Skip to main content
Inspiring
January 16, 2019
Answered

Text boxes got an unwanted background color

  • January 16, 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 47537 views

Hello

I don't know how I ended up getting this, but every text box in my InDesign project got a blue background color:

I couldn't remove it after checking through the View and Window menu options — nothing seems to have changed.

It would be appreciated If someone could tell me how the box can be removed.

Thank you in advance.

Correct answer jane-e

"In Design likes to apply pre-determined styles."

 

A best practice is that you create and use styles for all text. If you choose not to, turn off the "Show Overrides" button that I marked earlier. It looks like this:    [+]

 

~ Jane

 

6 replies

Participant
May 23, 2022

Check Under - Paragraph Rules (Alt + Ctrl + J)

I spent ages on this... I copied all information (not just text) from customers word file and had a white box!

Finally checked the paragraph rules both 'Rule Above' + 'Rule Below' - were on - so turned them off. All is good now

Participant
June 9, 2022

Hello - I am now having the exact same problem, which I copied all information (not just text) from a word file and had a white box.  I can't get rid of it.  I checked paragraph rules as you mentioned.  I have a couple of character styles applied but paragraph style... what I am missing? I am using InDesign with Mac OS Monterey.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 9, 2022

@windycitycretive_2024 wrote:

I am now having the exact same problem,


 

Select your text frame and look at the fill control (Control, Properties, Swatches.... panel). What is the fill color? Can you change it to none? Show a screen shot if you don't see it.

 

It could also be a paragraph shading, paragraph rule, or underline (character).

 

Jane

 

Participant
December 9, 2021

Could be Underline options

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2019

Eadig  wrote

Hello

I don't know how I ended up getting this, but every text box in my InDesign project got a blue background color:

Is your screen capture showing the actual color you were seeing or are you simulating it?

Because there's also Composition violations, which are set in Preferences, and they would be hidden in Preview mode. The custom tracking violation is more green than blue.

EadigAuthor
Inspiring
January 18, 2019

Yes, the background color was as blue as in the screenshot.

I checked the composition screen of Preferences and confirmed only Substituted Fonts was checked:

I think it's not to do with fonts though because I didn't change the font for every text frame.

EadigAuthor
Inspiring
January 16, 2019

Thank you two for the suggestions.

After working in the same copy of InDesign for about half an hour, the background color automatically disappeared for some reason.

I then went onto checking the Shading and Paragraph Styles settings and found out that the Shading was turned off and the Paragraph Styles panel just had a setting named Paragraph Style 1+.  Just in case I checked the Paragraph Shading for Paragraph Style 1+ and confirmed it was turned off.

I will make sure to try out the suggestions if I come across the same symptom again.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2019
Hi,
There is a third possibility. If you set and use a condition in Conditional Text, the formatting could be set to Highlight in Blue.
Jane
jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2019

Hi,

If Bill's thought doesn't work, another possibility is this:

If you used overrides on your styles and clicked the show overrides button in the Paragraph or Character Styles panels, InDesign will highlight all text with overrides. Click the button to hide the overrides.

Or, better, use styles with no overrides.

~ Jane

bonitaabril
Participant
January 17, 2019

Thank you.

I'm Korean user.

EadigAuthor
Inspiring
January 16, 2019

To add to it, switching to other view modes hides the blue background, so it's only the Normal mode that shows it.

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2019

With no document window open go to the Paragraph Panel pull-down menu and choose "Paragraph Borders and Shading" and in the dialog window that comes up make sure that "Shading" is unchecked. Then quit the program and when the program is relaunched  no shading should now become the default. Documents that have already been created and saved with the shading will retain the shading but can be fixed on an individual basis using this dialog. Simply select the paragraphs affected and follow the process I've described.

Participant
February 18, 2022

it's unchecked and still doing it.