How to add and remove watermarks in Word

A watermark in Word is a faded text graphic that appears on the background of the document’s pages, usually underneath the text. Watermark can take the form of pictures or text such as heavy words like DO NOT COPY.

In this article today, you’ll learn a step by step instructions on how to add and remove watermarks in Word.

Without any further ado, let’s get started.

Add by selecting from Word’s preset Watermarks

There are already-made watermarks that you can easily click to add to the pages of your document.

In this section, you’ll learn how to add watermarks in Word using these ready-made watermarks.

However, if you want to create your own custom watermark that will contain your own words, please skip to the next section.

Below is just a summary of how you can add and remove watermarks in Word:

To easily add a watermark in Word, go to the Design tab, in the Page Background group, select the Watermark drop-down button. All the available ready-made watermarks will appear on the drop-down menu, click on one that suits your need to insert it into your document. To Remove watermark, click on the Remove Watermark command on the same drop-down menu.

Below is a step by step instructions with pictures on how to add watermark in Word using the preset watermark option:

• Step 1: Go to the Design tab.

• Step 2: Under the Page Background category, select the Watermark drop-down menu.

• The watermarks drop-down menu will appear with all the ready-made watermarks. Click to apply your desired style. For example, if you want to apply the DO NOT COPY watermark, click on it to add it to your document’s pages.

As soon as you click on one of the ready-made watermarks, it’ll apply to all the pages in your document.

See screenshot below:

This is how you may add watermarks in Word using the preset watermark option.

How to create a custom watermark in word

If you don’t like any of the ready-made watermarks in the gallery, you can create your own custom watermark. This gives you the freedom to design it the way you want with your own content.

To create a custom watermark in Word:

• Go to the Design tab.

• In the Page Background category, click on the Watermark drop-down button and select Custom Watermark at the bottom of the drop-down menu.

• The Printed Watermark dialog box will appear. This dialog box is where you will enter all your customized information and settings to create the watermark.
•  On this Printed Watermark dialog box, select the Text watermark option and type your custom watermark in the Text: field to replace the existing one.

• Use the other controls to further customize your watermark. For instance, you can change the font type, font color, and the font size of it. You can also use the Semitransparent checkbox to decide whether you want the watermark to be solid or semitransparent.

Pro Tip: Always leave the size option to auto so that Word will choose the largest possible font size that works for the selected text and the current paper layout.

How to make a picture Watermark in Word

Aside from using boldly faded text, you can also use pictures on the background to serve as watermarks in Microsoft Word.

To make a picture watermark in Word, go to Design>Watermark>Custom watermark to launch the Printed Watermark dialog box and select the picture watermark option. The Select Picture button will become active, click on it to browse for the picture you want to use, select it and click apply.

Below is a more step by step approach with pictures on how to add the picture watermarks in Word:

• Go to the Design tab.

• In the Page Background category, select the Watermark drop-down button and select custom watermark from the drop-down menu. Just after the custom watermark button is the Remove Watermark button if you ever want to get rid of the watermarks in your Word document.

• The Printed Watermark dialog box will launch. On this dialog, click to select the Picture watermark option. This will activate the Select Picture button.

• Now, click on the Select Picture button to browse for the picture you want to use as a watermark.

This will launch the Insert Pictures dialog box. The screenshot below is what you will see if you are connected to the internet.

Select From a file to open a file explorer where you can select a picture from your computer.

If you don’t have a picture on your computer you can add, select the Bing Image Search to search for the picture you want to use as watermark.

Again, you can use the OneDrive Personal option to select pictures from your one drive folder.

But if you are not connected, you’ll see the following dialog that only gives you the option to add a custom picture from your computer. Click on the Work offline button to select a picture from your computer.

The screenshot below shows how the file explorer window will look like if you decide to insert from your PC.

• After you select the picture, the picture path will appear just after the Select Picture button. Now click on the Apply button to finally insert the picture watermark in your Word document.

Se screenshot below:

These are the steps you may use to add custom picture watermarks in Word.

3 ways to remove watermarks in Word

You’ve downloaded a Word document or receive it from another person only to realize that it has this watermark you don’t want. That’s when you start to wonder how to remove it.

In this section, I’ll show you three different methods you can use to remove watermark in Word. But before that, below is a summary of the easiest way to do it.

To remove watermark in Word, go to the Design tab and click on the Watermark drop-down button in the Page Background category. At the bottom section of the drop-down menu that appears, click on the Remove Watermark button to get rid of it in the document’s pages.

Now for a more detailed steps on this matter, let’s explore the options below.

Option 1: Using the Remove watermark command

To use the Remove watermark command for this task, obey the following instructions:

• Click on the Design tab.
• In the Page Background category, click on the Watermark drop-down.
• From the drop-down menu, click on Remove Watermark.

This will get rid of the watermark, whether picture or text, from all the pages in your document.

Option 2: Using the Printed Watermark Dialog box

Another way is to use the Printed Watermark dialog box.

Obey the following instructions to learn how to use this option:

• Go to the Design tab, in the Page Background group, select the Watermark drop-down menu.
• From this drop-down menu, select Custom Watermark to launch the Printed Watermark dialog box.

• The Printed Watermark dialog box will appear. Select No watermark option.

• Click the Apply button.

These steps should remove watermark from all the pages in your document.

Option 3: Bonus

This option involves just selecting the watermark and pressing the delete key on the keyboard.

It seems impossible thought to select and delete watermark since it appears on the background.

Let me show you that it possible. Obey the instructions below:

• Right-click any where in the Header or Footer and select Edit Header or Edit Footer.

• Once your document switch to the Edit Header and Footer mode, click on the watermark to select it.

• Upon selecting it, press the Delete key to remove it from your document.

It’s pretty simple.

These are all the tricks involved in adding and removing watermarks in Word.

Conclusion

You can see there are several ways to create and delete watermarks in Word.

However, using the Watermark button comes very handy for adding and removing it from the pages in your document.

If you have a comment about adding and removing watermarks in Word, please drop it in the comment section below this article.