How to Use Word Spotlight to Highlight Words on Hover with Helperbird
Where Word spotlight works, what it will not highlight, what a screen reader hears, and how it differs from the other two ways Helperbird highlights.
On this page
How Word Spotlight Behaves
Word spotlight paints the single word under your mouse pointer yellow. One word at a time, always the word you are pointing at.
It waits for you to stop moving. The yellow appears about 80 milliseconds after the pointer settles, so nothing lights up mid-sweep. The word stays lit until you land on a different word.
Helperbird paints over the page rather than editing it. Your text is never rewritten, nothing is saved, and turning the feature off leaves the page exactly as it was.
New to it? Start with what Word spotlight is and how to turn it on.
Where It Works
| Where | Works |
|---|---|
| Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari | Yes |
| Normal websites | Yes |
| Helperbird's own pages, such as the PDF reader and Notes | No |
| iPad and iPhone | Only with a mouse or trackpad attached |
Helperbird's own switch, at the top right of the menu, has to be on. When Helperbird is off, Word spotlight is off with it.
What It Does Not Do
It does not dim the rest of the page. There is no torch beam and no shaded area around the pointer. One word is colored; everything else stays exactly as it was.
The color is fixed. It is always the same marker yellow. Nothing in Helperbird changes it, including the colors you pick for the highlighter pen.
It needs a pointer. Word spotlight follows mouse movement and nothing else. Touch does not trigger it, and neither does the keyboard.
It skips text you can edit. Text boxes, search fields and rich text editors are left alone, so it will not follow you while you type.
It splits words at apostrophes and hyphens. In "don't" it highlights don or t, not the whole word. Same with "well-known".
It splits at accented letters too. In "café" it highlights caf. On text that does not use the Latin alphabet, such as Greek, Arabic or Japanese, nothing highlights at all.
What a Screen Reader Hears
Each time the yellow moves to a new word, Helperbird announces "Highlighted word", followed by the word.
The announcement is polite, so it waits for your screen reader to finish what it is saying rather than cutting in. It only fires when the word changes, so sweeping the pointer across a line does not read the whole line out.
The yellow itself is invisible to a screen reader. It is paint, not content.
Three Ways Helperbird Highlights
Helperbird has three highlighting features that people mix up. Here is the difference.
| Feature | What it colors | What moves it | Is it saved? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word spotlight | One word | Your mouse pointer | No |
| Read aloud word highlighting | One word | The voice reading the page | No |
| Highlighter | The text you select, across paragraphs if you want | You, when you pick a color | Yes, and it returns on your next visit |
Related Guides
These mark a whole line rather than one word, and they respond to touch as well as to a mouse:
- Reading guide - A solid colored bar that shows which line you are on.
- Line focus - Dims the page so only a strip of text stays clear.
- Dyslexia ruler - A colored bar that follows your pointer or stays in a fixed position.
Need Additional Help?
If you have any questions or run into any issues, please contact the Helperbird support team. You can reach us at Helperbird support. We are happy to help you get the most out of Helperbird.
Printed from the Helperbird Help Center · Updated August 12th, 2026
Questions? We are happy to help — helperbird.com/support