How to Unhighlight in iBooks (10 Steps)
By Laurel Storm
The highlighting feature in iBooks helps you keep track of important information and favorite passages in the e-books you read. The steps to highlight a passage are quite intuitive -- so intuitive, in fact, that you can do it accidentally and be left struggling to figure out how to remove it. Three different ways to remove highlighting exist, both requiring only a few taps. If you only want to remove the highlighting from one or two passages, the first method is likely to be easiest. If you want to clear most or all highlights, on the other hand, the second or third method will likely be faster.
Page by Page
Step 1
Launch iBooks, open the book with the highlighting you want to remove and scroll to the page that contains the highlighted passage.
Step 2
Tap the highlighted passage. Doing this brings up a contextual menu with several icons.
Step 3
Tap the white circle with a red slash through it to remove the highlighting. Scroll to the next page that contains highlighting you want to remove and repeat the process.
Table of Contents
Step 1
Launch iBooks and open the book with the highlighting you want to remove.
Step 2
Tap the "Table of Contents" button and then select "Notes." This opens a list that contains all highlighted passages and notes you have added to the book.
Step 3
Swipe from left to right over a highlighted passage in the list. Doing this displays a red "Delete" button. Tap that button to remove the highlighting.
Mass Deletion
Step 1
Launch iBooks, open the book with the highlighting you want to remove, tap the "Table of Contents" button and select "Notes."
Step 2
Tap the "Share" button, which looks like an arrow coming out of a rectangle, and select "Edit Notes."
Step 3
Tap the passages from which you want to remove the highlighting to select them. Alternatively, if you want to remove all highlighting from the book, tap "Select All." When a passage is selected, the empty circle by it turns into a white check mark on a red background. If you mistakenly select the wrong passage, tap it again to deselect it.
Step 4
Tap "Delete" to remove the highlighting from the selected passages.
References
Warnings
- Because notes can't exist in iBooks without highlighting, all methods of removing highlighting also remove any notes you may have added.
Writer Bio
Laurel Storm has been writing since 2001, and helping people with technology for far longer than that. Some of her articles have been published in "Messaggero dei Ragazzi", an Italian magazine for teenagers. She holds a Master of Arts in writing for television and new media from the University of Turin.