Highlight button shows blue. Text gets highlighted yellow

[pw9571]

Recently my Highlight button started acting weird.

For example, after I've highlighted text in blue, the Highlight button
on the toolbar shows a blue color.

Later when I go to highlight other text, I select it, then click on
the HIghlight button (which still shows blue.) However, the text gets
highlighted in yellow.

I can go up to the Highlight button and re-select blue (or any other
color) but that works only for the current highlighting, not for
future highlightings.

It used to be that whatever color was showing in the Highlight button,
that's the color of the highlighting. But now everything gets colored
yellow regardless of what the Highlight button shows, until I manually
select the alternate color again.

Any ideas?

Pauline

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Pauline -

First thing to try - click the arrow button at the right end of the toolbar
& select Reset. If that doesn't fix it go to the same button but click the
Customize Toolbars option. Then on the Toolbars page of the dialog click the
*name* of the Formatting toolbar, click Reset, click OK. If you still have
problems with it post back - there are other possiblities.

 

[pw9571]

OK, I reset in both places, but that didn't help.

In fact, now everything I type is highlighted in yellow, and the
Highlight button (still showing blue color) wasn't even pressed in.

I had to manually go in and remove highlighting from the new text.

Pauline

 

[pw9571]

OK, I reset in both places, but that didn't help.

In fact, now everything I type is highlighted in yellow, and the
Highlight button (still showing blue color) wasn't even pressed in.

I had to manually go in and remove highlighting from the new text.

Pauline

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Pauline:

These things can be confusing. I THINK what you are seeing is a yellow
background, not a highlight (different "property").

First: Which formatting Style are you using? (If you don't know, chances
are it's Normal).

Try: Format>Style>Modify>Format>Border>Shading... And make sure it's not
enabled in there.

Also: Formatting is stored in the paragraph mark. Make sure your paragraph
marks are revealed (click the Show/Hide button ¶ ). Make sure the paragraph
mark is selected when you use Clear>Clear Formats and the highlighting
should stop from here.

Cheers

OK, I reset in both places, but that didn't help.

In fact, now everything I type is highlighted in yellow, and the
Highlight button (still showing blue color) wasn't even pressed in.

I had to manually go in and remove highlighting from the new text.

Pauline

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[pw9571]

Thanks, John, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm in a normal
style, with no background. I'm pretty sure it's the Highlight button
on the toolbar, since I can type text that's not highlighted, once I
select No highlighting.

The problem is that the default color is always yellow, regardless of
which color is displayed on the Highlight button.

I'm in the middle of a writing project right now, and don't want to
mess with the Word program for a couple of days. But do you think
that trashing the Normal template and making a new one will help?

Pauline

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Pauline:

No: If you're sure that it's the Highlight mechanism that's playing up, that
will be in your Preferences.

See here for a procedure to remove them.

http://word.mvps.org/mac/damagedprefs.html

Word will re-create them when it restarts.

Cheers

Thanks, John, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm in a normal
style, with no background. I'm pretty sure it's the Highlight button
on the toolbar, since I can type text that's not highlighted, once I
select No highlighting.

The problem is that the default color is always yellow, regardless of
which color is displayed on the Highlight button.

I'm in the middle of a writing project right now, and don't want to
mess with the Word program for a couple of days. But do you think
that trashing the Normal template and making a new one will help?

Pauline

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[pw9571]

Thanks, John.

I'll try that tomorrow, after I'm done with the presentation that I'm
working on.

I suppose I'll be losing all my macros in the process? (sigh. . . )

Pauline

 

[CyberTaz]

Not at all - macros aren't stored in prefs. What you may have to do is reset
changes you've made in Word>Preferences & other settings.

Out of curiosity, do you have any utilities or other "haxies" that modify OS
X/Office behaviors or features? Behavior of the Highlighter is rather
unusual.
--
Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Thanks, John.

I'll try that tomorrow, after I'm done with the presentation that I'm
working on.

I suppose I'll be losing all my macros in the process? (sigh. . . )

Pauline

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Addendum on where which customizations are stored:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/BackUpPrefs.html

 

[pw9571]

Thanks, Daya. And thanks CyberTaz and John, for your advice.

Replacing the Preferences files didn't help, but recreating the Normal
template seems to have done the trick. Now highlighting works as it
is supposed to.

I still have the old Normal template on my desktop.

Can someone tell me how to copy my macros into the new Normal template/
new prefs?

Thanks.

Pauline

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thanks, Daya. And thanks CyberTaz and John, for your advice.

Replacing the Preferences files didn't help, but recreating the Normal
template seems to have done the trick. Now highlighting works as it
is supposed to.

I still have the old Normal template on my desktop.

Can someone tell me how to copy my macros into the new Normal template/
new prefs?

Tools » Macro » Macros....
choose organizer
close the left side document (your normal should be in the right hand
window)
Open your old normal in the left window
select the project(s) in there, and hit copy

Don't be dismayed if all you see is something called "New Macros". All
your macros will be in that project.

Hop into macros... » edit to confirm that everything is in your new
normal.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

See here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/RestoreCustomization.html

Although, you could also try this. Rename Normal something else, and
copy it into Word's Startup folder.
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Startup/Word/

This will make it a global template, and the macros should be available
in all documents, and not subject to corrupting again. Except I'm not
entirely sure whether putting a corrupt Normal as a global template will
cause a problem--since the global template is never used to *create*
documents, it might be okay.

 

[pw9571]

Thank you, thank you Elliott!

Pauline

Tools » Macro » Macros....
choose organizer
close the left side document (your normal should be in the right hand
window)
Open your old normal in the left window
select the project(s) in there, and hit copy

Don't be dismayed if all you see is something called "New Macros". All
your macros will be in that project.

Hop into macros... » edit to confirm that everything is in your new
normal.

 

[pw9571]

That's an interesting concept. Not sure if I want to risk it right
now, but might try that some time just to see what happens.

Thanks for your input.

Pauline