How to add a watermark in Microsoft Word documents

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

Types of watermarks

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

Choose from Watermark Templates
Create Your Custom Watermark

We explained the steps for Word 2016 or later. You can follow similar instructions under the Page Layout > Background menu in Word 2010 or earlier.

Insert a Watermark from a Template

Word provides a few default watermark templates as part of the package. You can quickly insert one of them if it suits your needs.

In Word 2016 or later, open Word and navigate to the Design menu.
At the right end of the ribbon, click the Watermark option in the Page Background group.
By default, Word provides text watermarks for Confidential, Do Not Copy, Urgent, ASAP, etc. You can select one of the available watermarks from the drop-down list.

Insert picture watermark in Word

If you don’t want to use the predefined text watermark, click the “Custom Watermark…” option. You will see the “Print Watermark” pop-up window as shown below.

Select the Picture Watermark radio button and click the Select Picture… button.
Word will give you several options for selecting a picture, as shown below.
Click on the From File option and select a picture from your computer.
You can change the size of the picture by selecting the desired percentage option from the Scale drop-down list.
By default, Word applies a faded effect to the picture watermark. However, you can remove the effect by disabling the Washout checkbox.
Click on Apply and Close buttons to insert the picture watermark on your document.

Insert a custom text watermark

Similar to picture watermarks, you can also insert text watermarks.

Select the Text Watermark option in the Print Watermark pop-up window.
You will see the default text in the “Text:” drop-down list. Select from the drop-down list or enter your custom watermark text in the “Text:” field.
Customize the settings for language, font, size, and color. You can set the watermark in horizontal or diagonal layout and add semi-transparency options. When you change the language, Word automatically changes the default watermark to the selected language.
Click “Apply” and then “OK” to add the watermark on your document.

Editing a Watermark in Word

Depending on the type of watermark, you can edit it in different ways.

If you want to edit the default watermark, right-click it and select the “Edit Properties” option.
The default watermark is a building block in Word; you can only customize the description and category. You cannot modify the actual text in the building block, and you can delete it entirely or create additional blocks as needed.

Double-click the top header area of your document. Alternatively, go to the “Insert > Title > Edit Title” menu.
Now you can drag and resize the watermark. Remember that you cannot modify the text in the watermark, you need to go to the “Design > Watermark > Custom Watermark…” option to recreate the watermark.

Removing Watermarks

If you want to remove a watermark, simply go to “Design > Watermarks” and click on the “Remove Watermark” option. This will immediately remove the previously inserted watermark from your document. Once removed, you can insert another watermark later when needed.