Highlighting Text in WordPress to Emphasize Content

There’s often an important sentence in our article that we really want readers to notice, but because it’s buried in the rest of the text, they end up skimming right past it. That’s exactly where highlighting comes to the rescue. A simple splash of color behind your content pulls the part that matters to you right into the reader’s line of sight. In this article, we’re going to walk through how to do this in WordPress — using two different methods, each of which suits a different situation.

What Is Text Highlighting?

Highlighting is basically the same thing we used to do with a neon marker on our textbooks: we color an important part so it stands out from everything else. On a website, the exact same logic applies. When you highlight a key sentence or phrase, you’re essentially telling the reader, “Hey, keep an eye on this part.” This one simple move makes your main message easier to catch, and the reader figures out what’s important without having to read the whole thing. It’s especially great for key points, warnings, or takeaways.

Does the Default WordPress Editor Support Highlighting?

Here’s a bit of bad news for you: the default WordPress editor doesn’t come with a highlight option out of the box. In other words, you can’t just click a button and turn your text a color the way you can with bold and italic. The only things it lets you do by default are change the text style or change the color of the text itself. But don’t worry — this absolutely doesn’t mean it can’t be done. You just need to go with one of the two approaches we’ll cover below.

Methods for Highlighting Text in WordPress

We’ve got two routes ahead of us: one using a plugin, which is simple and fast, and one done manually with a bit of code, which gives you more control. Let’s start with the easier route first.

Method 1: Highlighting Text with a Plugin

If you’re not into code and all that, and you just want to get the job done, a plugin is your best option. Our recommendation is the Advanced Editor Tools plugin. It’s free, you can download it from the WordPress repository, and it adds a whole bunch of formatting features to your editor — highlighting being one of them.

Installing and Activating the Advanced Editor Tools Plugin

First things first, head into your WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins section, search for “Advanced Editor Tools,” install it, and activate it. That’s it. Once it’s activated, the plugin itself adds a set of new tools to your editing toolbar that you didn’t have before.

Steps for Highlighting Text with the Plugin

Now let’s get to the main event. First, open the post you want to edit. Select the text you want to highlight. In the editing toolbar, click the downward arrow to open up more options, then click the “Mark” option. Done! Just like that, your text is highlighted.

One thing to keep in mind, though: the color that ultimately shows up on your site depends on your own site’s color scheme and theme. So if the color turns out different from what you expected, don’t be surprised.

Look, if you’re planning to use highlighting constantly and in large amounts throughout your articles, this method is your best bet. You install the plugin once, and after that it’s just a couple of clicks to get the job done — no need to touch any code.

Method 2: Highlighting Text with HTML and CSS

This method takes a little bit of coding know-how, but don’t be scared — it’s not all that hard. Its big advantage is that it gives you full control over the color and appearance of the highlight. Here, we’re going to get the job done with an HTML tag and a little bit of CSS.

Enabling HTML Editing Mode in the Editor

Just like the previous method, start by opening your post. Go into the exact paragraph whose text you want to highlight. In the editing toolbar, click the “three dots” option, then hit “Edit as HTML.” Now you can see the code behind your paragraph.

Using the mark Tag to Highlight Text

Now all you have to do is put the text you want to highlight inside a <mark> tag, like this:

html

<mark>The text you want to highlight</mark>

Once you’ve done that, click the “three dots” again, and this time choose the “Edit visually” option to go back to normal mode. There you’ll see that your text has been highlighted in yellow. But again, keep in mind that the final display of this color on your site depends on your theme’s color scheme.

Changing the Highlight Color with Custom CSS

The nicest part of this method is that you can set your own preferred color. From the “Appearance” menu, click on “Customize,” then go to the “Additional CSS” section and enter code like this:

css

mark {
  background-color: #f8ff00;
}

Swap out that color code (#f8ff00) with any color you like. After that, hit the Publish button and you’re all set. Now, anywhere you use the <mark> tag, it’ll be highlighted in the color of your choice.

Comparing the Two Methods: Which One Is Right for You?

Let’s wrap things up so you don’t get confused between these two. If you’re after speed and simplicity and don’t want to get tangled up in code, a plugin is your best friend — install it and off you go. But if you’re the kind of person who likes everything to turn out exactly the way you want it, especially when it comes to color and appearance, the HTML and CSS method gives you a lot more control. In short: a plugin for convenience, code for flexibility.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Well, we’ve reached the end. As you saw, highlighting text in WordPress isn’t a hard job at all — whether you use a plugin or go the manual route with code, both ways get the job done. Now it’s up to you which one fits your mood and your needs. Our suggestion is to give both a try once, so you can see which one you’re more comfortable with.

Editorial Staff

This content is produced by the Ertano editorial team. The quality and accuracy of the content have been reviewed and approved by Reza Rad.

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