How to Add Draft Watermark in Excel (3 Easy Ways)

When we share any Excel file then someone can use that file under his name. But if we use a watermark then we can keep our copyright easily. There are several ways by which we can add watermarks to our sheet. In this article, you will learn 3 easy methods to add a draft watermark in Excel with sharp steps.

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3 Easy Ways to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

Here’s the dataset that we will use to explore our methods, it’s showing some salespersons’ sales in different regions.

1. Inserting Header & Footer to Add Draft Watermark

In our very first method, we’ll use the Header & Footer command to add a draft watermark. The advantage of using it is, that the watermark will be visible on every used page. For this method, we divided the dataset into two sheets to show the watermark on every page.

1.1. Adding Text Watermark

First, see how to add text watermark using Header & Footer.

Steps:

• Click as follows: Insert > Text > Header & Footer.

The Header & Footer is activated now on the sheet.

• Click on the header section and you will get three parts, you can insert text or pictures on any part. We’ll insert it in the middle part.
• Type the text on the part, we typed ‘ExcelDemy’.

• By selecting the text, you can change the font and sizes, we used Calibri font and size-24.

It will look like this then

• There’s no way to change of header and footer by dragging them. So we’ll have to use the SPACE key or ENTER key to move the text. Keep the cursor before the text and hit the ENTER button as many line breaks as you want.

• Then use a lite fill color to give an outlook of a watermark. Right-click on the text and choose the color, we picked lite ash color.

Here’s the final outlook of the draft watermark.

1.2. Adding Picture Watermark

Now let’s insert a picture into that header. The steps are quite the same.

Steps:

• Follow the first step from the previous section to insert Header & Footer.
• Then select the middle part of the header and click- Header & Footer > Picture.

It will open a dialog box to choose pictures from different sources.

• To select from your computer, click on From a file.

• Go to your folder and select the file, then press Open.

• Yet it won’t show the picture but rather will show a text- &[Picture], no worries, just click anywhere outside of the header.

Soon after, the picture will be visible on the headers of all used sheets.

To move the picture again we’ll have to use the ENTER key. Keep the cursor before &[Picture] and press ENTER key as many times as you require.

• Click anywhere outside of the header to make visible the picture again.

To give the outlook of a watermark we’ll have to decrease the transparency of the image.

• To do that, select the header and click Header & Footer > Picture Format.

• After appearing the Format Picture dialog box, click on the Picture section of it.
• Then from the Color drop-down box of the Image Control section, select Washout.
• Later, just press OK.

Now see, it’s purely looking like a watermark.

2. Inserting Picture to Add Draft Watermark

Without using the Header & Footer, we can insert the picture directly by using the Picture command from the Insert ribbon. But the difference is we won’t get the watermark on all pages, will have to insert it individually for each page.

Steps:

• Firstly, click as follows: Insert > Pictures > This Device.

• Next, select the picture from the specific folder of your device, and press Insert.

• Drag the picture in your preferred position.

Now we’ll reduce the transparency of the picture.

• So click on Transparency from the Picture Format ribbon.
• It will appear with some transparency levels, select your required one. We chose 50%.

Now it’s looking like a perfect watermark.

3. Using Excel WordArt to Add Draft Watermark

There is another amazing feature in the Insert ribbon- WordArt, which has some nice collections of word art. We can use it to insert a text draft watermark.

Steps:

• Click as follows: Insert > Text > WordArt.
• You will get some samples of word arts, choose one.

• It will open a text box, drag it to the preferred position and type your text.

• After that, to give it a watermark look, click as follows: Shape Format > WordArt Styles > Text Fill > No Fill.

Now it’s looking like a pretty cool watermark, right?

How to Change Format of Draft Watermark

In this section, we’ll show how to change the format of the picture that we added in the header.

Steps:

• Follow the 7th step from the first method to open the Format Picture dialog box.
• From the Size section, you can change the height, width, scale, etc. we changed the dimensions to the values as shown in the image below.
• Finally, press OK.

This is our draft watermark after the formatting.

How to Remove Draft Watermark in Excel

We can delete the watermarks of the second and third methods by following the traditional normal way, just using the DELETE key. But in the header, we can’t do it, we had to follow a different way. That we’ll show you here.

Steps:

• Click on the header and select spaces and &[Picture].
• Then just press the BACKSPACE key or the DELETE key.

Now see, no watermark.

• The easiest way of removing is to select the Normal command from the View ribbon. It will remove the watermark including the header and footer from the worksheet.

Conclusion

That’s all for the article. I hope the procedures described above will be good enough to add a draft watermark in Excel. Feel free to ask any question in the comment section and please give me feedback.