Mac Automator/Word 2016 macro: Trying to make workflow/macro that removes highlights from bullet points in Word 2016 for Mac
I figured out how to do it with a Word macro (VBA). The below will highlight only the text (and not the bullet point) of the paragraph/associated text where the cursor is. You can keybind the macro to make this pretty fast. However, this is not the fastest fix because it doesn't allow you to highlight en masse, but it certainly is way faster than doing it manually. 

Hope this can help someone who runs into the same problem that I had!

Sub Highlighter_Macro()
'
' Highlighter_Macro Macro
'
'
    Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
    Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
    Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
    Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=3, Extend:=wdExtend
    Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise
    Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise
    Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
    Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=3, Extend:=wdExtend
    Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise
    Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise
    Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
End Sub