How to Shade in Selected Text

Shaded text comes in handy when you want to highlight text but don't necessarily want to bold, underline or enlarge it. You don't have to stick with gray tones when shading. Thanks to the color options available in applications like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer and Microsoft Excel, you can use bright, vibrant colors. The shading is applied to the entire selection, whether it's a single letter, word, paragraph or page. You can also use shading in conjunction with other formatting options to emphasize the text even more.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Excel

Instructions

Microsoft Word

1. Select the text you want to shade on your page.

2. Click the "Home" tab and go to the "Font" group. Click the "Text Highlight Color" arrow to expand its options.

3. Click on the color you want to apply.

OpenOffice Writer

1. Select the text you want to format.

2. Click the "Highlighting" arrow to expand its options.

3. Click the color you want to apply.

Microsoft Excel

1. Highlight the cell or cells containing the text you want to shade.

2. Click the "Home" tab and go to the "Font" group. Click the arrow beside the "Fill Color" button to expand it.

3. Click the color you want to apply.

References

• Microsoft Office: Apply or Remove Highlighting
• "OpenOffice.org for Dummies"; Leete, et al.; 2003
• Microsoft Office: Change the Color of Text