Remove stubborn shading/highlighting in Word when you copy a reference into your document

[@kevinmiller897]

NOTE: You can highlight the shaded text, then select Ctrl + Spacebar, but it changes your formatting. BETTER (will keep your formatting): (1) Highlight the entire shaded text EXCEPT the last letter or period; (2) Click the down arrow on the Shading icon (looks like a tipping paint can); (3) Select "No Color"; (4) Repeat steps 1, 2, & 3 for that final shaded letter or period.

[@oliverdylan]

Finally, someone showing how it is actually done. Been looking for this for ages. Thanks!

[@andrewdawson5188]

Superb - thanks so much. Once done, select some text and then right click on the aassociated style in the Style tab (or "styles gallery") and click on "Update to match selection" (or whatever style your paragraph is in). Then, right click on the same style again, and select "New documents base on this template" and then "OK". This will stop the enforced shading happening again on new documents.

[@TechHuntingWithAk]

Thanks so much for your comment, and a big thank you to the person who posted the solution! Both of you really helped ease my frustration. I appreciate it!

[@donc1193]

Outstanding. I had a very persistent very light grey (html FAF9F8). I was climbing the walls trying to think of all the different ways to color/shade/highlight text in Word. Thanks, Kevin!

[@MikeMyers00]

I struggled with this for half an hour on my Mac, and as you showed, nothing obvious worked. Thank you for posting your "trick" to fix this - I will remember it for the future. As for me, I got disgusted, copied the long paragraph into a text editor, which got rid of the shading, then copied that and pasted it back into Word. Success, but as you showed, I lost other formatting by doing it this way. Not sure how you found your solution - but it's certainly better than what I did. Thanks for sharing the video.

[@glendahaskins5309]

This is AWESOME!!! So many thanks!! I have been trying to remove shading someone else did and I COULD NOT GET IT OFF!!! This worked perfectly!! You are the BEST!

[@alisonsmith2568]

Thanks for the help! This has caused me trouble for years. Yours is the best solution I have seen.

[@kamiswinner6090]

You saved my life!! I looked and looked until I had a headache. Thank you so much.

[@tinyikosikhosana1310]

Thank you. You have saved me days of work recreating from scratch.

[@TechHuntingWithAk]

I don’t usually leave comments, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for easing my frustration.

[@ranckie5055]

Excellent video. I, like others, have been searching for that solution for a long time. I went to the end of my text just outside the period, and jumped over just the period and did what you said, and the shading disappeared. I then went back and did the same to the period (and you really couldn't even see the shading on it) and did the same and bam, no more shading. Thank you so much.

[@michellelihou3129]

Dear Kevin Miller. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have hundreds of pages of custom formatted pages that I have now fixed thanks to you.😘

[@tanp1475]

That worked, thanks!!! I have been looking for this fix for months.

[@DJMUZIKAL]

Thanks a million. I was trying to do this for years and after watching your video, it worked finally. Wow.

[@ziggygraham6427]

god bless you for this oh my god could never find a straightforward answer anywhere

[@jamespatrick1253]

You the man. The shading thing worked. Thank you.

[@c.s.8693]

Thank you, very helpful. You can do the whole section, after you highlight the whole or majority of the selected text use Shift+forward or Shift+backward arrow(s) to move the highlight better in case you do not feel comfortable using the mouse/pad for that last letter. I tried to do an entire page, but it did not work; it only worked for individual paragraphs.

[@king161821]

Thank you so much! This is the answer I've been searching for!

[@ashikurrahman7863]

Thanks a lot, Miller! I had Suffer many times for that.

[@janesmith506]

Thank you! This was driving me batty. I never would have figured out that you have to limit yourself to shaded areas. Microsoft is the master of fiendish torture!

[@Dear_Avel]

thank you, mister. you're a lifesaver.

[@OksanaZ-r3o]

Thank you!! OMG you figured this out. Such an annoying glitch.

[@1066haste]

Heartfelt thanks, Kevin Miller. I've been trying in vain for years to solve this.

[@kennethdy5650]

That extra highlighted bit beyond the period/full-stop mark "." is highlighting the paragraph marker "¶". You won't see that marker unless you turn the formatting symbols on (shortcut is ctrl+shift+8). Word automatically highlights it, especially when you start highlighting from the end of the paragraph. You should start at the beginning of the paragraph, that way you can control the highlighting better. I suggest using the keyboard to highlight instead of the mouse. Aside: This automatic highlighting that Word does is also key to other formatting conundrums in Word. Turning on the formatting symbols reveals many things that can be useful during layout/typesetting.

[@kevinmiller897]

Kenneth, thanks for making sense of this. Knowing that the paragraph mark is unknowningly being highlighted really does unpack this conundrum! Your explanation moves beyond the blind luck I used in solving this problem. -- Kevin

[@cristianrodriguez764]

I love you Kev♥️ I’m your biggest fan 🤪

[@mirekprchal9676]

You can apply it for whole docomumet, just follow this steps for one paragraph. Then refresh formating for one of your styles and it should work. Just make sure you are using right style. It worked for me.

[@thehumaneguy8098]

Thank you i was having this problem for so long thank you for providing the solution.

[@EricJBowden]

You solved the problem!!! My grey shading was stuck in a Heading style; which replicated throughout my document and made it harder to resolve. I was about to scorched earth and move everything to a new document.

[@arthuredwards5747]

Brilliant work around, so many thanks for resolving this frustration.

[@sarahcheriton-jones7878]

Thanks. Was driving me nuts!

[@najwanmukadam9088]

Thank you it's helpful.😍

[@growqueen]

Thank you last tip worked😊

[@tammyrules2000]

OMG, it worked, thank you sooooo much!

[@kathyjames8364]

You are a lifesaver thank you for a useful video.

[@AlonzoMickens]

Sick vid kev

[@jaguarryankelly]

Figured it out! Highlight the entire area, copy, and then paste "text only" or "value only" as that will NOT paste in the formatting that is stuck.

[@rsgeringer]

Thank you! This was bugging the crap out of me.

[@hydrogen1562]

THANK YOU LIFE SAVER WORKED FOR ME

[@cherylsprows7490]

I cut the shadowed text out of the Word document and paste it again and click "merge formatting" and it has the same text and the rest of the document! Or when pasting from another source make sure you click "Merge Formatting"

[@pinkysom6966]

Thankyou Mr Miller the trick worked.

[@rossbell1836]

Great vid thumbs up❤

[@ParanormalShortStory]

Thank you for this - it's great!!

[@Myzticmotivation]

Thank you so much!

[@alexanderschoolsmartyoga606]

I closed my document and it said that I had a comment that needed to be posted. Did I want to post it. I said no and the highlighting disappeared. Just prior to that I had copied all the text into notebook and then opened a new word document and copied and pasted the text into that. Really annioying!

[@galomclacias4240]

hy it worked for me and thanks.

[@cbf_imran]

This was helpful... Thanks alot🤝

[@fuongbregas]

To prevent highlighting text with the extra space at the end: File/Options/Advanced and uncheck Use smart paragraph selection. That thing is not smart at all.

[@koshow1490]

absolute legend

[@anuththara]

This is very use for me thank you sooo much to you

[@navinpujara7481]

Thanks man

[@shannonshorizon684]

Thank you

[@darrenlsapp]

A quick version is to copy a correct section and use the paint format feature.

[@relaxingmusicandjazzsongs]

thanks for help me

[@belmirsara1750]

Thank you sooooo much

[@rahulsingh-cn7dv]

Thankyou so much !!!!

[@RachelleAquarius]

Thank you!

[@tanjastanojevic2514]

Thank you so much

[@jathomas9928]

So, you can't just select all and change it all in one go? Daft!

[@wolfiemcgregor1071]

Disappointed with such small print. Elderly persons, like myself cannot read it even wearing spectacles. This includes the pictures. I seeing this many other videos. It needs attention

[@jaguarryankelly]

control, shift, V......that's how to paste withouth any formatting

[@kara061000]

Ok. Great. I have another trick about that: if you pasted your text from PowerPoint and have half-page shading on your Word pages, then you need to remove the header to get rid of that shading color. Hope this is helpfull for someone. Thank you.

[@arh7303]

Thank you!

[@davidwatson6453]

thank you very much

[@donovangebert7003]

thank you