Place a Color Background behind Paragraphs

In Word, one way to make a paragraph stand out is to place a color background behind it. For this, you can use the Shading button on the Home tab.

When you click the Shading button, a color gallery appears. Word has divided the gallery into three sections: Theme Colors, Standard Colors, and More Colors.

Theme Colors are a set of colors for use throughout a document or set of documents. They give your documents a consistent look and feel. If you assign a Theme Color, when you change your theme, the color will change.

Standard colors are a set of popular colors that appear on the color menu. When you change your theme, Standard colors will not change.

More Colors is a menu option that opens the Colors dialog box. You can use the Colors dialog box to apply virtually any color. When you change your theme, colors you apply by way of the More Colors menu option will not change. If you use the More Colors option, you can choose the Standard tab to click on a color to select it, or you can choose the Custom tab to select a color by using the RGB or HSL method. To learn more about the More Colors option, see Lesson 2: Learn About Colors.

Create a Color Background for a Paragraph

1. Place the insertion point in the paragraph to which you want to add a background color, or select the paragraphs to which you want to add a background color.
2. Choose the Home tab.
3. Click the down-arrow next to the Shading button  in the Paragraph group and then click to select the color you want, or click More Colors to open the Colors dialog box and choose a color.

How do I remove a color background from a paragraph?

Place the insertion point in the paragraph from which you want to remove a background color, or select the paragraphs from which you want to remove a background color. Click the down-arrow next to the Shading button in the Paragraph group and then click No Color. Word removes the background color.

Note

If you are using Automatic—the default color—and you change the paragraph background to a dark color, Word may change the text color to a light color.