I Can’t Remove Highlighting In Word Help! – How To Fix?

Highlighting a sentence in Microsoft Word is extremely easy. The feature is present in the ribbon and with a simple click and drag one can highlight any part of the text document. Similarly, the process to remove it is as simple.

However, some users seem to face difficulty removing highlighting in Word. If you also can’t remove highlighting in Word, then don’t worry as in this article I have discussed how to get rid of highlight on Word.

Also read: Can’t Edit Word Document! – How To Fix ?

How To Remove Highlight In Word?

Removing highlight from a text in Word is a simple process. If you are unfamiliar with how to do it, then here are the steps (the following steps are for Office 365 but it should be similar for other MS Office versions):

1. Open the document in Word and select the entire highlighted text or a segment of the highlighted text. The mini toolbar should appear beside it.
2. Click on the Highlight icon in the ribbon menu. The highlighting should get removed from the text.
3. If the mini toolbar does not appear, then select the Highlight icon from the Font section in the Home tab.

This is how to get rid of highlight on Word. If after following the above steps the highlighted part does not get removed, then try the solutions mentioned below.

What To Do When You Can’t Remove Highlighting In Word?

Highlighting is generally easy to remove, however, Word can sometimes bug out and not remove the highlighting. Other than bugs, there are other factors that may prevent the user from removing the highlighting, like formatted text. Here I have discussed some methods that you can try in order to remove the highlighting in Word.

Solution 1: Use The Clear Formatting Feature

What you are considering as highlighted text may not be so. The text can be simply shaded, or some other formatting may be applied to it, which makes it look highlighted. In such a scenario, using the Highlight icon, as mentioned above, will only apply a double layer of highlighting. You will have to clear the formatting of the text to remove the highlight. To do it, follow the steps given below:

1. Open the document in Word and select the entire highlighted text or a segment of the highlighted text.
2. Press the Ctrl + Spacebar shortcut after selecting the highlighted text to clear the text formatting. If Ctrl + Spacebar does not work, try using the Ctrl + Q shortcut for clearing paragraph formatting.

Tip: Ctrl + Spacebar only removes the text formatting and cannot remove any formatting applied on the Style texts, like headers, which requires the Ctrl + Q shortcut. You can also use the Clear All Formatting icon (‘A’ with eraser) in the Font section of the Home tab.

If the highlighting gets removed after following the above steps, then it was not actually highlighted but rather formatted to look like one. If the text remains highlighted, try using the above-mentioned steps for removing the highlight. This is a safety measure in case the text was highlighted over the formatting.

However, if still the Microsoft Word highlighting won’t go away, then try the next solution.

Solution 2: Try Selecting No Colors For Shading

Theme shades look identical to highlighting. There is a possibility that the text has a theme shader applied to it, rather than actually highlighted. Generally, using the Clear Format feature the theme shading applied to the text can be removed. However, there is also a possibility that it may not work and rather requires manual removal of the theme shading.

Try changing the Theme shading color of the highlighted text to No Color and see whether the issue gets solved. To do it, follow the steps given below:

1. Open the Word document and select the highlighted text.
2. Click on the Home tab in the ribbon menu and select the down arrow icon beside the Shading icon (paint bucket with paint spilling on the right side) in the Paragraph section. The shading color menu will appear.
3. Click on the No Color option in the Shading menu.

If still Microsoft Word highlighting won’t go away, then try the workaround mentioned in the next solution.

Solution 3: Cut The Highlighted Text And Paste It Unformatted

if the above solutions don’t work, you can try pasting the same text unformatted. This may not be a way to remove the highlighting, but it should get the issue solved. To cut the highlighted text and past it unformatted, follow the steps given below:

1. Select the highlighted text and press the Ctrl + X keys to cut it.
2. Now, keeping the Insertion point in the vacated space of the earlier highlighted text, click on the down arrow icon below the Paste option located in the Home tab. A small menu will appear.
3. Select the Paste Special option from the menu. The Paste Special prompt will appear on your screen.
4. Select the Unformatted text option from the Paste Special prompt and click on the OK option. The cut text will be pasted without its applied format.

Wrapping Up

So, there you have it. Now you know how to remove highlight in Word and what to do if you can’t remove highlighting in Word. If you have any questions regarding this topic, ask them in the comment section below.