Steps to create a VBA macro to colourize sentences

The following script can be added to your MS-Word VBA environment in order to quickly change the background colours of each difference sentence in your word documents. This is advantageous if you are reviewing documents and want to be able to visualize lengths or "original versions" of sentences.

Once installed, to run the colourer, simply press AltF11 and select to run the sentenceColouringAdd function.

To undo the highlights, run the sentenceColouringRemove function.

Installation

In MS-Word

Press AltF11 to open the VBA Editor.
Insert a new module by clicking Insert -> Module.
Copy and paste the code below into the module window.

vba ::  addSentenceColouring


Sub sentenceColouringAdd()
    Dim docRange As Range
    Dim character As Range
    Dim colourIndex As Integer
    Dim colours() As Variant
    
    ' Disable track changes
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    tr = ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions
    ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = False
    
    
    ' Define the pastel pale colours using RGB values
    colours = Array(RGB(204, 255, 204), RGB(204, 229, 255), RGB(255, 229, 204), RGB(242, 242, 242), RGB(255, 255, 204))
    
    ' Initialize the color index
    colourIndex = 0
    
    ' Set the document range to the entire ActiveDocument
    Set docRange = ActiveDocument.Content
    
    ' Loop through each character in the document range
    s = 0
    p = 0
    a0 = ""
    For Each character In docRange.Characters
        ' Check if the character is a lone dot
        character.Font.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = colours(colourIndex Mod 5)
        
        On Error Resume Next
        a = character.text
        b = character.Next.text
        sup = character.Next.Font.Superscript
        On Error GoTo 0
                
        ' Debug.Print p & " " & a
        If IsDot(a0, a, b, sup) Then
            colourIndex = colourIndex + 1
            s = p
        End If
        a0 = a
        p = p + 1
    Next character
    
    
    Set selectedRange = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=s, End:=p)
    selectedRange.Select
    selectedRange.Font.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = colours(colourIndex Mod 5)
    
    ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = tr
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Debug.Print "Colouring done"
End Sub

Function IsDot(ByVal lastchar As String, ByVal char As String, ByVal nextchar As String, ByVal sup As Boolean) As Boolean
    ' Check if the character is a dot
    If lastchar = "." And char = "”" And sup Then
        IsDot = True
    Else
        If (nextchar = " " Or nextchar = Null Or sup) And (char = "." Or char = "!" Or char = "?") And (Not lastchar = ".") Then
            IsDot = True
        Else
            IsDot = False
        End If
    End If
End Function


Sub sentenceColouringRemove()
    Dim docRange As Range
    
    Debug.Print "sentenceColouringRemove"
    
    ' Disable track changes
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    tr = ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions
    ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = False
    
    
    Set docRange = ActiveDocument.Content
    p = 0
    For Each character In docRange.Characters
        Set selectedRange = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=p, End:=p + 1)
        selectedRange.Select
        selectedRange.Font.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
        p = p + 1
    Next character
    
    ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = tr
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    
    Debug.Print "Done"
End Sub

Execution

WARNING: Always save your document before you run the macro as unexpected things can always happen.

In MS-Word, press AltF8 to open the "Macro" dialog box.
Select the "sentenceColouringAdd" macro and click the "Run" button.
Select the "addRepeatedWordHighlights" macro and click the "Run" button.
All the paragraphs in your document will be colour coded with pale pastel background colours.

To undo:

In MS-Word, press AltF8 to open the "Macro" dialog box.
Select the "sentenceColouringRemove" macro and click the "Run" button.