You can add colour behind any selection of text — individual characters, words or entire paragraphs — to create a highlight effect.
Note: You can also highlight text for review purposes by using commands in the Insert menu or by adding a comment. These highlights don’t appear in printed spreadsheets. See Add and print comments in Numbers on Mac.
Go to the Numbers app on your Mac.
Open a spreadsheet, then select the text you want to highlight.
If the text is in a text box or shape, clicking the text box or shape affects all the text it contains.
In the Format 
sidebar, click the Text tab, then click the Style button near the top of the sidebar.
In the Font section, click 
.
Next to Text Background, click either the colour well on the left or the colour wheel on the right, then choose a colour.
The colour well shows colours that match the template you’re using. The colour wheel opens the colour window, where you can choose any colour.
Click anywhere on the sheet to close the controls and apply the colour.
Tip: If you often add colours behind text, you can create a character style that uses a particular text background colour. Then you can choose that style from the Character Styles pop-up menu to highlight selected text with that colour. You can also create a keyboard shortcut to apply the character style.
If the colour you want to remove is behind selected words in a line or sentence and doesn’t cover the entire paragraph in a single block of colour, you can use this method to remove it.
Go to the Numbers app on your Mac.
Open a spreadsheet, then select specific text or click in the text.
If a comment opens, click Delete in the comment. The highlight was added using the Insert menu or by adding a comment (see the top of this page for more information). If no comment opens, continue with the next steps.
In the Format sidebar, click the Text tab, then click the Style button near the top of the sidebar.
In the Font section, click .
Next to Text Background, click the colour well on the left, then click the swatch in the bottom-right corner with the diagonal line.
Use this method when you want a block of colour behind paragraphs.
Go to the Numbers app on your Mac.
Open a spreadsheet, then click the paragraph (or select multiple paragraphs) where you want the background colour to appear.
Tip: If you don’t want subsequent paragraphs to use the background colour, add the colour after you press Return to begin a new paragraph, or add the colour when you’ve finished typing.
In the Format sidebar, click the Text tab, then click the Layout button near the top of the sidebar.
In the Paragraph Background section, do one of the following:
Choose a colour designed to match your template: Click the colour well on the left, then select a colour.
Choose any colour: Click the colour wheel, then select a colour in the colour window.
If the colour you want to remove is a block of colour behind one or more paragraphs, you can use this method to remove it.
Go to the Numbers app on your Mac.
Open a spreadsheet, then select the paragraphs where you want to remove the background colour.
In the Format sidebar, click the Text tab, then click the Layout button near the top of the sidebar.
Click the disclosure arrow next to Borders & Rules.
In the Paragraph Background section, click the colour well on the left, then click the swatch in the bottom-right corner with the diagonal line.
If the colour isn’t removed, it may be a colour fill for the text box. See Remove a fill.