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mail message background color

In previous versions of macOS, you could easily change the color of the background of an individual outgoing message. This was useful for lots of things but I particularly liked using it for happy birthday messages to friends. It was easy to do. You highlighted all the text, selected font, clicked on the icon at the top of the font window for changing the background, chose your color and you were done. Now, in Big Sur, that option seems to have disappeared. I've searched the web and Apple support with no luck in finding even a mention of this issue. Can someone please help me? Thanks.

Mac Pro, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 6:45 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 9:17 AM

Thanks for the clarification. I see it now.

Catalina:


Big Sur has the same capabilities, only the Toolbar Background Icon has changed.


ivan

5 replies

Dec 23, 2020 8:28 AM in response to Dixon Low

Howdy,


Were you able to Change the background color of the whole email (like a background layer)? or just the background of the text itself (like highlighted text)?


I tested with Catalina and Big Sur and was able to change the background of the text.but not the complete email. Both had the option to choose the text background color.


Did you do something different before?


ivan


Dec 23, 2020 8:46 AM in response to ivan54

Yes, in prior versions of macOS, you could change the background of the entire message (like a background layer). If you still have Catalina, open a new message and type some text. Highlight the text and right click (or whatever you do on a Mac keyboard to open the floating menu) and select "font," then select show fonts. The window at the top shows two small color squares. The left one is for text color and the right one is for background layer color. Click the right one, select your color and you're there. In Big Sur, that right button is gone or I haven't been able to identify it or...? How do I get back to being able to create that colored background layer? Thanks.

mail message background color

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