diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 10aa0bf..b0cefd7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -134,10 +134,11 @@ All standard html elements are supported and will create the closest equivalent
 
 ### Highlighting text
 
-You can add highlighting to text by wrapping it in a span with class h and adding a data style with a color that wordml supports (http://www.schemacentral.com/sc/ooxml/t-w_ST_HighlightColor.html) ie:
+You can add highlighting to text by wrapping it in a span with class h and adding a data style with a color that wordml supports (http://www.schemacentral.com/sc/ooxml/t-w_ST_HighlightColor.html) or a HEX color value ie:
 
 ```html
 <span class="h" data-style="green">This text will have a green highlight</span>
+<span class="h" data-style="B2B2B2">This text will have a light gray highlight</span>
 ```
 
 ### Page breaks
diff --git a/docs/styles.md b/docs/styles.md
index 7c177c4..5303088 100644
--- a/docs/styles.md
+++ b/docs/styles.md
@@ -16,9 +16,10 @@ Returns a page break
 
     <span class="h" data-style="chosen-color">Highlighted Text Here</span>
 
-Will highlight text
+Will highlight text with predefined color
 
-As per: http://www.schemacentral.com/sc/ooxml/t-w_ST_HighlightColor.html these are your color choices
+You can specify the color as 6 character HEX color (e.g. `FFFFFF` for white, `FF00000` for red) or one of the following
+text values: 
 
 Valid value | Description
 -------------- | ----------------
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ darkGray | Dark Gray Highlighting Color
 lightGray | Light Gray Highlighting Color
 none | No Text Highlighting
 
+As per: http://www.schemacentral.com/sc/ooxml/t-w_ST_HighlightColor.html
+
 ### Text Align (not in readme)
 
 It looks like adding the following classes will align text in your word document appropriately.
diff --git a/lib/htmltoword/xslt/base.xslt b/lib/htmltoword/xslt/base.xslt
index 585e73b..6891e5d 100644
--- a/lib/htmltoword/xslt/base.xslt
+++ b/lib/htmltoword/xslt/base.xslt
@@ -266,12 +266,20 @@
         <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="./@data-style"/></xsl:otherwise>
       </xsl:choose>
     </xsl:variable>
+    <xsl:variable name="colorList" select="'black blue cyan green magenta red yellow white darkBlue darkCyan darkGreen darkMagenta darkRed darkYellow darkGray lightGray'" />
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="preceding-sibling::h1 or preceding-sibling::h2 or preceding-sibling::h3 or preceding-sibling::h4 or preceding-sibling::h5 or preceding-sibling::h6 or preceding-sibling::table or preceding-sibling::p or preceding-sibling::ol or preceding-sibling::ul or preceding-sibling::div or following-sibling::h1 or following-sibling::h2 or following-sibling::h3 or following-sibling::h4 or following-sibling::h5 or following-sibling::h6 or following-sibling::table or following-sibling::p or following-sibling::ol or following-sibling::ul or following-sibling::div">
         <w:p>
           <w:r>
             <w:rPr>
-              <w:highlight w:val="{$color}"/>
+              <xsl:choose>
+                <xsl:when test="contains(concat(' ', $colorList, ' '),concat(' ', $color, ' '))">
+                  <w:highlight w:val="{$color}"/>
+                </xsl:when>
+                <xsl:otherwise>
+                  <w:color w:val="{$color}"/>
+                </xsl:otherwise>
+              </xsl:choose>
             </w:rPr>
             <w:t xml:space="preserve"><xsl:value-of select="."/></w:t>
           </w:r>
@@ -280,7 +288,14 @@
       <xsl:otherwise>
         <w:r>
           <w:rPr>
-            <w:highlight w:val="{$color}"/>
+            <xsl:choose>
+              <xsl:when test="contains(concat(' ', $colorList, ' '),concat(' ', $color, ' '))">
+                <w:highlight w:val="{$color}"/>
+              </xsl:when>
+              <xsl:otherwise>
+                <w:color w:val="{$color}"/>
+              </xsl:otherwise>
+            </xsl:choose>
           </w:rPr>
           <w:t xml:space="preserve"><xsl:value-of select="."/></w:t>
         </w:r>
diff --git a/spec/xslt_simple_text_style_spec.rb b/spec/xslt_simple_text_style_spec.rb
index 764815f..a56f97b 100644
--- a/spec/xslt_simple_text_style_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/xslt_simple_text_style_spec.rb
@@ -142,6 +142,65 @@
     compare_resulting_wordml_with_expected(html, expected_wordml.strip)
   end
 
+  it "transforms text color classes" do
+    html = <<-EOL
+  <!DOCTYPE html>
+  <html>
+  <head></head>
+  <body>
+    <div> Testing <span class="h" data-style="eeeeee">grey</span> text</div>
+    <p> Testing <span class="h" data-style="eeeeee">grey</span> text</p>
+    <span> Testing <span class="h" data-style="eeeeee">grey</span> text</span>
+  </body>
+  </html>
+    EOL
+    expected_wordml = <<-EOL
+  <w:p>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> Testing </w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:rPr>
+        <w:color w:val="eeeeee"/>
+      </w:rPr>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve">grey</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> text</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+  </w:p>
+  <w:p>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> Testing </w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:rPr>
+        <w:color w:val="eeeeee"/>
+      </w:rPr>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve">grey</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> text</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+  </w:p>
+  <w:p>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> Testing </w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:rPr>
+        <w:color w:val="eeeeee"/>
+      </w:rPr>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve">grey</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+    <w:r>
+      <w:t xml:space="preserve"> text</w:t>
+    </w:r>
+  </w:p>
+    EOL
+  compare_resulting_wordml_with_expected(html, expected_wordml.strip)
+  end
+
   it "transforms all combinations of b, strong, em and italic within div and p" do
     html = <<-EOL
   <!DOCTYPE html>