Word 2007 Highlighting Color Too Pale

[George Jetsam]

I'm a new user of Word 2007 (on XP) and my eyesight isn't too great. The
color used for highlighting selected text is all but invisible and I'd like
to be able to adjust it to something more dramatic--a brighter color or
inverse/negative effect.

I've tried changing the theme within Word, and I've tried changing the
highlighting color through the "Appearance" (Advanced) control panel, and
these have no effect on Word 2007's highlight color. Any advice much
appreciated.

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

I wonder if you are using the shading tool instead of the highlight tool.
The highlight tool is in the font group of the home ribbon. There are only 12
colors available, but the first few are quite bright.

(The shading tool in in the paragraph group. It has many, many more colors,
but most of the ones first presented are subtle.)

PamC

 

[Gordon Bentley-Mix at news.microsoft.com]

Pam,

I think George is talking about the _selection_ highlighting - that is, the
colour that's applied to content when it's selected using the mouse or
Shift/Ctrl+an Arrow key, etc.

I can understand your complaint George; I think the selection highlighting
in Word 2007 is a bit too dim myself, and my eyesight is actually pretty
good. However, I don't know if there's any way to change it, and I don't have
access to my Word 2007 machine at the moment to investigate. I'll check later
today and post back if I find anything.
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup.

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[George Jetsam]

Yes, Pam has it right. I'm just talking about the color Word applies over
selected text to indicate it has been selected. When editing documents of any
complexity, it's nearly impossible to tell what is selected before performing
an edit. If the contrast or intensity o that color could be changed, it would
make things a lot easier.

 

[George Jetsam]

HA! I should read more carefully, too. GORDON is right. PAM is mistaken in
her understanding of my question. It's just the color Word uses to indicate
selected text that I'm looking to change.

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

In that case, have you checked out the accessibility options in Windows. I
tried a couple of the high contrast settings? In one of them, the select
color became black and the type color was reversed. There seems to be quite
a few variations.

PamC

HA! I should read more carefully, too. GORDON is right. PAM is mistaken in
her understanding of my question. It's just the color Word uses to indicate
selected text that I'm looking to change.

Yes, Pam has it right. I'm just talking about the color Word applies over
selected text to indicate it has been selected. When editing documents of any

[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]

 

[George Jetsam]

Yow! Some of those settings will knock your eye out!

Really, though, I have no problem with the selection colors for, say,
NotePad or WordPad, just the absurdly light default settings on Word. I
suppose I could switch back and forth if I have to, but if there's some way
to just make the selection highlight visible in Word, I could do without the
high-contrast settings.