Adding a Little Color

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 14, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

There may be times when you want your text to appear in different colors. This is particularly helpful for emphasis or for use with a color printer. A very easy way to do this is to use the Font Color tool on the toolbar. If you want, you can make the process even easier by creating your own tool that assigns a single specific color to text. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Customize from the Tools menu. Word displays the Customize dialog box.
  2. Click on the Commands tab.
  3. Select the All Commands option in the list of Categories. This displays all the Word commands available. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.

  5. In the Commands list, choose Color. A Color drop-down list appears near the bottom of the dialog box.
  6. Choose the color you want to use from the Color drop-down list.
  7. In Step 4 you selected the Color option from the Commands list. Click on that option again and drag it to a toolbar (for instance, to the right of the Underline tool on the Formatting toolbar). When you release the mouse button, the new tool appears on the toolbar.
  8. Click on Close to close the Toolbars dialog box.

Now you can select any text desired and then click on the new toolbar button to assign the color to the text.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (258) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sharing Your Workbook

Need to allow others to contribute to your Excel workbook? It's easy to do if you just share it. This tip provides an ...

Discover More

Solving Simultaneous Equations

One branch of mathematics allows you to work with what are called "simultaneous equations." Working with this type of ...

Discover More

Out of Memory Errors when Accessing the VBA Editor

It can be frustrating when you get error messages doing something that you previously did with no errors. If you get an ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Quickly Decreasing Point Size

A shortcut for decreasing the point size of a font.

Discover More

Adjusting the Width of Characters

Need to adjust how your characters look horizontally? Word provides an easy way you can scale the horizontal appearance ...

Discover More

Engraving Text

Word allows you to format your text in a number of different ways. One rather esoteric way to format your text is by ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 0 + 6?

2015-07-28 12:47:28

Joanne

How do I do this in Word 2010???


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.