Summary

A watermark is the pale DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL text sitting behind your content on every page. Adding one takes two clicks. This article covers those two clicks, the custom text and picture versions, and the two things that send people looking for help: a watermark that only marks half the document, and one that refuses to delete.

In this guide

• 1. Add a Built-In Watermark
• 2. Create a Custom Text Watermark
• 3. Use a Picture as a Watermark
• 4. Remove a Watermark
• 5. Fix a Watermark That Appears on Only Some Pages
• 6. Control Whether the Watermark Prints
• 7. Know What a Watermark Does Not Do

Before You Start

• Microsoft Word on Windows or Mac. Word for the web displays a watermark that is already in a file but has no Watermark button — use Editing > Open in Desktop App to add or change one.
• Edit access to the document. Click Enable Editing if a Read-Only banner appears across the top.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Add a Built-In Watermark

Word ships a gallery of the wordings people actually use.

1. Click the Design tab on the ribbon. In Word 2010 and earlier this command sits on the Page Layout tab instead.
2. In the Page Background group at the far right, click Watermark. A gallery drops down, grouped under three headings.
3. Pick one:
   • Confidential — CONFIDENTIAL 1 (diagonal), CONFIDENTIAL 2 (horizontal), DO NOT COPY 1, DO NOT COPY 2.
   • Disclaimers — DRAFT 1, DRAFT 2, SAMPLE 1, SAMPLE 2.
   • Urgent — ASAP 1, ASAP 2, URGENT 1, URGENT 2.
4. The gallery closes and the word appears in pale grey behind the text on every page.

Verification: Scroll to the last page of the document. The watermark is there too. If it stops partway through, go to Step 5 — the document has more than one section.

Note: The watermark sits behind your text and is not selectable by clicking it in normal editing. That is deliberate: it lives in the header layer, not the body. Step 4 explains what that means when you want it gone.

2. Create a Custom Text Watermark

The gallery covers eleven phrases. Anything else — a client name, a version number, INTERNAL USE ONLY — needs the dialog.

1. Click Design > Watermark > Custom Watermark at the bottom of the gallery. The Printed Watermark dialog opens.
2. Select the Text watermark radio button. The fields below it become active.
3. Type your wording in the Text box, or pick one of the stock phrases from its dropdown.
4. Set the appearance:
   • Font — any font installed on your machine.
   • Size — leave it on Auto and Word scales the text to the page width. Set a number only when Auto produces something too large for the layout.
   • Color — click the swatch and choose. Grey reads as a watermark; a strong colour competes with your text.
   • Semitransparent — leave this selected. Clearing it produces solid text that makes the document hard to read.
5. Choose a Layout: Diagonal runs bottom-left to top-right, Horizontal runs straight across the middle.
6. Click Apply to see the result with the dialog still open, adjust if needed, then click OK.

Tip: To reuse a custom watermark, select it in the header (Step 4 explains how), then click Design > Watermark > Save Selection to Watermark Gallery. It appears in the gallery of every new document under a General heading.

3. Use a Picture as a Watermark

A faded logo behind the text works well for letterhead and templates.

1. Click Design > Watermark > Custom Watermark.
2. Select the Picture watermark radio button.
3. Click Select Picture. A panel offers From a file, Bing Image Search, and OneDrive.
4. Choose your image. The filename appears beside the button and the Scale dropdown becomes active.
5. Leave Scale on Auto to fit the page, or pick a fixed percentage — 50%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 500%.
6. Leave Washout selected. This fades the image so body text stays readable. Clear it only for a very pale image that is already faint enough.
7. Click OK. The picture appears centred behind the text on every page.

Note: Use a high-resolution image. Word stretches the picture to the page, so a small logo that looks sharp in an email arrives on the page as a blurred block.

4. Remove a Watermark

Two methods, and the order matters.

The gallery method clears anything Word placed there itself:

1. Click the Design tab.
2. Click Watermark in the Page Background group.
3. Click Remove Watermark at the bottom of the gallery.
4. The watermark disappears from every page in the current section.

The header method handles the one that refuses to go — a watermark pasted in by hand, inherited from a template, or left behind by an older version of Word:

1. Double-click inside the top margin of any page. The header area opens, the body text dims, and a boundary line labelled Header appears.
2. Move the pointer over the watermark text or image. The pointer changes to a four-headed move arrow.
3. Click once. A selection box with round handles appears around the watermark.
4. Press Delete.
5. Click Close Header and Footer at the far right of the ribbon, or press Esc.

Verification: Press Ctrl + End to jump to the last page. If the watermark is still there on later pages, the document has multiple sections — repeat the header method in each one. Step 5 explains why.

5. Fix a Watermark That Appears on Only Some Pages

This is the single most common watermark complaint, and the cause is never the watermark itself.

A watermark belongs to a section, because it is stored in that section's header. A brand new document is one section, so one watermark covers all of it. The moment someone inserts a section break — to rotate a page to landscape, to restart page numbering, to change margins partway through — Word creates a second header, and if Link to Previous is switched off for it, that header starts empty.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + 8 to show formatting marks. Section breaks appear as a double dotted line reading Section Break (Next Page) or Section Break (Continuous).
2. Click anywhere on a page that has no watermark.
3. Click Design > Watermark and pick the same watermark again. It applies to the section containing the cursor.
4. Repeat for every section that is still unmarked.

Alternatively, relink the headers so one watermark covers everything:

1. Double-click the header on the first page of the unmarked section.
2. On the Header & Footer tab — called Design under Header & Footer Tools in Word 2019 and 2016 — find Link to Previous in the Navigation group.
3. Click it to turn it on. A Same as Previous label appears at the right edge of the header boundary and the watermark from the previous section flows in.
4. Click Close Header and Footer.

Note: A missing watermark on page 1 alone points at Different First Page rather than a section break. That checkbox gives the first page of the section its own separate header, so apply the watermark with the cursor on page 1 as well. How to Add Page Numbers, Headers, and Footers in Word covers Link to Previous and Different First Page in detail.

Tip: Turning on Link to Previous overwrites that section's header with the previous one. If the section carries its own header text or page numbering, apply the watermark section by section instead of relinking.

6. Control Whether the Watermark Prints

Word calls this feature a Printed Watermark, and by default it does exactly that. Both directions are controlled by one checkbox.

To keep the watermark on screen but off the paper:

1. Click File > Options. The Word Options dialog opens.
2. Click Display in the left sidebar.
3. In the Printing options section at the bottom, clear the Print drawings created in Word checkbox.
4. Click OK. The watermark stays visible while you work and no longer appears on printed pages or in a PDF export.

If the watermark shows on screen but never reaches the paper, the same checkbox is the first thing to check — select it and print again. Two other causes are worth ruling out:

• Draft quality printing. In Word Options > Advanced, scroll to the Print section and clear Use draft quality. Draft mode drops background graphics.
• A printer driver economy mode. Open Ctrl + P, click Printer Properties, and turn off any Toner Save, EconoMode, or Draft setting.

Note: This setting is per user and applies to every Word document you open, not to this file. A colleague opening the same document prints the watermark unless they clear the checkbox too.

Tip: To send a copy where the watermark cannot be removed at all, export to PDF after applying it — the watermark becomes part of the flattened page. See How to Convert a Word Document to PDF (and Back).

7. Know What a Watermark Does Not Do

Worth thirty seconds, because the wording of the built-in gallery invites the wrong conclusion.

A watermark stamped CONFIDENTIAL is a label for a human reader. It carries no enforcement whatsoever:

• Anyone with edit access removes it with Design > Watermark > Remove Watermark.
• It does not stop the file being forwarded, copied, printed, or saved elsewhere.
• It does not encrypt anything, and it does not travel with text copied out of the document.

For protection that the file itself enforces, apply a sensitivity label — those can encrypt the document, restrict who opens it, block forwarding, and in many organisations apply the visual watermark automatically at the same time. See How to Use Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft 365.

If the Sensitivity button is missing from the Home tab, your organisation has not published labels to your account. Tell IT: "Please publish sensitivity labels to my account so I can classify documents in Word."

Troubleshooting

WARNING

Treating a watermark as a security control is the mistake that causes real damage. A CONFIDENTIAL stamp changes nothing about who can open, copy, or forward the file. If the content genuinely needs restricting, apply a sensitivity label as well — the watermark tells a reader the rule, the label enforces it.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Remove Watermark does nothing	Watermark was placed manually in the header	Double-click the top margin, click the watermark until handles appear, and press Delete (Step 4).
Watermark stops partway through the document	Section headers are not linked	Apply the watermark again in each section, or turn on Link to Previous (Step 5).
Watermark is missing from page 1 only	Different First Page is selected	Click on page 1 and apply the watermark there as well (Step 5).
No Watermark button on the ribbon	Word for the web, or Word 2010 and earlier	In the web version, click Editing > Open in Desktop App. In Word 2010, look on the Page Layout tab.
Watermark shows on screen but does not print	Print drawings created in Word is cleared	Select it under File > Options > Display (Step 6).
A picture on the page hides the watermark	The image has a solid white background	Select the image, click Picture Format > Color > Set Transparent Color, and click its white area.
Watermark text runs off the edge of the page	A fixed Size value that is too large	Reopen Custom Watermark, set Size back to Auto, or switch Layout to Horizontal (Step 2).

Related Articles

• How to Add Page Numbers, Headers, and Footers in Word
• How to Use Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft 365
• How to Change Margins and Page Orientation in Word
• How to Convert a Word Document to PDF (and Back)
• How to Create Text Columns in Word
• How to Track Changes in Word
• How to Delete a Blank Page in Word

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