Hands on: Make your watermarks

Posh writing paper used to have - and may well still have, as it has been a while since I penned a real letter - watermarks.

These consist of a faint pattern or logo embossed into the paper during manufacture and which you can see if you hold a sheet up to the light.

Watermarks have also been used as anti-counterfeiting devices for banknotes and stamps, for example, and according to Wikipedia have been used since the 13th century. In computing circles, however, the word has other meanings.

Digital watermarks can be embedded in data files, such as images and music in order, for example, to identify the copyright, but word processing uses the term in yet another sense.

In Word, a watermark is an image, or item of text printed in front of, or behind, the main text. Although visible, it is displayed and printed faintly so it doesn’t impinge on the legibility of the main text. The purpose can be decorative or functional.

In early versions of Word, creating watermarks was rather a fiddle that involved inserting pictures into the header and then tweaking them - Wordperfect users had a much easier time. Word XP and later have a more direct method, though as we will see shortly, watermarks are still contained in headers.

In the Print Layout view, go to Format, Background, Printed Watermark and you’ll get a choice between a picture or text. If you choose the first, then you browse to the image file in the normal way. The image will be faint when inserted, or fainter still if you have the ‘Washout’ option checked. Depending on your printer and monitor contrast you may need to experiment to get something visible yet unobtrusive.

For text, the options are fairly evident. There’s a ‘Semitransparent’ option corresponding to the picture ‘Washout’ and you can experiment with the ‘Apply’ button before closing the dialogue. What isn’t apparent is that you can type your own words into the ‘Text:’ box if none of the ready-made phrases are suitable.

By default, watermarks appear on every page, but if you only want your ‘Top Secret’ on the first page, for example, you need to go to Page Setup, Layout and tick ‘Different first page’. Next go to View, Headers and footers. Go to the second page header and you’ll find you can select and delete the watermark - this will remove it from that and all subsequent pages while leaving the first page intact.

Where are they now?
Over the past few months we’ve done a fair bit of sleuthing to find out where familiar Word 2003 (and earlier) commands have been relocated in Word 2007. A definitive answer can be found here. Download the guide in Excel format with the unhelpful name of AM101938681033.xls - you might want to rename this to something more memorable.

Each Word 2003 menu has a corresponding tabbed worksheet, listing the contents of the menu in one column and the 2007 hiding place in another, so you should be able to find what you want.

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