Microsoft's Word software is a powerful tool that allows you to create robust and very rich documents. What many do not realize is that they can use very simple tools to accent important information in their documents when they share them with friends, colleagues and business associates.
Although this may sound like an advanced topic to discuss, this is actually a very easy task to accomplish. If you know how to drag and drop then you are already ahead of the game. It is as simple as clicking the left mouse button, dragging the cursor over the text you want to highlight and then letting go of the mouse button.
The first thing you need to do is make sure you can see Microsoft's formatting toolbar. This is important because it has the highlight button on there that we need in order to accomplish this task.
If you click on the “View” main menu item a submenu will appear. On this submenu you want to click the “Toolbars” submenu item. When you do this a third menu will appear. On that third menu you will see an item labeled “Formatting”. If you see a checkmark next to that item it means that toolbar is already on display on the screen. If there is no checkmark then click the word “Formatting” and the toolbar will now appear.
The formatting toolbar looks like the picture above. Specifically on this toolbar you are looking for the button that resembles the highlighter with the letters “ab” next to it.
The button you are looking for looks like this:
You now want to pick the color of your highlighter. You can do this by clicking the down arrow icon on this button. This will bring up the color chart. I have chosen a yellow highlighter however you can choose whatever color you would like. Just make sure you pick one that resembles something professional if you are in a business environment.
Now that you have chosen your color you are ready to highlight some text. Click the highlighter portion the of the toolbar button. In other words click the “ab” on the button. You will see your mouse pointer change to what looks like a highlighter pen. Then simply place the mouse cursor over the start of the text that you want highlighted, click the left mouse button and hold it down and then drag the mouse pointer over the remainder of the text. When you reach the end of the text you want highlighted release the mouse button.
You should now see your text highlighted in the color you have chosen. Now wasn't that simple? This ability gives you the power to point our important parts of your Word document to others that will read it without having to change the document in anyway.
