by Barb Binder 
Some time ago, a client was considering using Adobe FrameMaker for a project and wanted to be able to electronically highlight text. That existing version of FrameMaker couldn't do it so the client decided to use Adobe InDesign. Because of that one incident, I was keenly aware when Adobe added background colors into FrameMaker 10.
In FrameMaker 10, you can now add a background color behind your text through both the Paragraph and Character Designers. This would have solved my student's highlighting needs. He could have set up a character format called Highlight, and then used it to highlight strings of text.
OK, that takes care of that one application, but what else can you do with a background color when highlighted text isn't a priority?
My personal favorite is to use it for a condition tag indicator. I was never a fan of using underlines, strikethroughs and overlines as a style indicator, though I certainly understood why I needed to. With FrameMaker 10, I'm happy to retire the lines and switch to colors.
Speaking of colors, I always add a color to my user variables so that I can keep an eye on them during layout and editing, even when I'm zoomed out. Now I can use a background color instead.
But the real reason I think Adobe added support for background color is for PDF comments. This has got to be one of the most life-changing features for me. (I'm referring to importing PDF comments, not specifically the new support for background color within PDF comments.) If you are using FrameMaker 9 or 10 and don't know about it, definitely take five minutes to read about it here. We can now import comments that have been added with text highlights in Adobe Reader or Acrobat, and not just the basic editing tools.
