While your monitor and printer have long been able to handle millions of colors, Word has always been limited to a basic set of 16 colours for text. Finally, Word 2000 provides access to an extended palette of 16 million colours. Want to try them out? Start by selecting the text you want to colour, then do this:

1. Select Format-Font and drop down the Font color list.

Caption: Word 2000 enables you to display a font in any of 16 million colours

2. If you see a colour you like, click the colour patch and OK, and you're done.

3. Click More Colors to see additional colours. To choose one of these, click its octagonal region, then click OK in the Colors dialogue box and again in the Font dialogue.

4. If you're still not satisfied, click the Custom tab in the Colors dialogue box. Click a region in the large colour palette that's close to the colour you want, and then move the slider on the right to adjust the hue. Watch the sample box for the actual colour. Click OK in both dialogue boxes to apply the colour.