When I need to color something in cMUD, I bracket off what I'm looking for. I'll usually only color things that are going to be on their own line/s. For example: Exits.

Pattern= [Exits]
#co green

One trigger I have regular issues with is highlighting people in my PK range. Unfortunately, it colors -every- instance of "pk" in any word, not just (PK) in who and where lists.

If you want cMUD to process the MUD's text regularly and print a new line for something/someone, it should look something like:
Pattern: {%1 has arrived}
#print %1 is here!
#co red

Note- I use "should" loosely, as I don't use print triggers or use wildcards in anything but aliases, so your own mileage will vary.

After doing a little research, I found the #CW (Color Word) function.
So, if you want to highlight someone's name or a particular string of text(a title for example) without coloring the entire line it should look something like:
Pattern: {Imm}
#CW Blue

If you're trying to highlight text that contains "special" characters that cMUD processes as part of a script, use ~ before each occurence of characters like { or [. Using the previous "PK" trigger as an example which I hope to test after I get off work:
Pattern: {~[PK~]}
#co (or #CW) red

That -should- keep the trigger from firing at every instance of "pk" in words like shopkeeper (very annoying when it comes to browsing items by the way.)