Download HILITE.ZIP (09/17/09; 85,126 bytes)

Compatible with WordPerfect 8 and later versions

WordPerfect 11 users: See important information about using macros in the first release of WP11 (11.0.0.233) at the top of this page.

Downloading, Documentation, Modifications, and Support

This macro immediately applies any one of several user-chosen highlight colors to one or more selected blocks of text, then returns the highlighting color back to the program's default of bright yellow (or any other user-preferred default color). This allows "marking up" many different selections of text as easily as using a highlighter pen on a paper document.

Basically, you need only play the macro, choose a color (the default is green if you don't choose anything), select some text (which immediately becomes highlighted), select some more text (which becomes highlighted), and so forth. When finished, click on "Done" or if you are in a document, press <Esc>. The highlight color you use as program default (e.g., yellow) will be restored as the macro exits.

Screen shot of HiLite.

There is also a selection on the menu, "Remove All HL," that will remove all existing highlighting in the document. This option is available in case you wish to remove just the existing highlighting in one operation. (A warning message is given so that you can confirm this choice.)

As noted, when you play it you can continually select various words or several blocks of text and the selections are highlighted almost instantly. You can change colors any time for different purposes, and you can even switch among open documents to highlight them, too!

Finally, be aware that the first thing this macro does is attempt to detect any codes inserted by the new WordPerfect X4 (and later version) Redaction Tool, whose formatting codes are a version of normal [Highlight] codes. Since applying normal highlighting—such as used by this macro—in the vicinity of redaction codes can be problematic, this macro pops a simple warning message that the redaction codes are present. [For more information on the redaction tool issue, see "WPX4 - Some cautions and tips when using the Redaction tool" at http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?postid=183143#post183143 or the PDF version here]

For instructions, tips, and notes, see the top of the macro's code. You can view them with Tools, Macro, Edit.

Download HILITE.ZIP (full suite)

Highlight words or short phrases (63 characters or fewer) in a document based on a master list of words contained in a separate document or entered via a pop up menu. (New in version 1.4: An option on the first menu allows choosing from one of 10 highlight colors.)

Screen shot of HiLiteDoc.

One of the options in HiLiteDoc ("Automatic - Use words in a separate file") requires a separate user-created WP document containing search words. Please see the simple instructions at the top of the macro's code (open the macro as a normal document or use QuickView Plus), or click on Help from the menus.

Some of the macro techniques used: (1) Employ a separate document file (*.WPD) to sequentially read short strings of data from, then switch documents and search for the strings. Employ menu entry fields to do the same thing. (2) Use a help dialog in a menu, accessed via a pushbutton. (3) Change information on a menu without using callbacks. In HiLiteDoc, the top half of the main menu changes accoding to a previous menu selection or if an "Other Menu" button is pushed on the current menu. (4) Write out information to a separate WPD file.

Download HILITE.ZIP (full suite)

Applies a user-specified highlight color to a selected block of text, then returns the highlight color back to the default (usually, bright yellow). This makes it easy to apply a different highlight color to certain text, but retain the default color when highlighting is next applied with the Highlight toolbar button.

Note: To be able to quickly apply any of several different colors, you need to use different copies of this macro -- one macro per color. See Tips below.

The WordPerfect program "remembers" which color was last used, so you can always reset the Highlight button's default color manually, but this macro makes it easier -- especially siince WordPerfect does not reset the default highlight color between sessions. You can modify the macro's next-to-last command to choose any default color.

Tips

• Several copies ("clones") of this macro, each with a different highlight color and each assigned to its own toolbar button or keystroke combination, allows the quick application of different highlight colors to various parts of the same document without impacting your default highlight color. (The included macro is set to apply bright green highlighting to selected text.)
• To make copies of the macro that will apply different highlight colors, see the instructions in the comment area at the top of the macro's code. (Just open the macro for editing with Tools, Macro, Edit. Make the required change per the instructions, and then click Save & Compile from the macro toolbar.)
• If you select the same highlighted item and play the macro again, the highlighting (only) will be removed. It acts as a "toggle" switch.
• To play the macro(s) with a toolbar button or keystroke, click here for instructions. To edit the default toolbar button's icon, click here (note the tip about using Corel Presentations to use a more extensive color pallette or create buttons with shading, fills, etc.).
• Here's an example of a "Highlighting" toolbar you could create yourself with Tools, Settings, Customize, Toobars, Create, then click Macros, Add Macro and add buttons/macros for each color. See the comments in the macro for more information. (Also see the "remove highlighting" TIP at the bottom of this column.)

Download HILITE.ZIP (full suite)

Removes highlights and (optionally) removes the highlighted words. HiLiteRem also can be used to clean up documents containing comments, annotations, or other text that have been marked up with highlighting.

Screen shot of HiLiteRem.

When you choose the menu option to "search for each item and prompt user with choice of action," a small dialog lets you (1) remove just the highlighting from the item, (2) remove both the highlighting and the highlighted text, (3) skip the item, or (4) quit the macro. This should make it easier to selectively edit a marked-up document.

Download HILITE.ZIP (full suite)

Replaces the color of existing highlighting in the document with a different color, either the current color that is specified on the WordPerfect toolbar (or Tools menu) or the color specified on the menu that pops up.

A menu option allows pausing to confirm individual replacements.

Screen shot of HiLiteRC.

Download HILITE.ZIP (full suite)

Tips

Do you often need to remove highlighting from a single highlighted word or section of highlighted text?

WP has a built-in "Remove Highlighting" feature that you can add to a toolbar as a new button.

The button will be active only if the cursor is directly on some highlighted text or if a selected block of text contains highlighting.

Here's how to add this feature to a toolbar:

• Right-click the toolbar and choose Edit from the context menu. This will display the Toolbar Editor.
• Under the Features tab, choose Tools from the "Feature categories" drop list.
• Scroll down in the "Features" list and choose Remove Highlighting.
• Click on the "Add Button" button. When the new button appears on the toolbar you can use your mouse to drag it to a new location.
• Click OK, then Close.

CAUTION: If you use the Redaction Tool in the initial release of WordPerfect X4, here are some tips (click here for the PDF version) when using normal highlighting (Tools, Highlight) in the same document that is marked up for redaction (Tools, Redaction). Adjustments have been made to the above macros to alert you to the presence of these new codes.

Do you need to print a document without the highlighting?

Click Tools, Highlight and de-select the option, "Print/Show". Enable this option following the print run.