Watermarks

A watermark refers to text or a graphic that appears behind text, usually appearing on every page of a document. For example, the word CONFIDENTIAL, the word DRAFT, or a picture that illustrates the text.

Adding Text Watermarks on One Page

The following instructions can be used in both Word 2000 and Word 2002.

1. Open your document.
   
   
2. Go to the page where you want the watermark to appear.
   
   
3. Display the Drawing toolbar (View – Toolbars – Drawing).
   
   
4. Click on the blue upper case A on the Drawing toolbar. This opens up the WordArt Gallery.
   
   
   
5. Choose a style from the gallery. Keep it simple (for example, the first or second item in the gallery).
   
   
6. Click on OK.
   
   
7. Type in your text. Change font and font size if required.
   
   
8. Click on OK.
   
   
9. Your text should now appear in the document. Position, direction and colour can now be modified.
   
   
10. 10. The WordArt toolbar should be visible when your WordArt object is selected. If not, right-click on the WordArt object and choose Show WordArt Toolbar.
    
    
    
11. WordArt objects can be rotated, either using a free rotate, or specifying an angle.
    
    To do a free rotate, click the Free Rotate icon on the Drawing toolbar (it looks like a circular arrow). Then grab the text by one of its handles, and drag. Keep dragging until it looks about right.
    
    Tip : For Word 2002, the Rotate button is built into the object. There is no need to select it from the Drawing toolbar first.
    
    To specify an angle measurement for your text, right-click the object and choose Format WordArt. Click the Size tab. Enter a measurement in the Rotation box (eg 45). Click OK.
    
    
    
    
12. The next step is to change the colour of the text, so that the body text can be read through it. This is also done via the Format WordArt dialogue box (right-click the WordArt object and select Format WordArt).
    
    
13. Select the Colours and Lines tab.
    
    
14. Click on the drop-down menu next to Line Colour, and choose No Line.
    
    
15. Click on the drop-down menu next to Fill Colour, and choose More Colours. From the palette displayed, choose a soft colour (remembering that it will print out as a shade of grey on a standard laser printer). Click on OK and OK again, to return to your document and check the results.
    
    
16. Finally, modify text wrapping. Click the dog icon in the WordArt toolbar. Select Behind Text from the drop-down list.
    
    
17. Save your document.

Adding a Graphic on One Page

You need to have a graphic in mind, and know its location. The graphic can be recoloured ahead of time, or from within Word. Recolouring is needed so text can be easily read through it.

1. Open your document.
   
   
2. Go to the page where the graphic is to appear.
   
   
3. Click on View – Zoom. Choose Whole Page, and OK. This allows you to move the picture to the right position on the page, because you can see the whole page.
   
   
4. Click on Insert – Picture - From File to use a file that resides on your hard disk or a server drive.
   
   
5. Select your picture, and click on OK.
   
   
6. Your picture should now be visible. At this stage, your picture may look small, and the text won't be "in front" of it. You need to do some formatting.
   
   
7. The first step is some judicious resizing. If the file is a bmp, jpg or gif, resizing larger can make it appear blurry, although making is smaller should work fine.
   
   
8. Once the picture has been resized, position it as required.
   
   
9. Next, right-click on the picture and choose Format Picture.
   
   
10. Click on the Picture tab and choose Watermark from the drop-down menu next to Colour. This will change your picture's brightness so that the text won't be hidden. This step is optional if your picture has already been edited to appear pale.
    
    
11. Click on the Wrapping tab and choose None. Click on OK. Now your picture is getting closer to what it should look like.
    
    
12. Right-click on the picture again, and choose Order - Send Behind Text.
    
    
13. Note the difference between the two cursors you will see - the normal I-beam cursor means you can click and edit your text. The four-headed arrow means you can click on the picture to select it. Find a blank space, free of text, in order to select the picture for any further formatting.
    
14. If you cannot select your picture, click on the Arrow button on the Drawing toolbar first. Then click on the picture. Or zoom in and find a place where the text is not overlapping, and then select the picture.
    
    
15. Save your document.

On Every Page

To add a watermark (picture or text) to every page of the document, first choose View – Header and Footer. Then click the Show/Hide Document Text icon in the Header and Footer toolbar.

Now follow the same steps as above, for picture or text, to have it appear on every page.

Word 2002 Watermarks

Word 2002 has a quick way to add watermarks.

1. Click on Format – Background – Printed Watermark.
   
   
2. Within the dialogue box, select from Picture Watermark or Text Watermark.
   
   
3. If selecting a picture watermark, click the Select Picture button. Navigate to your picture. Check that Washout is ticked to allow the text to display over the top.
   
   
4. If selecting Text watermark, you can either type in your text or select from the drop-down menu. You can also select the font, size, colour and layout (diagonal or horizontal).
   
   
5. Click OK when done.

To remove the watermark, click Format – Background – Printed Watermark. Select No Watermark.

The next article is about using clipart in Word documents. You will be amazed at the possibilities J.