Font highlight color

Text in a Word document can be “highlighted” with a number of colors, providing text background color. The visual effect is similar to that produced using a highlighter (often fluorescent yellow) on a printed page.

Protocol

Text is highlighted by assigning a member of WD_COLOR_INDEX to Font.highlight_color.

>>> font = paragraph.add_run().font
>>> font.highlight_color
None
>>> font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.YELLOW
>>> font.highlight_color
YELLOW (7)
>>> font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.TURQUOISE
>>> font.highlight_color
TURQUOISE (3)
>>> font.highlight_color = None
>>> font.highlight_color
None

Enumerations

• WdColorIndex Enumeration on MSDN

XML Semantics

Mapping of WD_COLOR_INDEX members to ST_Highlight values:

AUTO = 'default'
BLACK = 'black'
BLUE = 'blue'
BRIGHTGREEN = 'green'
DARKBLUE = 'darkBlue'
DARKRED = 'darkRed'
DARKYELLOW = 'darkYellow'
GRAY25 = 'lightGray'
GRAY50 = 'darkGray'
GREEN = 'darkGreen'
PINK = 'magenta'
RED = 'red'
TEAL = 'darkCyan'
TURQUOISE = 'cyan'
VOILET = 'darkMagenta'
WHITE = 'white'
YELLOW = 'yellow'

Specimen XML

Baseline run:

<w:r>
  <w:t>Black text on white background</w:t>
</w:r>

Blue text, Bright Green Highlight:

<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:highlight w:val="green"/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Blue text on bright green background</w:t>
</w:r>

Red text, Green Highlight:

<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:highlight w:val="darkGreen"/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Red text on green background</w:t>
</w:r>

Schema excerpt

According to the schema, run properties may appear in any order and may appear multiple times each. Not sure what the semantics of that would be or why one would want to do it, but something to note. Word seems to place them in the order below when it writes the file.:

<xsd:complexType name="CT_RPr">  <!-- denormalized -->
  <xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
      <xsd:element name="rStyle"          type="CT_String"/>
      <xsd:element name="rFonts"          type="CT_Fonts"/>
      <xsd:element name="b"               type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="bCs"             type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="i"               type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="iCs"             type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="caps"            type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="smallCaps"       type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="strike"          type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="dstrike"         type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="outline"         type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="shadow"          type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="emboss"          type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="imprint"         type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="noProof"         type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="snapToGrid"      type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="vanish"          type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="webHidden"       type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="color"           type="CT_Color"/>
      <xsd:element name="spacing"         type="CT_SignedTwipsMeasure"/>
      <xsd:element name="w"               type="CT_TextScale"/>
      <xsd:element name="kern"            type="CT_HpsMeasure"/>
      <xsd:element name="position"        type="CT_SignedHpsMeasure"/>
      <xsd:element name="sz"              type="CT_HpsMeasure"/>
      <xsd:element name="szCs"            type="CT_HpsMeasure"/>
      <xsd:element name="highlight"       type="CT_Highlight"/>
      <xsd:element name="u"               type="CT_Underline"/>
      <xsd:element name="effect"          type="CT_TextEffect"/>
      <xsd:element name="bdr"             type="CT_Border"/>
      <xsd:element name="shd"             type="CT_Shd"/>
      <xsd:element name="fitText"         type="CT_FitText"/>
      <xsd:element name="vertAlign"       type="CT_VerticalAlignRun"/>
      <xsd:element name="rtl"             type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="cs"              type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="em"              type="CT_Em"/>
      <xsd:element name="lang"            type="CT_Language"/>
      <xsd:element name="eastAsianLayout" type="CT_EastAsianLayout"/>
      <xsd:element name="specVanish"      type="CT_OnOff"/>
      <xsd:element name="oMath"           type="CT_OnOff"/>
    </xsd:choice>
    <xsd:element name="rPrChange" type="CT_RPrChange" minOccurs="0"/>
  </xsd:sequence>
</xsd:group>

<!-- complex types -->

<xsd:complexType name="CT_Highlight">
  <xsd:attribute name="val" type="ST_Highlight" use="required"/>
</xsd:complexType>

<!-- simple types -->

<xsd:simpleType name="ST_Highlight">
  <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
    <xsd:enumeration value="default"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="black"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="blue"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="green"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkBlue"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkRed"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkYellow"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="lightGray"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkGray"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkGreen"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="magenta"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="red"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkCyan"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="cyan"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="darkMagenta"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="white"/>
    <xsd:enumeration value="yellow"/>
  </xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>