Inserting a picture in a file with a watermark

[wstough]

I am using a word document with "DRAFT" as a watermark diagonally on all the
pages. I am trying to insert a picture into the document as well, but the
watermark won't show through the picture that I inserted as it does the rest
of the text. Does anyone know how I can make it show up through the inserted
picture (it is a graph).

Thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

I am using a word document with "DRAFT" as a watermark diagonally on all the
pages. I am trying to insert a picture into the document as well, but the
watermark won't show through the picture that I inserted as it does the rest
of the text. Does anyone know how I can make it show up through the inserted
picture (it is a graph).

Thanks

If the background of the graph is a solid color, you can use the Set
Transparent Color tool -- on the Picture toolbar in Word 2003 or
earlier, or on the Picture Tools > Format > Recolor button in Word
2007 -- to make that solid color transparent so the watermark shows
through.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[CyberTaz]

Not contradicting Jay's valid suggestion, but one consideration about that
is that if the same color is used elsewhere in this "picture" those bits
will be made transparent as well. That may not be desirable, so if you have
that occur there may be other options available. In order to suggest what
they are, however, it's necessary to know what version of Word you're using
and exactly what type of graphic object it is -- "picture" is a very
general, non-descript term.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[wstough]

Thanks for both of your responses. I tried what Jay suggested, and assuming
I did it correctly, it didn't work. I use Word 2003. The file is a black
and white line graph that was originally in a .pdf file. I have imported it
into the word document several ways --- I have done a screen shot then copied
and pasted into power point so I could crop out the figure I needed, then
imported it into the word document as a power point object. I also saved the
power point file as a .tiff file and as a .jpg file and tried to do it that
way. Finally is just copied and pasted the figure directly from ppt into the
word document. All the methods work to get the figure there, but I can't
seem to get the DRAFT watermark to show up through the picture. I tried
changed the background to white and the transparency to 100% but that didn't
work either. I also tried the move to back/move to front functions but those
didn't work. Maybe what I am trying to do is not possible. Thanks for any
help you have.

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeah, you're fighting an uphill battle there

Watermarks are intended to be overprinted by the document content. They
don't actually show through the text because the text is opaque. The only
portion of the watermark that is visible is where there is space of some
sort in the text. Unless they're created otherwise, picture objects are
completely opaque as well & the Transparency slider in Format Picture will
not change that. It only affects the Fill of Drawing Objects.

The Set Transparent Color tool Jay guided you to is primarily intended to
remove a background. [Think in terms of your high school senior picture that
you might like to have the "backdrop" removed.] If you select that tool then
click in the white area of the image it should render that space
transparent, though. It doesn't matter if it is a TIFF, JPEG, PNG, etc. Is
that what you tried that "didn't work"? If you can be more descriptive of
what did happen perhaps there's more to be suggested.

Another approach would be to create a Rectangle (or other Shape) then go
into the Format AutoShape dialog's Colors & Lines tab. Open the Color list,
select Fill Effects - Picture & select the saved chart image to fill the
rectangle. While there, set the Transparency of the fill to ~50% & see how
it looks. You can adjust from there.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jay Freedman]

I've always been a little suspicious of the graphics tools built into
Word. It's a *word processor*...

Instead, I'd suggest working with the file in a graphics editor first.
One good choice is IrfanView (www.irfanview.com), which is free. An
excellent choice is Snagit (www.techsmith.com), which has a free trial
download but is well worth the price to purchase a license.

These instructions are for working in IrfanView. Open either the .tiff
or the .jpg file. Click Image > Information and look at the Number of
Unique Colors item. If it doesn't say 2, click Image > Decrease Color
Depth; select 2 colors and click OK. This makes sure there aren't
pixels of something other than black and white.

Save the file under another name, choose the GIF format, and in the
Save Options box check the option for "Save transparent color". (Most
other formats don't store information about transparency.) When you
click OK, you get a box that lets you click on the white background to
identify it as transparent.

Insert that GIF file into the Word document. The text wrapping you
choose won't make any difference with respect to the watermark, which
is in a layer behind everything else.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.