In a response to the great”How to Highlight” post in 2019 (https://macmost.com/how-to-highlight-text-in-mac-pages.html), you wrote, “I can create other highlights. So, for instance, I can change the background color to yellow for this. Select it and then under Character Styles I can add another one and change this to yellow highlight. So now I can easily select some text and I can switch to yellow highlight. I can set that as a keyboard shortcut as well. So I can name that F2. Now I can change an existing green to yellow with F2. I can highlight some new text with F2 as well.”
When I try to do this, the Plus sign in the Character Styles drop-down is not dark (selectable), therefore I am not able to add another highlight color associated with another function key.
I often need/like to use two highlighting colors within a text.
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Pam Voulalas
Make sure you have text selected before going for that + button. If you just have the cursor in the text, it isn't enough. You have to have selected one or more characters.
I was able to create a Character Style for my first color, and assign it to Fn1. If I then select a different paragraph (e.g.), then click on character styles, "None" is checked. The Plus is light gray. My first color is listed as a Character Style.
If instead, I select the same (second) paragraph, then click on Advanced Options and Text Background, I can highlight the text in a different color. However, when I try to save this new color as a Character Style, I can't, the Plus is still gray.
Pam: I'm not sure what you are seeing here. I just tried it, and it works fine for me. No gray + button. Try deselecting and then selecting the text again. Play around with it. If you have text selected you should be able to add a character style.
I've ID'd the problem. In my attempts to create a second highlighting color, I clicked on all of this:
2. Arts Administration/Development
As an academic researcher, high-level writing skills are essential.
By including the heading (numbered list), it saw me selecting both Body* and Body to create a new character style. When I selected just "As an academic researcher, high-level writing skills are essential." I was able to create a new highlighting color. More to say, but not in 500
Pam: A good example of why it is so hard to help in a forum or over email -- I would never in a million years have guessed that you were working in a numbered list like that and selecting the whole line. Glad you got it sorted out.