Weekly Computer Tip # 314
9 July 2010


mark your document as draft, confidential or personal
(Word 2003-2007)

The other day I had to send a confidential document to a client and suddenly knew what today's tip would be: how to add (and remove) a watermark. (That's what these things are called.) Watermarks are text (or pictures, but that's not what this tip is about) that appear behind the text in your document to identify the status of a document. You can quickly add ready-made text, such as Confidential, Draft, Urgent, Sample, Do not copy or ASAP.

Here's how:

In Word 2003:

  1. With the document displayed, select the Format, Background command.
  2. In the list of options that appears, select the Printed Watermark option.
  3. Select the Text watermark option.
  4. Specify the text that is to appear and optionally reset any other options, such as the font, font size, font colour and layout.
  5. Click on the OK button.

In Word 2007:

  1. With the document displayed, click on the Watermark button in the Page background group on the Page Layout tab.
  2. In the gallery that appears, click on a watermark to insert it behind the content on the page OR click on Custom Watermark at the bottom of the gallery and specify the text that is to appear.
  3. Optionally, reset any other options, such as the font, font size, font colour and layout.
  4. Click on the OK button.

Please note, you can only see watermarks in Print Layout view and Full Screen Reading view or in a printed document, so if you use Normal view, you won't see it, even though it's there.

Oh, and don't forget to remove the "draft" status once it's no longer a draft. In Word 2003, go to the Format menu, point to Background, click Printed Watermark and click No watermark. In version 2007, simply click on the Watermark button in the Page background group on the Page Layout tab and select Remove Watermark.

That's it. Enjoy the fabulous weather! (And keep your fingers crossed for "our boys" on Sunday night ;)

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