How to add a watermark to a Word document
Word has a watermark button, and it has one problem: the watermark is part of an editable document, so the first thing the recipient can do is go to Design, Watermark, Remove Watermark. If the point of the mark is to stop a draft being circulated as though it were final, a mark anybody can delete in two clicks is decoration. Marking the document and sending it as a sealed PDF is the version that actually holds, and you do not need Word installed to do it.
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How to add a watermark to a Word document, step by step
- Drop the .docx in, The document is laid out in your browser exactly as Word lays it out, with its own page breaks, headers and tables. Nothing is uploaded and Word does not need to be installed.
- Choose the mark, DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, COPY, SAMPLE, or your own words. Set the angle, the size and how faint it is. A watermark that is too dark makes the page unreadable and one too faint does not do its job, so look at it on the page rather than guessing.
- Put it on one page or every page, A draft usually wants it on all of them. A single-page notice usually does not. You choose, rather than the tool choosing for you.
- Download it as a sealed PDF, The mark becomes part of the page. There is no watermark object to right-click and delete, and the file carries a hash so any later edit is detectable.
What you get
- The mark is part of the page, not an object the recipient can remove.
- Word does not need to be installed, so this works on a phone or a locked-down laptop.
- On one page, a range, or every page.
- An image watermark works as well as text, so a company mark can go on rather than a word.
- The signature and the watermark can go on in the same pass.
Frequently asked questions
How do I put a DRAFT watermark on a Word document?
Drop the .docx in, choose DRAFT as the text, set the angle and the opacity, apply it to every page, and download. The reason to do it here rather than in Word is that the result is a flattened PDF: the word DRAFT is part of the page rather than an object in an editable file that the reader can delete.
Can I watermark a document before sending it without changing the original?
Yes, and you should. The .docx you keep is untouched; what you send is a marked copy. That is the right way round, because the day you need to edit the document again you do not want to be unpicking a watermark from it.
Can I use my logo as the watermark instead of a word?
Yes. Upload the image and set how faint it should be. A pale logo behind the text reads as letterhead; a strong one reads as a stamp. Both are useful and they are not the same signal, so pick deliberately.
Will the watermark print?
Yes, because it is part of the page. That is usually the point: a printed copy of a draft should still say draft.
Can I remove a watermark from a document someone sent me?
If it is a Word watermark, the sender left it removable and Word will remove it. If it is flattened into a PDF page, it is part of the image of the page and there is nothing to remove without altering the document, which is exactly what the sender intended.