How to Remove Background in Word

When working in Microsoft Word, some users have to solve the problem: how to remove background in Word in order to return the document to a white background if the background is painted in a different color on the document page. Word documents use a background that fills the entire sheet of the page, or use a background that is located only behind the text or a fragment of text in the document.

Filling the page or background behind the text with color is not always justified from a visual point of view. The bright background of the page makes it difficult to read the text because it is not easy to make out the letters. Such a background strains the eyes, the reader experiences discomfort.

It is necessary to solve the problem that has arisen: how to remove the background in Word? The best option to remedy the situation is to return the default settings of the Word program. In this case, the background will be a virtual blank sheet of paper on which the text to be read will be placed.

In this guide, we will look at the following options: how to remove the background in Word from the entire page, how to remove the background of text in Word, how to remove the background in Word after copying. The instructions can be used in different versions of the program: Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word 2007.

To remove the background from the page, the Word document must be open in one of the display modes:

• Page layout.
• Web document.

We will remove the background using the built-in tools of MS Word.

How to Remove Background in Word

First, remove the background from the entire page of the document. With such a placement, the entire page is filled with a background of a certain color, or more complex methods of filling are used as a background, or an image (drawing) added from a computer serves as a background.

Earlier on my site, an article was already written about creating a background in a Word document. Now we will need to do the opposite: remove the background in Word.

Do the following:

1. In Word, go to the Design menu (in Word 2019) and then go to the Page Background group.

2. Click on the “Page Color” button.
3. In the Theme Colors window that opens, select the No Color option.

As a result of this operation, the background will be removed from the Word document.

How to remove text background in Word – 1 way

In the next way, we will try to remove the background behind the text. With this method of filling the background, there can be various display options: the background is located behind a certain fragment of text, or all the text on the page in the form of a quadrangle, or individual words, sentences, paragraphs are selected in the text, but the interval between lines is white, used in the document by default .

Let’s take a look at both design options. First, we will remove the solid background from the text fragment.

To do this, you need to do the following:

1. Select the piece of text from which you want to remove the background.
2. Enter the “Home” menu, go to the “Paragraph” group.
3. Click on the “Fill” button, select the “No Color” option.

After that, the background will disappear from the Word document.

How to remove the copied background in Word – 2 way

Another possible option is to remove the background from text that has unfilled spaces between lines. We have a section of text with a background, but there is no background between the lines. We need to remove the background from the given text.

Follow the steps:

1. Select the test fragment from which you want to remove the background.
2. Open the “Home” menu, go to the “Font” group.
3. Click on the “Text Highlight Color” button, select the “No Color” option.

How to Remove the Background in Word Text Using Cleanup Styles

After inserting text from the Internet, styles from a website can be inserted into a Word document, in which the document will have a background fill of one kind or another. The Text Selection Color and Fill tools may not be able to handle this problem. Therefore, you will need to reset the styles by clearing the original formatting.

Go through the following steps:

1. Select the piece of text where you want to remove the background.
2. In the Home menu, in the Styles (or Styles and Formatting) group, click on the button in the lower right corner (another way: press the Alt + Ctrl + Shift + S keys).

3. In the drop-down window, click on the option “Clear Format” (in Word 2019) or “Clear All” (in other versions of Word).

As a result, formatting and styles will be removed from the selected text. Only text will remain in the document.

How to remove the background in Word when copying – 1 way

Now we will look at how we can clean up the background that may appear when copying from another Word document, or from a website on the Internet. After copying, we need to get a “clean” document with only text, without a background and other elements that may end up on the document page after pasting.

Do the following:

1. Copy text from a Word document or from a website on the Internet.
2. Open the Word program.
3. On the Home menu, click the Insert button.
4. The paste options will open, in which you need to click on the “Paste Special” item.
5. In the “Paste Special” window, among the available options, select “Unformatted Text”, click on the “OK” button.

Only text will be pasted into Word.

How to remove the copied background in Word – 2 way

This method is almost identical to the first option. It can also be used in the “Paste” button, where there are corresponding icons in the “Paste Options” option.

You need to do the following:

1. Copy text from a Word document or website.
2. Right-click in the Word document window where you want to paste the copied text.
3. A window with a menu will open, in the “Paste Options:” item there are several options for pasting text (they are indicated by icons): “Keep Source Formatting”, “Merge Formatting”, “Picture”, “Keep Text Only”.
4. To remove the background, you will need to select “Keep text only”.

Article Conclusions

If the user has questions: how to remove the background in a Word document, how to remove the background under the text in Word, the program itself has ways to remove unnecessary design elements. It is possible to remove the background when copying text from another Word document, or after copying from a website page from the Internet.