How to Highlight in Google Docs

Highlighting text in Google Docs is a simple yet powerful tool for emphasizing key information, organizing notes, or preparing your document for review. As one of the core features ofGoogle Docs, which boasts millions of users daily, mastering the highlighting function can greatly enhance your document management and editing efficiency.

Here, we’ll look into the steps to effectively use highlighting in Google Docs, from basic techniques to more advanced tips for collaborative projects.

If you want to highlight your text for quick access and are unaware of how to do this, then continue reading to learn how highlighting works in Google Docs. Well, you can highlight the text or phrases by following these easy steps mentioned below:

Step 1. Open Google Docs

Launch your web browser and open Google Docs, to open Google Docs in your web browser directly.

Step 2. Create a Document

After opening the Google Docs, if you do not want to use the existing one you can create a new document. Now make a new document by clicking on the blank document.

Step 3. Select a Text to Highlight

To highlight the required text, place the cursor in front of the text or phrase you want to highlight, and hold – drag the cursor to the end of the phrase to select it.

Step 4. Click on Pencil Icon and Choose a Colour

When your phrase is selected, go to the pencil-like icon provided in the toolbar. As you hover over the icon it will show the highlight color displayed. Click on the icon.

Step 5. Review the Highlighted Text

From the color panel, select your desired color or you can also use custom colors by clicking on the ‘+’ icon. And your phrase will be now highlighted.

Step 1. Select a Text to Highlight

To highlight the required text, place the cursor in front of the text or phrase you want to highlight, and hold – drag the cursor to the end of the phrase to select it.

Step 2. Click on the Pencil Icon and Choose a Custom Option

When your phrase is selected, go to the Pencil-like icon provided in the toolbar. As you hover over the icon it will show the highlight color displayed. Click on the icon. In the Panel click on Custom Option.

Step 3. Select Your Colour and Press OK

After clicking on custom a color panel will be displayed. You can now drag the icon given over the colors to create your color shade or edit the values directly in the given box just below it to create your color shade and press the OK button.

Step 4. Review the Highlighted Text

Your Selected text will get Highlighted. You can Preview the Changes.

Step 1. Download the Application

Download the Google Docs application from the desired app store or Play Store and install it.

Step 2. Open a Google Doc

Open the Google Docs application and open the document which can be a new blank document or an already existing document, click on the edit button at the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 3. Select the Text to Highlight

To highlight the text, double-tap on the word to select it and drag the blue handles to adjust the selection.

Step 4. Tap on Highlight Tool

Now after selecting the desired text or phrase, click on the highlight button just as above the keyboard displayed and then tap Highlight color at the bottom of the screen.

Step 5: Choose a Color

Color options will be provided, allowing you to select your desired color from the available choices. You can also highlight text based on priorities using different colors. The selected text will be highlighted with the chosen color.

To highlight your text in Google Docs you can also use the shortcut keys. There is a shortcut for highlighting in Windows as well as MAC OS.

1. Shortcut for Highlight in Google Docs on Windows: Press Ctrl+Alt+H and then first choose color.
2. Shortcut for Highlight in Google Docs on MAC OS: Press ⌘ (command)+Option+H to open the highlighter menu use the arrow keys and enter to select a color.

Step 1: Select the Highlighted Text

To remove highlights, first select the highlighted text by dragging the cursor using your mouse.

Step 2: Click on the Highlighter Tool

After selecting the text, go to the pencil icon at the top of the toolbar. As you hover over it it will show highlighter on it. Click on the Highlighter (pencil) icon.

Step 3: Select None

After clicking on the pencil icon the color panel will open. In the panel, there will be an option of None. Click on that to remove the highlight.

Highlighting text may help you to understand and easy to remember your notes, you can highlight text to mark your key points as well and you can also highlight the text in your online school notes so that you can easily remember the important points. All the steps for highlighting the text are so simple that anyone can do it by just selecting the text and clicking on the highlighter pen button. We learned to highlight in Google Docs on Desktop as well as on mobile and also learned the shortcut keys to highlight in Google Docs. Similarly, it is very simple to remove the highlighter from the highlighted phrase.

How do you highlight changes in Google Docs?

Yes, you can do so by selecting different colours according to your need and follow the above steps to do this. You can select colours based on priority also.

How do you highlight text in a column in Google Docs?

You can do the highlighting in the data of tables in the same way as discussed above that is by selecting the data and clicking on Pencil icon and selecting the highlighting color from panel.

What is the shortcut key for highlighting?

You can follow the below given shortcut to highlight the text:

Ctrl+shift+key arrows to select the text.

How do you highlight yellow text in Word?

Select the data and clicking on Pencil icon and selecting the Yellow color from the colour panel to highlight.