How do I change the color of Strikethrough without changing the color of the text?

Ray,

What can I say?  I don't work for MS and I have no control (or opinion) on how, what, when or if they ever decide to devote the resources to provide the feature you seek.

I suppose that I am not like most people as I would ten to one rather Microsoft deliver a Content Control change event.

I think you realize that the answer to the basic question is simply "You can't change the color of the strikethrough font attribute."   

Like you, I'm sure that the national scientic community was a bit dismayed when President Kennedy announced in the early 60's that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.  I'm sure they wished that he would have given them the rocket ship ;-)

When faced with a problem sometimes all you can do is in the words of Gunney Highway "adapt, improvise and overcome."

Responders here have provided several methods of doing that.  None are perfect but then neither is the world.

Here is another method (just an automated method of what Tony provided in the first reply):

Public Sub StrikeThrough()

Dim strExpression As String, strStrike As String

Dim lngIndex As Long

Dim oFld As Word.Field

  'Works best with non-proportional fonts.

  strExpression = Selection.Range.Text

  For lngIndex = 1 To Len(strExpression)

    strStrike = strStrike & Chr(150)

  Next lngIndex

  If strExpression <> "" Then

    Set oFld = ActiveDocument.Fields.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, _

      Text:="EQ \O (" & strExpression & "," & strStrike & ")", PreserveFormatting:=False)

  End If

  For lngIndex = 1 To Len(oFld.Code.Text)

    If Asc(oFld.Code.Characters(lngIndex)) = 150 Then

      oFld.Code.Characters(lngIndex).Font.Color = wdColorRed

    End If

  Next lngIndex

End Sub

Like the others, it isn't perfect but will work well with non-proportional fonts (courier).  With proportional fonts the line will most likely be too long, but you can easily edit the field code to shorten the line.

Good luck.

One displays non-printing characters, selects the shape, rigth clicks and selects "more layput options", selects horizontal>absolute position>to the right of>character then fiddles with the placement until it it how one likes it to appear.

How does one anchor the shape?

If you anchor the shape to the first character of the text you strike through, then the shape will move with the character.