Skip to main content

Kutools for Office — One Suite. Five Tools. Get More Done.

How to change highlight color in search results in Outlook?

Author Kelly Last modified

Supposing you are searching the text of “test” in a mail folder, you enter the “test” in the search box, and then all “test”  are highlighted in the mail list and in the reading pane. See screen shot:

screenshot of changing highlight color in search results in outlook

By default, the highlight color is yellow. Some users may prefer to other colors rather than yellow. Here we will guide you to change the highlight color in search results in Microsoft Outlook easily.

Change highlight color in search results in Outlook 2010 and 2013

Change highlight color in search results in Outlook 2007


Change highlight color in search results in Outlook 2010 and 2013

To change the highlight color in search results in Microsoft Outlook 2010 and 2013, please do as following:

Step 1: Click the "File" > "Options".

Step 2: In the Outlook Options dialog box, click the "Search" in the left bar.

Step 3: Go to the "Results" section, click the "Highlight color" button and select a color in the drop down list. In our example, we select the green.

screenshot of steps about changing highlight color in search results in outlook 2010 and later versions 1

Step 4: Click the "OK" button in the Outlook Options dialog box.

From now on, the searching text is highlighted by the new highlight color in the search results in Microsoft Outlook 2010 and 2013. See screen shot:

screenshot of steps about changing highlight color in search results in outlook 2010 and later versions 2

Change highlight color in search results in Outlook 2007

The following steps will walk you through changing highlight color in search results in Microsoft Outlook 2007.

Step 1: Click the "Tools" > "Options".

Step 2: In the Options dialog box, click the "Search Options" button on the "Preferences" tab.

screenshot of steps about changing highlight color in search results in outlook 2007 1

Step 3: In the Search Options dialog box, go to the "Search" section and click the "Change "button" "behind the highlight color brick.

screenshot of steps about changing highlight color in search results in outlook 2007 2

Step 4: Pick out a color in the "Color" dialog box.

screenshot of steps about changing highlight color in search results in outlook 2007 3

Step 5: Click all "OK" buttons in each dialog box.

After configuring the highlight color, you will see the searching texts are highlighted by the new color.


Best Office Productivity Tools

Breaking News: Kutools for Outlook Launches Free Version!

Experience the all-new Kutools for Outlook with 100+ incredible features! Click to download now!

🤖 Kutools AI : Uses advanced AI technology to handle emails effortlessly, including replying, summarizing, optimizing, extending, translating, and composing emails.

📧 Email Automation: Auto Reply (Available for POP and IMAP)  /  Schedule Send Emails  /  Auto CC/BCC by Rules When Sending Email  /  Auto Forward (Advanced Rules)   /  Auto Add Greeting   /  Automatically Split Multi-Recipient Emails into Individual Messages ...

📨 Email Management: Recall Emails  /  Block Scam Emails by Subjects and Others  /  Delete Duplicate Emails  /  Advanced Search  /  Consolidate Folders ...

📁 Attachments ProBatch Save  /  Batch Detach  /  Batch Compress  /  Auto Save   /  Auto Detach  /  Auto Compress ...

🌟 Interface Magic: 😊More Pretty and Cool Emojis   /  Remind you when important emails come  /  Minimize Outlook Instead of Closing ...

👍 One-click Wonders: Reply All with Attachments  /   Anti-Phishing Emails  /  🕘Show Sender's Time Zone ...

👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻 Contacts & Calendar: Batch Add Contacts From Selected Emails  /  Split a Contact Group to Individual Groups  /  Remove Birthday Reminders ...

Use Kutools in your preferred language – supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!

Instantly unlock Kutools for Outlook with a single click. Don't wait, download now and boost your efficiency!

kutools for outlook features1 kutools for outlook features2

🚀 One-Click Download — Get All Office Add-ins

Strongly Recommended: Kutools for Office (5-in-1)

One click to download five installers at once — Kutools for Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Office Tab Pro. Click to download now!

  • One-click convenience: Download all five setup packages in a single action.
  • 🚀 Ready for any Office task: Install the add-ins you need, when you need them.
  • 🧰 Included: Kutools for Excel / Kutools for Outlook / Kutools for Word / Office Tab Pro / Kutools for PowerPoint