How to Add a Watermark to a Worksheet in Excel

Create a watermark image

The first thing you need to do is to create a watermark image that will later appear on the background of your worksheet. You can do it in any drawing program (for example, in Microsoft Paint). But for simplicity, I've created an image right in a blank Excel worksheet using the WordArt option.

If you are curious how I've done it, see detailed instructions below.

• Open a blank worksheet in Excel.
• Switch to Page Layout view (go to VIEW - > Page Layout in the Ribbon or click the "Page Layout view" button on the Status bar at the bottom of your Excel window).
• Click the WordArt icon in the Text group on the INSERT tab.
• Select the style.
• Type the text that you want to use for the watermark.

Your watermark image is almost ready, you just need to resize and rotate it to make it look good. What are the next steps?

• Make the background of your WordArt object clear, i.e. untick the Gridlines check box in the Show group on the VIEW tab
• Click on the image twice to select it
• Right-click once and choose "Copy" from the menu
• Open MS Paint (or the drawing program you prefer)
• Paste the copied object into the drawing program
• Press the Crop button to get rid of extra space from your image
• Save your watermark image as either a PNG or GIF file

Now you are set for inserting the created and saved image into the header as described below.

Add a watermark to the header

Once you've created your watermark image, the next step is to add the watermark to your worksheet header. Whatever you put in your worksheet header will automatically print out on every page.

• Click on the INSERT tab in the Ribbon
• Go to the Text section and click on the Header & Footer icon

  Your worksheet automatically switches to the Page Layout view and a new HEADER & FOOTER TOOLS tab appears in the Ribbon.

• Click on the Picture icon to open the Insert Pictures dialog box
• Browse for an image file on your computer or use Office.com Clip Art or Bing Image, which you want to have as a watermark in your Excel sheet.
• When you've found the desired image, select it and press the Insert button

The text &[Picture] now appears in the header box. This text indicates that the header contains a picture.

You still don't see a watermark in your worksheet. Take it easy! :) Just click within any cell out of the header box to see what the watermark looks like.

Now when you click on another page in your worksheet, the watermark will be automatically added to that page as well.

Format your watermark

After you add your watermark image you'll likely be keen to resize or reposition it. You can also remove it if you've had enough of it.

Use a special add-in to insert watermark in Excel in one click

If you don't want to follow numerous mimicking steps, try the Watermark for Excel add-in by Ablebits. With its help you can insert a watermark to your Excel document in one click. Use the tool to add text or picture watermarks, store them in one place, rename and edit. It's also possible to see the status in the preview section before adding to Excel and remove a watermark from the document, if necessary.