Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Controlling the Printing of Highlighting.

Controlling the Printing of Highlighting

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 8, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

It is not unusual to use the highlighting tool to mark up a document for your own use. You may not, however, want the highlighting to print on your output. You can turn off the printing of highlighting by following these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or later versions, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Display at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Display options of the Word Options dialog box.

Clear the Show Highlighter Marks check box.
Click on OK to close the dialog box.

The highlighting in your document should disappear. It is still there, but you have simply hidden it, so it is not visible. You can now print your document, and the highlighting won't show. To again display the highlighting, follow the same steps but make sure the Show Highlighter Marks check box is selected.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9477) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Controlling the Printing of Highlighting.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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