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

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In terms of working with Excel, we might face the necessity of adding a watermark to the worksheet. Questions may arise How to add a draft watermark in Excel? Well, If you looking for a better way to add a draft watermark in Excel, you are cordially welcome to this article. I will try to explain 3 easy ways to add draft watermark. I hope it will be helpful for you.


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What Is Draft Watermark in Excel?

A draft watermark in Excel is nothing but a partially transparent image or text that appears in the background of a yet-to-be-finalized worksheet. Draft watermark is mostly used to indicate confidential or incomplete spreadsheets. It is also used to prevent the unauthorized distribution of worksheets.

Use of Watermark in Excel

Watermark is vastly used from individual to industry level as it serves many useful purposes. Some of the common uses of the watermark in Excel are described below:

  • Watermark can be used to indicate that the spreadsheet is incomplete.
  • It is also used to indicate confidential status.
  • To highlight the ownership and prevent the spreadsheet from unauthorized copying.
  • To keep a record of the time of creation of the spreadsheet.

How to Add Draft Watermark in Excel: 3 Easy Ways

Adding a draft watermark is not that tough. You will know it after reading the whole article as I have mentioned 3 easy ways how to add draft watermark in Excel.

1. Use Text or Image in Header and Footer to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

One of the easiest ways to add a draft watermark is to use the Header & Footer feature in Excel. We can use both text and images as watermarks.


1.1 Use Text in Header and Footer

In order to add text as a watermark with the Header & Footer option, go to Insert and select the Header & Footer option.

How to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

Now, both the header and footer are available to add text.
In order to add text to Header, click on Add Header.

Define Location to Add Header

Now, write the text you want to have as the watermark.

Inserting Text to Have as Watermark

If you want to edit your text, just select the text and make the necessary editing to that text.

Making Necessary Editing of the Text

Click your cursor putting the cursor outside the header box and you will have that written text as a watermark.

How to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

Following similar procedures, you can add text in the footer too.

Inserting Text to Have as Watermark in Footer


1.2 Use Image in Header and Footer

Like text, we can also use images in the header and footer as a watermark. To do so, go to the Insert tab first. Then, click on Header & Footer.

Adding Header and Footer to add draft watermark in Excel

We will have spaces both in the header and footer to add images. Pick a suitable place to add your image in the header as the header is divided into three sections.
Next, click on Picture from the Header & Footer tab.

Sequence of Commands to Add Image in Header

An Insert Pictures wizard will appear. Pick a suitable option based on your image location.

 Inserting Image from Perferred Location

Press Enter to move the inserted image downwards.

Adjusting Image Position to add draft watermark in Excel

Click outside the header box to have the image as a watermark.

Output of Using Image in Header to add draft watermark in Excel

To make the image in the washout mode, click on Header & Footer and select Format Picture.

Command Sequence to Make the Watermark Washout

A Format Picture wizard will appear. Go to the Picture tab. Select Washout from the Color option and click on OK.

 Making Watermark as Washout

Now, click on the mouse putting the cursor outside the header box and you will have that inserted image as a watermark

Final Output of Using Washout Image as Watermark

Similarly, you can insert an image in the footer as a watermark too.

Read More: How to Move Watermark in Excel (with Easy Steps)


2. Insert Image to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

The simplest way to add a draft watermark in Excel is to insert an image and modify the transparency of that image.
For this, go to the Insert tab and click on the Pictures option. Now, pick the location (i.e. This Device…) of the picture you want to add as a watermark.

Inserting Image from Device

Select the image and click on Insert.

Select Image from Device to add draft watermark in Excel

The image will be added to the worksheet. You can place the image in your preferred place with the preferred dimensions with the help of the mouse.
Next, click on Transparency from the Picture Format tab and pick a transparency style based on your preference.

Making Image as Watermark to add draft watermark in Excel

Thus, the image will be set as a watermark in Excel.

Output of Inserting Image to Add Draft Watermark


3. Use WordArt to Add Draft Watermark in Excel

We can also use the  WordArt option to add text as a watermark in Excel. In order to do so, follow the following command sequence.
Insert —> Text —> WordArt
Then, pick a suitable pattern from the available options for the watermark.

Command Sequence to Have WordArt to add draft watermark in Excel

Write the text that you want to have as the watermark.

Drag Text Box and Insert Text

To make the text added from WordArt, go to Shape Format and select No Fill from the Text Fill option.

Fading Text to Give Watermark Appearence

The text will be added as a watermark with defined specifications.

Final Output as Watermark


How to Reposition Watermark in Excel

In order to change the position of the watermark, add or remove blank lines before the &[Picture] code. You can add blank lines by pressing the Enter button or remove the blank lines by pressing Backspace and positioning the watermark.

Repositioning Watermark in Excel


How to Resize Watermark in Excel

You can also resize the dimensions of the watermark in Excel. To resize the watermark added with Header & Footer, select the box containing the image code in the header and click on Format Picture from the Header & Footer tab.

Bringing Format Picture Wizard

A Format Picture wizard will appear. Make necessary editing in dimensions in Height and Width from the Size and rotate and Scale groups.

Making Necessary Resizing


How to Remove Draft Watermark in Excel

We can also delete the watermarks in Excel. To remove the watermark, select the text or image code along with the blank lines from the header or footer and press the Backspace or Delete button.

Deleting Picture and Spaces

Then, click on Normal from the View tab to completely remove the watermark.

Changing View to Normal

Read More: How to Remove Page 1 Watermark in Excel (4 Easy Methods)


Things to Remember

Some of the important things that you need to keep in mind while adding the watermark:

  • Try to make the watermark transparent and visible.
  • Make a test print before giving the command to print in a bulk amount.
  • Excel does not have a direct watermark feature like Microsoft Word. But it does have a background feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will the draft watermark be visible after printing the Excel worksheet?

Yes. The watermark will be visible after printing the Excel worksheet. The watermark may not be visible in the Normal view mode but the watermark is still there. You will find it after printing the worksheet.

2. Is it possible to add a draft watermark to a password-protected Excel file?

It is certainly possible to add a draft watermark to a password-protected Excel file. You just have to open the file by entering the password and after that, you can add a draft watermark.

3. Can I Print an Excel worksheet without watermark?

Yes, you can print an Excel worksheet without a watermark. For this, you just have to remove the watermark before giving the Print command.


Conclusion

In the above sections of this article, I have tried to explain 3 easy ways how to add draft watermark in Excel. I have also tried to clarify the repositioning, resizing and removal of the watermark here. I hope this article will be helpful for you. For any further questions, please comment below. You can also visit our site for more Excel-related articles.


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Md. Sourov Hossain Mithun

Md. Sourov Hossain Mithun

Hello! I am Md. Sourov Hossain Mithun. Welcome to my profile. Currently, I am working at Exceldemy as an Excel and VBA Content Developer. Excel is amazing software. Here I will post excel related useful articles. I am a graduate of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. I love to learn new things and work with them. Thank you.

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