Problem scenario
You are using a Mac and modifying text with TextEdit. Some text you copied is highlighted. How do you unhighlight the text?
Solution
Highlight the text that is highlighted with the mouse. There should be two pallettes at the top of the TextEdit application. These are solid-color rectangular icons to the right of the font size and to the left of the BIU (bold, italicize, underscore) icons. The righthand pallette should have a letter "a" in it. Click this pallette. Choose the option that has a red diagonal line through it.
This media.idownloadblog.com picture has an illustrative example of where to click first. You just click there then find the option with a red diagonal line on it.