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So many Office customers ask about watermarking that we've gathered the best answers here--links to our top instructions for using watermarks in Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Excel. (Excel doesn't have an actual watermark feature, but you can still create watermarks in Excel using photos or words.)
Not sure what we mean by watermarks? Not to be confused with backgrounds, which fill the entire page, watermarks are usually ghosted words, such as DRAFT, COPYRIGHT, CONFIDENTIAL, or the company or creator's name, placed on photos and documents. But watermarks can also be images, logos, or photos.
Customers not only want to use digital watermarks to stamp photos and documents, but also to use photos as watermarks. That's one way to create your own stationery, for example. So we've included links for both, along with information about more traditional watermarking using text behind words.
If you're trying to stamp photos with a copyright or other watermark using Word 2010, follow the three-step solution in my post on the Word Blog.
You can also find instructions for creating a digital watermark for a photo in PowerPoint in Add a watermark to a photo in PowerPoint and in Publisher in Add a watermark to a photo in Publisher.
A Publisher 2010 "Photo watermark" template by my colleague, Joannie Stangeland, makes adding a watermark to a photo in Publisher that much easier. When you download and open the template, you'll see the instructions for using the template on the right-hand side.
Photos and pictures can decorate or brand a document or worksheet. The steps for making a watermark from a photo, picture, or graphic are outlined for Excel 2010 in Mimic a watermark in Excel and for Word 2010 in Create a watermark from a picture.
Check out the stationery and other watermarks templates on Office.com.
What about you? What do you want to know about watermarks? Have you tried creating your own?
--Leslie H. Cole
Comments: (25) Collapse
Hi Leslie,
I love your blog and have gotten many a useful tip from it. However, one question remains: Can I create a watermark that only applies to the first page of a document? For correspondence with customers, I want to use my own stationary in PDF's so I have a watermark version of my stationary and this works fine. But sometimes, correspondence stretches over more than one page, and on the second or third page, I would prefer to use a blank page instead of a stationary page. How do I do that?
With best regards,
François Hendrickx
Amsterdam
Hi Francois,
Yes, you can create a single watermarked page in a document. You will use sections to create a watermark on the first page of your document.
The instructions for accomplishing this task are here: office.microsoft.com/.../insert-or-delete-a-section-break-HA010368780.aspx.
Thanks so much for reading, and do let us know if you have further questions.
Leslie
I would like all the letters of a text watermark to print out. Do I have to uncheck the semitransparent box in the custom watermark option each time I insert a watermark so show all the text? Is there a way I can change the default setting for a text watermark so that the semitransparent box is not checked by default?
Hi Louisa,
While I don't know of a way to change the default setting, if you let me know what program you're using, I will investigate further.
Thanks for your comments!
Hi
Thanks -- I am using Microsoft Office 2010.
Word, PowerPoint, Excel? Cany you tell me which program in Office 2010 that you are using ...
How do I place a watermark on every page of a document, in Word 2007, with section breaks?? Word only wants to put the watermark on certain pages. I need the section breaks and I need the watermarks...HELP!!
Hi Eilean,
Watermarks are usually associated with the header or the footer. So, if the header or footer (whichever is associated with the watermark) hasn't been linked to previous, you might need to add the watermark to each section separately.
To find out whether your headers or footers are linked, click in the header or footer area to see the link status in the lower right-hand corner of the document. The Link to Previous command is available on the Header & Footer tools tab, in the Navigation group).
I hope that this helps ...
Happy New Year and thank you for reading the Office Blog!
I'm trying to add a watermark on every page of a document (using Word 2010). The document has several section breaks and some headers/footers are linked and some aren't as I need different headers/footers on some pages. I can only get the watermark to appear in one section at a time. How can I get it to appear in all sections on all pages?
Thanks
What i am looking for is to create a watermark from the town logo. I have it as only on tje first slide but I want to have it on all slides as a watermark. Is this possible? I have tried to do things with it with no success.
Thank you
Hi there,
I been wondering is there is a way that I can permanently add a watermark to word; so that every time I open a new document on word the watermark will appear automatically on the page or a some type of setting so that, the watermark can't be seen until the document is print. That will help me so much right now. If yes please explain in 2003 and 2007.
Hi Carmelacouture,
You can definitely change the normal.dotm template so that every time you open a new Word document, a watermark appears on every page (instructions for Word 2007: office.microsoft.com/.../change-the-normal-template-normal-dotm-HA010030756.aspx).
And your pages will print with the watermark. What I have not been able to do is hide the watermark while you're working in the document.
Anyone else out there have a way for Carmelacouture to hide the watermark (now part of the normal.dotm template) while she is working on the document? If no one responds, you can always try Answers.com.
Thanks so much for your question.
Best,
I'm generate Word 2007 documents from PLSQL. I need to add watermark to the documents. How do I do that? Thanks.
I added a 'Draft' watermark to a large document with several sections in Word 2007. It worked well until when I tried to delete the watermark. I used the usual procedure through Page Layout, Watermark, remove watermark. The watermark got removed on many pagesexcept on a few (all from different sections) . I have no clue as how to make it disappear. What can I do?
With my thanks,
Denise
Removing watermarks - I had the same issue as Denise, as in partial removal of a watermark using PageLayout. And like her, some of the sections still retained the watermark. There are a couple of possible reasons;
1) the watermark is in the header/footer of a section in which case, open that section's header/footer and delete it manually.
2) Section breaks/unlinking occurred after the watermark was applied (eg if working from an already-watermarked template) and must be removed section by section.
Section breaks turn your document into 'sections' and most page formatting by default occurs in the 'section' on screen. You may have to manually choose to apply formatting changes to 'whole document' and this can be the case with a watermark. You can try using the Remove Watermark command in each individual section or in my case after some wasted time and no more to spare, I used the Inspect Document option (Office Button\Prepare\Inspect Document) to remove the metadata. This will pull out the watermark but you could also lose header/footer info. I first copied the header content, then removed the metadata and finally reinserted the header in the missing sections. Watermark gone. Hope this helps.
Anna
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