example, "Graphite" (#d8d8dc, ~85% gray) was too light in night-mode. And with "Other..." set to 50% gray, in normal mode this was too dark for the system but ok in Word, and vice versa in night mode. Therefore I would suggest setting the system highlight color to 66% gray, which gives an equal perceptual weight of highlight in both normal and night mode.

All the best,
Mike


As mentioned by Patty, to change MacOS system highlight:

> from Mac OS X System Preferences.
> Specifically, go into the Appearance window and
> choose a color from the Highlight Color list. (The bottom entry on
> the list is "Other," where you can choose your own color from all
> of the usual OS X color options.)

As mentioned by Zedsdea, adjust the highlight in Word by changing the page color: