Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Changing Existing Highlighting.

Changing Existing Highlighting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 13, 2016)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Do you have a document that has lots of highlighting already applied in it? Do you want to change all that highlighting from the current color to a different color? If you answered yes to these questions, you can use the find and replace capabilities of Word to achieve the desired results. Follow these steps:

  1. Use the Highlight tool to specify the color you want as the "after" color; the one you want to change to. (Click the drop-down arrow at the right of the Highlight tool and select the color you want.)
  2. Press Ctrl+H to display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  4. With the insertion point in the Find What box, click Format | Highlight. (You may need to click the More button to see the Format button.)
  5. With the insertion point in the Replace With box, again click Format | Highlight.
  6. Click Replace All.

All of the highlighting in the document should change to whatever color you selected in step 1.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (328) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Changing Existing Highlighting.

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

Suppressing Headers or Footers

Don't want a header or footer to appear on just a portion of your document? It's easy to do when you understand that ...

Discover More

Disabling Dragging and Dropping

Excel allows you to easily paste information into a worksheet, including through simply dragging and dropping the ...

Discover More

Displaying Edits by Date

Track Changes is a great tool; it allows you to see what changes were made in a document and then determine whether you ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (menu)

Expanding Colors Available for Highlighting

Want more colors to use with the highlighter? You may be out of luck, unless you decide to use the approach illustrated ...

Discover More

Using the Highlighter

Need to draw attention to some text? Consider using the Highlight tool, which functions just like the highlighter pens ...

Discover More

Turning Off Highlighter Display

You can use the highlighter tool to add all sorts of color to your document. If you want to turn off those colors so that ...

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 eight more than 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


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.