How to Remove Highlights in Word: Formatted & Copied/Pasted Text

If you’re stuck wondering how to remove highlights in Word, especially those stubborn ones that just won’t go away, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Sometimes Word gets glitchy, or you might’ve used background color instead of real highlighting.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to fix it.

We’ll also cover a quick copy and paste highlight remover trick that actually works, and what to do when the Word highlight cannot be removed, no matter what you try. Let’s get into it.

How to remove highlights in Word?

1. Select the No color option for highlighting

1. Select the highlighted text.
   
2. Now click the Highlight icon in the toolbar. Next, choose No color.
   
3. After that, the highlight will be gone.

This is the proper way to remove a highlight in Word, but if it doesn’t work, feel free to try our other solutions.

2. Select the Clear Formatting option

NOTE

This solution works if the “highlighted” text has a background color assigned to it. It won’t remove the actual highlight, just the background color.

1. Select the highlighted text.
   
2. Next, click on the Clear all formatting icon.
   
3. After that, the highlighted text will be gone.

This isn’t the best method to remove highlight in Word, but it’s worth trying out.

3. Select No Color for background color

NOTE

This method will remove the background color that works as a highlight, not the actual highlight.

1. Select the shaded text that is seemingly highlighted.
2. Now choose the No Color option to remove the shading.
   
3. The highlight should now be removed.

4. Cut and paste the text back into the document

1. Select the highlighted text to copy and press Ctrl + C.
2. Press the Ctrl + X hotkey to cut the text from the document.
3. Then place the cursor at the position in the document where you need to paste the text.
4. Expand the Paste option and select the Paste Special option. Alternatively, you can use Ctrl + Alt + V shortcut.
    
5. Select the Unformatted Text option and click OK.
   

If you can’t remove highlighting in Word, pasting the unformatted text is a quick and simple workaround.

5. Adjust the default paste setting

1. Select the Home tab.
2. Click the arrow on the Paste button to select the Set Default Paste option.
   
3. Scroll down to the Cut, copy, and paste options.
4. Then select Keep Text Only on the Pasting within the same document drop-down menu. Lastly, click the OK button.
   

NOTE

This method is used to automate the steps from the previous solution, so you won’t have to manually select special paste every time.

What to do when you can’t remove highlight in Word

Even though the above-mentioned options usually work, if you’re still having trouble consider:

• Opening the document in Safe mode (press the Ctrl as you open it)
• While in the document, go to File> Info and if you see “Incompatibility Mode”, hit the “Convert” button
• Select and copy all text and paste it into a new Word document file and try to remove the highlights from there (might help if the doc has limited permissions)
• Try opening the doc with another word processor such as WPS Office and use its highlight removal tools

Now you should be able to remove highlights in Word hitch-free. If, on the other hand, you have trouble adding highlights to Word documents, or can’t edit Word document consider disabling the protected view.

Before you go, don’t miss our latest guide on how to add vertical text in Microsoft Word for more useful information. Other common Word issues include being unable to save your document, errors like “Word can’t do this because a dialog box is open”, or Word not opening at all on Windows 11.

Did you find a different solution that worked for you? If so, share it with us in the comments section below.