background color

[Stephen]

Hi,

I'm using the Word that comes with Vista (I'm not really sure what version
it is, as I haven't figured out how to get it in "help" where I always did
before).

A friend sent me a doc in Word 2003. It has a light blue background only
where the text is and I can't seem to get it out.

I've gone into Page Layout, Page Background and clicked both the box for
white and also "No color" and I've even tried "Remove watermark." Nothing
works. Hopefully someone has another suggestion.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Take care,

Stephen

 

[grammatim]

Sounds like maybe Highlighting is applied to the whole text? (I don't
know how to get at it except by a Toolbar button. It's not in Format |
Font in 2003.)

 

[Tony Jollans]

Versions prior to 2007 did not have the capacity for coloured page
backgrounds (except for web pages).

What you have sounds like shading. It may be paragraph shading (the whole
text area including space between lines and at the ends of lines, is shaded)
or text shading (just the text itself is shaded).

The Format > Borders and Shading Dialog is the place to reset it and this is
not easily discoverable in Word 2007.

Firstly. select all the text (Ctrl+A).

On the Home tab of the Ribbon, in the Paragraph Group, the icon at the right
hand end of the second row may have a grid icon on it (for borders) or may
have a page icon on it (for shading). Whatever the icon, click on the
dropdown arrow to the right of it and select "Borders and Shading" right at
the bottom of the menu. You might find it quicker to use the old shortcut of
Alt+O,B

In the Dialog, select the Shading tab. You may have to change the dropdown
at the bottom right of the dialog from Paragraph to Text or vice-versa to
find out exactly what shading has been applied and remove it.