Unhighlighting text (and preserve all other font settings) - vba

Question

Thanks to 2 posts (here and here), I know how to highlight text of a textbox in PowerPoint with VBA code.
However, the problem of unhighlighting text remains unsolved. I tried to set properties of a non-highlighted textbox to TextRange2.Font (e.g. .TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Highlight.SchemeColor = -2) but receive errors when trying so (The typed value is out of range).
Can someone help to solve this issue, please?
Additionally, when changing the highlight color
(e.g. TextRange2.Font.Highlight.RGB = RGB(255, 255, 175)) the formatting of my textbox changes, so the font is changing its color from my preset white to black and the font size gets smaller. Is there any way to preserve the original settings for the textbox? Is this happening due to the access of .TextRange2 and not .TextRange?
Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

In PowerPoint 2019/365 it is possible to remove highlight by using built-in Mso "TextHighlightColorPickerLicensed".
This code sample illustrates how to unhighlight text in selected shapes. It finds Runs containing highlighting, selects them and removes highlight by programmatically invoking Command Bar "Highlight" button.
Preconditions: PowerPoint 2019 or 365. Presentation must be opened with window.
Option Explicit
Sub UnhighlightTextInSelectedShape()
Dim sh As Shape
For Each sh In ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange
UnhighlightTextInShape sh
Next
End Sub
Sub UnhighlightTextInShape(sh As Shape)
On Error GoTo Finish
Dim highlightIsRemoved As Boolean
Dim tf As TextFrame2
Set tf = sh.TextFrame2
Do
Dim r As TextRange2
highlightIsRemoved = True
For Each r In tf.TextRange.Runs
If r.Font.Highlight.Type <> msoColorTypeMixed Then
' Indicate that text contains highlighting
highlightIsRemoved = False
' The text to un-highlight must be selected
r.Select
If Application.CommandBars.GetEnabledMso("TextHighlightColorPickerLicensed") Then
' This Mso toggles highlighting on selected text.
' That is why selection must contain highlight of the same type
Application.CommandBars.ExecuteMso ("TextHighlightColorPickerLicensed")
' Unhighlighting May invalidate number of runs, so exit this loop
Exit For
Else
Exit Do
End If
End If
Next
Loop Until highlightIsRemoved
Finish:
If Not highlightIsRemoved Then
MsgBox "Unhighlighting is not supported"
End If
End Sub
Sometimes Application.CommandBars.ExecuteMso() method gives access to features not available via PowerPoint API.
The MsoId is displayed in tooltip text in PowerPoint options window: