WPS Background on macOS helps you add character shading, apply shading colors, highlight important text, and clear related formatting in documents; this guide covers 4 core tasks, with 4 available without membership and 0 membership-related items.
At a Glance
| Metric | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Core tasks | 4 | Matches the number of rows in the How-to Index |
| Available without membership | 4 | Matches the number of Free rows in the index |
| Membership-related items | 0 | Matches the number of membership-related rows in the index |
About This Feature
Overview
Background in WPS Writer for macOS is a text-marking feature used to emphasize key content, separate information visually, and improve document readability. It includes character shading, shading color, highlighting, and related clearing actions, making it useful for both formal document formatting and review work.
Core capabilities include:
- Character Shading: Add a default gray background to selected text.
- Shading Color: Apply different background colors to text for visual grouping.
- Highlight: Mark important content with a highlighter-style effect.
- Clear Related Formatting: Remove shading, highlighting, or related text formatting when needed.
Typical use cases include contract review, study notes, project documentation, and content cleanup after editing.
System Requirements
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Operating system | A Mac device that can run WPS Office normally |
| App version | It is recommended to use the latest version of WPS Office for Mac |
| Network | No mandatory network connection is required for local editing; downloading, installation, and account-related actions require internet access |
| Other | Open an editable document in WPS Writer before using the related commands |
Download & Installation
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Official download | WPS Office Free Download |
| Post-install check | Launch WPS Office → open WPS Writer → select text and check the related commands on the Home tab |
Source: WPS download page
Compare with Alternatives
| Dimension | WPS | Microsoft | Notion | Adobe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability Summary | Supports character shading, shading color, highlighting, and clearing related formatting directly during document editing. | Word supports shading for words or paragraphs and also supports highlighting; shading can use theme colors, standard colors, or more colors. | Google Docs supports text color and highlight color, and lets users create custom colors with HEX, RGB, or the eyedropper tool. | Notion lets users apply text color or color highlight to selected text, and also change block color or background color. | Acrobat supports highlighting selected text in PDFs through markup tools for review and commenting workflows. |
| WPS Advantages | Advantage: combines character shading, colored shading, and highlight-style emphasis in one document editing workflow. Distinct: suitable for both formal formatting and review-style marking in Writer. | Compared with WPS: Word offers both shading and highlighting, but its shading guidance emphasizes word or paragraph shading tied to document themes. | Compared with WPS: Google Docs is centered on browser-based editing and collaboration, with highlight and custom color tools rather than a Writer-style character shading workflow. | Compared with WPS: Notion is designed more for page-based notes and block content styling than traditional document layout. | Compared with WPS: Acrobat is focused on PDF markup and commenting rather than standard word-processing layout and text formatting. |
| Official Source | — | Apply shading to words or paragraphs | Change the color of text, objects, and backgrounds | Style & customize your page | Add comments to selected text or images in Acrobat |
Overall Conclusion
If you mainly work in traditional documents and need to mark key text, apply color-based emphasis, and clean up formatting in the same editing flow, WPS provides a focused Writer-based path. If your priority is browser collaboration, page-style note taking, or PDF review, Google Docs, Notion, and Adobe Acrobat each fit different workflows.
Use Cases
| No. | Scenario | Suitable For | Core Need | Solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marking key contract clauses | Legal and admin teams | Important clauses are hard to locate quickly | Use Highlight to mark key paragraphs |
| 2 | Organizing study notes | Teachers and students | Different knowledge points are hard to classify | Use Shading Color to separate content visually |
| 3 | Emphasizing formal documents | Office staff | A more restrained emphasis style is needed | Use Character Shading to add a default gray background |
| 4 | Cleaning up review formatting | Editors and proofreaders | Markup needs to be removed after review | Use clear formatting actions to remove shading and highlight effects |
| 5 | Reviewing repeated keywords | Project members | Repeated content is hard to revisit quickly | Combine highlighting with search results for consistent marking |
Membership & Benefits
Free vs WPS Premium
| Capability | Free Users | WPS Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Background-related text marking | ✅ Available | ✅ Available |
| Basic PDF features | ✅ Basic access available | ✅ More related capabilities available |
| Cloud storage | 1 GB cloud storage | 20 GB cloud storage |
| Templates and advanced capabilities | Some capabilities are limited | More advanced capabilities are available |
Source: WPS Office pricing page
Recommendations
| Usage Scenario | Recommended Plan | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday document marking and study organization | Free | Background-related text marking is available directly and fits light editing needs |
| More cloud storage or broader advanced capabilities | WPS Premium | Suitable if you also need document management, templates, and more extended capabilities |
How to Subscribe
- WPS membership center: Subscribe now
Source: WPS Office pricing page