Add a Document Watermark

Summary: Mark your Word 2007 document as "Secret" or "Confidential" with a watermark.
A background watermark can help signify that your Microsoft Word 2007 document should be treated as "Secret", "Confidential", or is a rough draft.

Word 2007 has many options for creating watermarks. Although default watermark types are provided, you can create watermarks with your own custom text or image. You can also tweak the watermark size, font, color, and how much the watermark will stand out from the document.


Sample Word 2007 document with watermark text.

1. Click the "Page Layout" tab in the ribbon at the top of Word 2007.

2. In the "Page Background" group, click the "Watermark" command.


Adding a background watermark to a Word 2007 document

You can select one of the default watermarks such as "CONFIDENTIAL 1", "DO NOT COPY", or "URGENT 1". Or, click on the "Custom Watermark" button to open the "Printed Watermark" dialog box.


Adding / Modifying a custom document watermark

From here you have many options:

* Click the "No watermark" button to remove the current watermark. This can also be done directly from the ribbon - just select the "Remove Watermark" option.

* Click the "Picture watermark" to use a picture as the watermark.

- Click the "Select Picture" button to choose your desired image.

- Click "Scale" to adjust the scale of the image as needed so it appears as desired without being too large or too small.

- Check or uncheck the "Washout" button as desired so the watermark does / does not interfere with the rest of the document.

* Click the "Text watermark" to create a text watermark of your choosing.

- Click the "Language" pull-down to modify the watermark's language. This may or may not be useful for you.

- Next to "Text" enter your desired watermark text.

- Change the watermark font with the "Font" pull-down.

- The watermark size defaults to "Auto" to ensure it appears correctly on paper. If you want to tweak this, click the "Size" pull-down.

- Click the "Color" pull-down to give the watermark a colored tint.

- Check or uncheck "Semitransparent" to wash out or prevent washing out the watermark text.

- The pull-downs next to "Layout" determine whether the watermark should appear diagonally or horizontally.

When done, click the "OK" dialog box.