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How to change the highlight color for text

2009-03-02 02:36 PM iPhotoBeginner | Intermediate | General Mac
Nicole asked a good question in her recent comment:

Hi Pat,

This is an older post but hopefully you may get this: I see in this post you say that the default for TextEdit's highlighting color for the Find function is yellow.

Well, when I restore to default the color I get is this almost invisible pale blue-gray. Which makes "finding" tend to involve lots of squinting and hunching and glaring at my page. Why won't the default color yellow work as my Find default? I'm on a MacBook 10.4, if that helps.
Nicole asked a good question in her recent comment:

Hi Pat,

This is an older post but hopefully you may get this: I see in this post you say that the default for TextEdit's highlighting color for the Find function is yellow.

Well, when I restore to default the color I get is this almost invisible pale blue-gray. Which makes "finding" tend to involve lots of squinting and hunching and glaring at my page. Why won't the default color yellow work as my Find default? I'm on a MacBook 10.4, if that helps.

Oh, and by the way I'm writing you from Vienna, VA! So Happy Snow Day to you!

We have had very little snow in the Washington DC area in the past few years, so many of us are loving our cold snowy day!

Nicole’s question is a good one. Many people would love to change that pale blue color to something more visible. In fact, it is one of the first customizations that I make to my computer.

The highlighting color for text is set in System Preferences > Text. You can also click the System Preference icon if it is your dock.

System Preferences

Open the preference for Appearance:

System Preferences2

Click on the button for Highlight Color:

Appearance1

In the pop-up menu, choose Other…:

System Preferences3

This the the System Color Picker. There are lots of methods to deal with color, but the crayon box is probably the most straight-forward. Choose whatever color you prefer and then close the window.

System Preferences Color.png

Now, you can have a color that is easy to see!

Nicole, thanks for asking!

--Pat


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