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Watermarks are added to documents for a
variety of reasons. We are all familiar with the document which has been
designated Top Secret or Confidential. Watermarking, however, doesn’t stop at
marking a document ‘for your eyes only.’ A watermark can also be added to give
your document individuality and, as you will see, is not restricted to simply
adding text to the page.
A Picture Paints A
Thousand Words
Giving a page a watermark adds character
to your document presentation. But why restrict yourself to words when it is
just as easy to add a picture or company logo to every single page of your
document.
A watermark is simply a layer of text or
graphics which is printed in a lighter colour and is laid down prior to being
over-printed with your normal text.
Designed To Impress
Microsoft Word 2003 makes adding a
watermark a piece of cake. The hardest part is deciding whether you prefer a
graphic design, such as a company logo or photograph, or whether you simply want
to mark each sheet with a text banner.
Start As You Mean To
Go On
The quickest way to add a watermark is
to start with the document open in normal view. From here you proceed as
follows:
1/ From the main word document toolbar
click the Format option.
2/ From the drop down menu click
Background followed by Printed Watermark.
3/ The Printed Watermark dialogue box
will now open (see fig: 1).
Fig 1: Printed
Watermark Window
4/ If you want to use a picture or logo
as your watermark select the Picture Watermark option and then click the Select
Picture button. If you want to use clipart instead of a picture open the clipart
in word prior to creating the watermark, then copy the clipart and paste it into
Microsoft Paint. After the clipart has been pasted into Microsoft Paint, or some
other image editor, you should save the clipart as a JPEG, Giff or Tiff to the
My Pictures folder.
5/ Browse to the picture file you want
to add to your document and click OK.
6/ The selected picture will now be
added to your document.
7/ You can either scale the picture
yourself, via the scale drop down list (see fig: 2), or else set the scale to
Auto to allow word to automatically fir the picture to the page.
Fig 2: Scaling the
selected picture
8/ The Washout option is set by default
to ensure that the graphic is [printed in a lighter tone than any accompanying
text.
9/ Once you have finished click the OK
button to add the picture to your page. (see fig 3)
Fig 3: Picture
Watermark
A Word To The Wise
Graphics obviously make the watermark
stand out on a page. But there are times when a picture isn’t needed and
standard text will do the job just as well. To add a text watermark proceed as
follows:
1/ Click the Format option on the main
toolbar.
2/ Click Background followed by printed
watermark.
3/ In the Printed watermark dialogue box
select Text watermark (see fig: 4)
Fig 4: Text Watermark
Selection
4/ From the text drop down box select
the appropriate text for your document, i.e., ASAP, Confidential, Top Secret,
etc, or type your own text comment in the box and then select the Font you want
the text printed in along with the colour of the text.
5/ Text can be displayed either
diagonally or horizontally, so choose which direction you want the text to run.
6/ Once again the semi transparent
option is selected by default to ensure that the watermark text is lighter in
colour than the main body text.
7/ Finally click OK to have your text
watermark added to each individual page. (see Fig 5)
Fig 5: Text Watermark
Disappearing Act
By default word adds the watermark to
the header of every single page in your document. If you don’t want the
watermark to appear on certain pages, simply select the page(s) that you do not
want the watermark to appear on and delete it the watermark from that section.
If, after viewing the document, you
decide you no longer want a watermark just click the No watermark option at the
top of the Printed watermark Windows and the watermark will disappear.
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