How can I write a few words with a grey highlighting box in the background, as shown in the picture below ("TEXT 4")?
[Tex/LaTex] A few words in a coloured/grey background box
boxescolorhighlighting
Related Solutions
You could use the varwidth environment provided by the homonymous package; this environment is an analogue of minipage, but its resulting width is the natural width of its contents. A little example:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{varwidth}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newcommand\MyCBox[1]{%
\colorbox{red!60}{\begin{varwidth}{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\fboxsep}#1\end{varwidth}}}
\begin{document}
\noindent\MyCBox{Big House\\ (empty)}
\noindent\MyCBox{Big House and some more text\\ (empty)}
\noindent\MyCBox{Big\\ (empty)}
\noindent\MyCBox{\lipsum[1]}
\end{document}
Since the OP stated his preference for a tikz solution, there is one. The trick is to draw the frame in the background, while interrupting the computation of the bounding box, so that this background is not taken into account for the bounding box.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fit,backgrounds}
\newcommand{\highlight}[1]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline = (text.base)]
\node[inner sep=0pt] (text) {#1};
\begin{pgfinterruptboundingbox}
\begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
\node[fit=(text), rounded corners, fill=black!20, draw=none] {};
\end{pgfonlayer}
\end{pgfinterruptboundingbox}
\end{tikzpicture}%
}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum \highlight{dolor} sit amet, \highlight{consectetuer} adipiscing elit, sed diam
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam
\end{document}
Best Answer
put the xcolor package in the preamble,
then use a command like this:
Change 'gray' to the shade that suits your gods liking.