Hi,

I am working on a contract which is currently 27 pages with a built-in Table of Contents.  My document has been setup up with the necessary section breaks.  My intent is to have the custom watermark be visible only on the first page; however, every time I update the Table of Contents the watermark becomes visible on all the pages.  Is there a way for me to limit the watermark to the first page or do I have to manually remove it from the other pages everytime I update the Table of Contents?

Thanks,

Christina

Hi Christina,

Assuming you have a Section break at the end of the page on which the watermark is to appear, go to the next page (ie next section) and unlink it from the previous one. Then delete the watermark from that Section.

Alternatively, if the watermark is to appear only on the first page of the current Section, configure that Section's page layout with the 'different first page' setting - you may still have to unlink subsequent Secdtions, though, to stop the watermark from propagating to them.

For what it's worth, I cannot find how to "unlink it from the previous one."  Headers and footers have a place to unlink.  But custom water marks do not.

What's really strange (IMHO) is that if I simply select a water mark (one of the canned watermarks), the water mark only appears in the section the cursor is in.

If I apply a "Custom Watermark", then it shows up on every page of the document regardless of where the cursor is located.

Strange.

"mmoo9154" wrote in message news:1c1cdc7d-286b-4998-aa60-995ab336acb9@communitybridge.codepl ex.com...

For what it's worth, I cannot find how to "unlink it from the previous one." Headers and footers have a place to unlink. But custom water marks d

In all honesty, I have been sitting with this same issue for the past 2 hours. I simply cannot get them to unlink!

i read another post somewhere that said to check "link to previous", but my version doesnt give me that option if I click on the first page?

Any other suggestions?

In all honesty, I have been sitting with this same issue for the past 2 hours. I simply cannot get them to unlink!

i read another post somewhere that said to check "link to previous", but my version doesnt give me that option if I click on the first page?

Any other sugges

check this link this may help you out

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1706/how-to-add-a-watermark-to-word-2007-documents/

For what it's worth, I cannot find how to "unlink it from the previous one."  Headers and footers have a place to unlink.  But custom water marks do not.

What's really strange (IMHO) is that if I simply select a water mark (one of the canned watermarks), the water mark only appears in the section the cursor is in.

If I apply a "Custom Watermark", then it shows up on every page of the document regardless of where the cursor is located.

Strange.

I am having the same problem but I think others could be misinterpreting it.  Like you, I have different sections and have unlinked the headers and want my custom text watermark to appear on select pages.

Yes, they are correct with their suggestions to deselect "link to previous" in the headers but this doesn't solve the WHOLE problem.  As mmoo9154 points out, this only works as a solution for the STANDARD watermarks.  When creating a CUSTOM watermark with a word not predefined by Microsoft the watermark appears on all pages.

For all the helpful people trying to provide advice to solve the issue, please let us know if you can recreate the same issue we describe by creating a CUSTOM text watermark.

• Edited by Fightin Blue Hen Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:58 PM
• Proposed as answer by Fightin Blue Hen Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:04 PM
• Unproposed as answer by Fightin Blue Hen Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:04 PM

Actually, I spoke too soon.  I was just able to create a work around.  Watermarks are actually embedded WordArt elements that can be edited and this solved the problem for me.  Follow these steps:

1. Follow the process as you did before to add a watermark to select pages by creating multiple sections in your document.
2. Go to the page where you want to add the watermark, open the header, and add a STANDARD watermark (such as "confidential").
3. With the header still open, mouse over the watermark until the pointer arrow turns into a crosshair when it "finds" the WordArt element and click to select.
4. From the WordArt ribbion, click "edit text" (first button, far left of ribbon) and a dialog box will appear.  (Alternately, right click on the element when the cursor changes and select "edit text" from the pop-up menu.)
5. Change the text to whatever you want and click "OK."

The "standard" watermark is still there but with your new custom text and it should still only be on the pages in that section.  This requires a few extra steps from simply using the custom option on the watermark drop-down, but it should do the trick.

• Proposed as answer by Fightin Blue Hen Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:13 PM
• Edited by Fightin Blue Hen Thursday, May 10, 2012 8:04 PM Changed the step-by-step instructions to a numbered list to make it easier to read.

For what it's worth, I cannot find how to "unlink it from the previous one."  Headers and footers have a place to unlink.  But custom water marks do not.

What's really strange (IMHO) is that if I simply select a water mark (one of the canned watermarks), the water mark only appears in the section the cursor is in.

If I apply a "Custom Watermark", then it shows up on every page of the document regardless of where the cursor is located.

Strange.

I am having the same problem but I think others could be misinterpreting it.  Like you, I have different sections and have unlinked the headers and want my custom text watermark to appear on select pages.

Yes, they are correct with their suggestions to deselect "link to previous" in the headers but this doesn't solve the WHOLE problem.  As mmoo9154 points out, this only works as a solution for the STANDARD watermarks.  When creating a CUSTOM watermark with a word not predefined by Microsoft the watermark appears on all pages.

For all the helpful people trying to provide advice to solve the issue, please let us know if you can recreate the same issue we describe by creating a CUSTOM text watermark.

Actually, I spoke too soon.  I was just able to create a work around.  Watermarks are actually embedded WordArt elements that can be edited and this solved the problem for me.  Follow these steps:

1. Follow the process as you did before to add a watermark to select pages by creating multiple sections in your document.
2. Go to the page where you want to add the watermark, open the header, and add a STANDARD watermark (such as "confidential").
3. With the header still open, mouse over the watermark until the pointer arrow turns into a crosshair when it "finds" the WordArt element and click to select.
4. From the WordArt ribbion, click "edit text" (first button, far left of ribbon) and a dialog box will appear.  (Alternately, right click on the element when the cursor changes and select "edit text" from the pop-up menu.)
5. Change the text to whatever you want and click "OK."

The "standard" watermark is still there but with your new custom text and it should still only be on the pages in that section.  This requires a few extra steps from simply using the custom option on the watermark drop-down, but it should do the trick.

Yes, your idea DOES work. HOWEVER, this only solves the problem for custom TEXT watermarks, NOT custom IMAGE watermarks.

I'm using Word 2013, by the way. You'd think MS Word would find a problem for this by now.

Image watermarks are anchored to the header, so the principle is quite the same. Please describe the exact problem that you are having with image w

Double-click the header to activate the header/footer area. On the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, click to select "Different first page." If you still see the watermark on all pages, go to the first page header, select and delete the image.

Double-click the header to activate the header/footer area. On the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, click to select "Different first page." If you still see the watermark on all pages, go to the first page header, select and delete the

Yikes, if I had known it to be that simple!!  Thank you so much S

Hi,

I couldn't get this to work with a custom image watermark either; it just kept appearing on every page, and no amount of unlinking of headers or footers would change this. So, I pasted the image onto the page I wanted, selected the " "text wrapping -> behind text" option, and faffed around with the contrast and colour until it was faded and lighter. Now it looks like a watermark without actually being one.

Hi,

I couldn't get this to work with a custom image watermark either; it just kept appearing on every page, and no amount of unlinking of headers or footers would change this. So, I pasted the image onto the page I wanted, selected the " "text wrapping -> behind text" option, and faffed around with the contrast and colour until it was faded and lighter. Now it looks like a watermark without actually bein

• Edited by abendayan Thursday, May 08, 2014 3:38 AM

OK, I figured it out. 

The problem is that despite having the document broken out into sections and having those section headers unlinked from each other, when you insert a custom watermark it applies the watermark to ALL sections in the document and not just to the section that you have selected with your cursor prior to inserting the watermark...to me this is a bug. 

The fix however is relatively easy.  Once you insert the custom watermark into the document, you double click at the very top of the page to open the headers / footers.  While in this mode, you scroll up to the section of the document where you DID NOT want the watermark.  If you position your cursor over the watermark, you'll see that you can select it and delete it.  When you delete the watermark, Word will respect the section breaks you have created and delete out the watermark from only the section you are working in.  You still have to break up the document into sections as stated above, but for a Custom Image or even Custom Text watermark, you have to take the extra step of going back in and cleaning up the watermarks to remove them from the sections that should NEVER have gotten them to begin with...frustrating.

The macros in the link I posted provide various ways of inserting custom watermarks without such a laborious workaround.

Do note too that, with your approach, any custom watermark you insert in one section will wipe out the watermarks you already have in any other section.

Actually, I spoke too soon.  I was just able to create a work around.  Watermarks are actually embedded WordArt elements that can be edited and this solved the problem for me.  Follow these steps:

1. Follow the process as you did before to add a watermark to select pages by creating multiple sections in your document.
2. Go to the page where you want to add the watermark, open the header, and add a STANDARD watermark (such as "confidential").
3. With the header still open, mouse over the watermark until the pointer arrow turns into a crosshair when it "finds" the WordArt element and click to select.
4. From the WordArt ribbion, click "edit text" (first button, far left of ribbon) and a dialog box will appear.  (Alternately, right click on the element when the cursor changes and select "edit text" from the pop-up menu.)
5. Change the text to whatever you want and click "OK."

The "standard" watermark is still there but with your new custom text and it should still only be on the pages in that section.  This requires a few extra steps from simply using the custom option on the watermark drop-down, but it should do the trick.