How to Add Watermark in Microsoft Word Documents?

Watermark is a background picture or text used on documents used for multiple purposes. In earlier days, watermark was popular on physical documents of paper mills to indicate the ownership of their products. In this digital age, you can use watermark for document classification to indicate confidential or private documents. On other hand, you can show your company name or logo to indicate the copyright ownership. In this article, we will explain how to add watermark in Microsoft Word documents.

Types of Watermarks

Microsoft Word allows you to add different types and ways of watermarks on your documents.

• Select from watermarks template
• Create your custom watermark
  • Picture as watermark
  • Text as watermark

The process is same in Word 2013 or later versions including Microsoft 365. If you are still using Word 2010 or earlier versions, you can find the option under “Page Layout > Background” menu.

Inserting Watermarks from Template

Word offers few default watermark templates as part of the package. You can quickly insert one of them if that suits your need.

• Open your Word document and navigate to “Design” menu.
• At the right end of the ribbon, click on “Watermark” option in “Page Background” group.
• By default, Word offers text watermarks for “Confidential”, “Do Not Copy”, “Urgent”, “ASAP”, etc. You can select one of the available watermarks from the dropdown.

Inserting Picture Watermark in Word

If you do not want to use the predefined text watermark then click on the “Custom Watermark…” option. You will see a “Printed Watermark” pop-up like below.

• Select “Picture watermark” radio button and then click on the “Select Picture…” button.
• Word will offer you multiple options for choosing the picture like below.

• Click on “From a file” option and choose the picture from your computer.
• You can change the size of the picture by choosing the required percentage option from the “Scale” dropdown.
• By default, Word will apply washout effect for the picture watermark. However, you can remove the effect by disabling the “Washout” checkbox.
• Click “Apply” and “Close” buttons to insert the picture watermark on the document.

Inserting Custom Text Watermark

Similar to picture watermark, you can also insert a text watermark in pages.

• Select “Text watermark” option on the “Printed Watermark” pop-up.

• You will see the default text in the “Text:” dropdown. Choose from the dropdown or enter your custom watermark text in “Text:” field.  
• Customize the settings for language, font, size and color. You can setup the watermark in horizontal or diagonal layout and add semi-transparent option. When you change the language, Word will automatically change the default watermarks to the selected language.
• Click “Apply” and then “OK” to add the watermark on your document.

Editing Watermarks in Word

Depending upon the type of watermarks, you can edit them in different manner.

• If you want to edit the default watermarks, then right click on it and choose “Edit Properties” option.

• The default watermark is a building block in Word; you can only customize the description and categories. You cannot modify the actual text in building blocks, either you can delete completely or create additional block for your need.

Word inserts the picture and text watermarks as a WordArt object in the header. Therefore, you need to edit the header if you want to edit the inserted picture or text watermarks.

• Double click on the top header area of the document. Alternatively, go to “Insert > Header > Edit Header” menu.
• Now you can drag and adjust the watermark. Remember, you cannot modify the text in watermark, you need to go to “Design > Watermark > Custom Watermark…” option to create the watermark again.

Removing the Watermark

If you want to remove the watermark, simply go to “Design > Watermark” and click on “Remove Watermark” option. This will instantly remove the previously inserted watermark from your document. After removing, you can insert another watermark later when you need.