How to Put a Watermark in Word

Watermark in all versions of Microsoft Word is an incredibly useful feature to communicate the commercial nature and restrictions of a document. The most common examples are indelibly marking a document as confidential, private, or draft. As Microsoft Word allows you to use images as a watermark, a company logo or signature are great ways to help readers get to know the creator and owner of a document. If you don’t have a logo yet, you can use ZenBusiness Logo Generator to create one. To find out how to create a watermark in Word, read here.

How to create a watermark in Word 2010 and Word 2013 (which at the time of writing this article comes with Office 365) is exactly the same with a slight difference in the location of the feature.

How to add a watermark on every page of a Word document

Once you have opened your doc:

1. In Word 2010 click on the Page Layout tab (in Word 2013 click on the Layout tab)
2. Click on Watermark where the arrow is. A vertical scroll list of six watermarks will appear (Confidential, Do Not Copy, Draft, Sample, ASAP, and Urgent)
3. Select the watermark you want to use.

The standard textual watermarks provided by Microsoft Word are good for most occasions. However, you may want to use the watermark for other purposes, such as marking each page with special text, an emblem, or a company logo. Microsoft Word allows you to insert custom text and images for watermarks. Here’s how:

How to insert a watermark using a custom image or text

• Click on the Page Layout tab (Word 2010) or the Layout tab (Word 2013)
• Click on Watermark. A vertical scroll list of six watermarks will appear with a set of menu options below.
• From the menu options, select Custom Watermark. The Printed Watermark dialog box appears, asking if you want to use an image or customize the text.

In the printed Watermark dialog box, we will use the custom text option.

1. Select the Text drop-down menu to see if the custom text already exists in the library. If not, write your own text.
2. Experiment with the font, font size, color, layout, and transparency to see what looks best for your document.

Avoid using a dark color without transparency as it will cause readability issues as shown in our comparison. To learn how to create a modern logo, read here.

Watermark is a useful feature in Word to let the readers know if a document is just a draft which needs editing, or if the document is confidential and the information should not be disclosed.