Double click the word to select it. Then click your box.

Clicking the colour box sets the colour for the next thing you type, not the old stuff you typed.

It may have worked the way you suggest in the past, but if it did it was not correct behaviour.

Thanks for the help.

But no, unfortunately it did not help.

A double click does NOT work to high light any text in version 52.6.0.

If I select a word by high lighting it and then select a color, the box displays the correct color, but does not change the color of the high lighted word OR the next typed words.

There must be some error or setting that is causing the problem.

To diagnose problems with Thunderbird, Restart Thunderbird with add-ons disabled (Thunderbird Safe Mode). On the Help menu, click on "Restart with Add-ons Disabled". If Thunderbird works like normal, there is an Add-on or Theme interfering with normal operations. You will need to re-enable add-ons one at a time until you locate the offender.

No, with all add-ons deactivated it had no effect on adding color.

I usually can solve most problems; except the most difficult.

This may be one of those!

I hope you can offer other solutions.

Thanks for the help.

It's all working for me. And I am able to double-click existing text and apply colours after typing, in contrast with Matt's experience. Selecting by dragging also works. That's how the purple bit was done.

Ergo, it isn't broken, at least not by design.

This problem pops up every now and again, and there doesn't seem to be a trivial solution, nor any obvious common cause.

Yes, thats the way mine use to work. So we have established that the Thunderbird color function is working on version 52.6.0.. But its NOT WORKING on my PC for some reason.

So I need someone to explain how to reinstall the function or to troubleshoot this malfunction.

Is there anyone with this kind of advanced knowledge?

Can you select text by dragging or control+click? Selecting words by double click and the paragraph by triple click are fairly standard techniques, and if these are not working, I'd check if they work anywhere else (i.e. is this specific to Thunderbird?) Can you select words using the cursor keys? Control+shift+right will select from the cursor to the end of the word and repeating this will then select the next word. Control+shift+end/home/page up/page down can all be used. Try also without using control.

If selection by mouse is not working in Thunderbird then please try another mouse. Most double-click related issues in Thunderbird are cured by a new mouse. Ditto if they're not working at all, in other programs, but then I'd also go look at mouse settings in the OS.

If you can select words (using any of the means suggested here) but still can't colour them then I would, without any great hopes of success, just reinstall Thunderbird. There is no specific module or feature here that you can selectively repair, adjust or reinstall.

Thanks for that great explanation. Only about half of the high lighting methods were working. After using a different mouse virtually all the highlighting options now work! But the color problem still exists.

About reinstall Thunderbird. It a trade off between color and the reinstall; I don't think it worth the effort, complexity, and risk of new problems to do the reinstall.

Thanks so much for all the help and advise.

Well I consider re-installation of Thunderbird to be of approximately zero risk and requiring near minimal effort. Not sure what mishaps you anticipate.

Going back to your OP, have you tried left-clicking the colour box?

Did you use the OK button after choosing your colour?

Or tried double-clicking the chosen colour?

Yes, I tried and tried again now, and all three of these techniques and none would produce color.

Thanks for the suggestion.