How to highlight multiple segments of text (in PAGES) without repeatedly going back to the "more text options" button in pages?

I do research, and it's very helpful for me to highlight text in PAGES documents.

But there this requires multiple steps, and there is an awkward problem I want to solve. Here's what I've been doing:

1) I highlight the text. 

2) I go to the format side-bar and click the gear noted as "More Text Options" (it was called something else in earlier versions of PAGES)

3) A drop-down menu appears, and I go to "text background” and click on two palette options.

4) A “Color” window appears, and I click on a color (usually yellow) 

Now here’s the problem, after clicking the color the  “Color” window remains on my screen, and that's fine—But, if I highlight a second bit of text, it seems logical that I could use the  “Color” window and click on yellow again to highlight the text background… But, it changes the color of the text, NOT the background. I need to close the  “Color” window and start all over. This is terribly frustrating, and involves repeating multiple steps. 

QUESTION: Is there a solution to this?

Thank you,

Mike

I'm using PAGES version 12.2