Change the default highlight colour in Acrobat Pro

If we have ever wanted to set up different coloured highlighted areas in a pdf, while it can be done, it is a not an intuitive process.

Why might we want to do this? Well for me, it was to more clearly show students what constituted the three phases of Borton/Driscoll's (1970; 1994) 'so what' model of reflection. I commented on a student example in Word, then wanted to show using colour which were the 'what'; 'so what; and 'now what' sections to make really easy for students to identify.

So, to change the colour we go into our document and highlight all the areas that we want to highlight in our 'default' colour, then go to the first area of the next coloured section. Highlight it, then:

• Right click on the highlighted area we want to change
• Select Properties from the pop-up menu
• In the Highlight properties dialogue box, change the highlight colour. To make it the default colour for now, tick the box "Make properties default" at bottom of the dialogue box.
• Click "OK" to save, and repeat for the other colours

So easy when we know how!

Sam

References:

• Borton, T. (1970). Reach Touch and Teach: Student Concerns and Process Education. McGraw-Hill.
• Driscoll, J. (1994). Reflective Practice for Practise. Senior Nurse, 14(1), 47-50.
• Goslin, D. (4 April 2016). How do I change the highlight color in Acrobat DC Pro?. https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/how-do-i-change-the-highlight-color-in-acrobat-dc-pro/m-p/8259733#:~:text=Hi%20Diana%20Goslin%2C-,Hightlight%20the%20text%20and%20select%20it.,change%20the%20colour%20for%20highlight.