How to Add and Use Watermarks in Microsoft Word

Watermarks are light, faded text or images that appear in the background of a document, behind the main content. They can be used to show the document’s status (like confidential or draft), display a company logo, or add a decorative touch. Here’s how to add and customize watermarks in Microsoft Word.

How to Insert a Built-In Watermark

To get started, open your document and go to the Design tab.

Word will automatically place the faint watermark behind the text, or in the background if your document doesn’t have text yet. For example, I’ve chosen the Confidential watermark.

How to Insert a Custom Watermark

You can create your own custom watermarks using text or images that better match your needs. To do this, select “Custom Watermark” from the Watermark drop-down menu.

Using Custom Text Watermarks

In the Printed Watermark window that appears, select the “Text Watermark” option. Choose your language, then enter the text you want to use as your custom watermark in the “Text” field.

Now, configure the font, size, and color options, and define the transparency and text direction settings. When you’re done, click “OK.”

In the Insert Pictures dialog box, choose whether you want to use an image from your computer, search for one on Bing, or select a picture from your OneDrive storage.

After selecting an image and clicking “Insert,” you’ll return to the Printed Watermark dialog box. Here, you can adjust how your image appears:

• The Scale is set to “Auto” by default, but you can change it by selecting a different percentage from the drop-down menu (500%, 200%, 150%, 100%, or 50%), or you can manually enter a custom percentage.
• The Washout option applies a faded effect to your image, making it look like a semi-transparent watermark. You can uncheck this option to display the image in full color, but keep in mind this might make the document’s main text harder to read.

Once you’ve adjusted these options, click “OK.”

Word will then place the image behind the text in your document. In this example, we used a 25%-scale washout image of William Shakespeare.

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