Hi H.M.,
To some it extent it appears that Word may have outsmarted itself <g> with some of the new features in Word 2007. Some of this
comes from Word being between 'two worlds' when it comes to handling some graphics in that Word only implemented part of the new
graphics engine of Office 2007 (Escher 2) while trying to maintian backwards compatibility.
In general, Word 2007 'knows' (can read from a Word file) three 'Watermark types' that can be passed to the Remove Watermark control
for action.
The first two watermarrks are those used in the legacy binary (.doc) format that Word 97-2003 use and those written to and read by
Word 2007 when it's working with the features of the XML base Office Open file formats (OOXML).
When using Page Layout=>Watermark=>Custom Watermark
The two legacy Watermark types are (internally)
-WordPictureWatermark (inserted graphic)
-PowerPlusWaterMarkObject (typed or preset WordArt entries)
[I don't know the origin of the 'PowerPlus' name <g> but it's probably interesting]
The new, Word 2007 OOXML one is part of an SDT (Structured Document Tag).
Basically, from the ribbon an SDT is the 'packaging' created of items such as Document Part/Building block entries you use and save
in galleries, which includes the Watermark gallery.
Some of the SDTs that are description based (Classic Watermarks, Wd2007 equations, shapes and SmartAt are stored in the .doc file
when you save in the Word97-2003 format for attempted 'round tripping' and can be presented in the older versions as graphics/static
content, some are simply saved as prior version graphics or objects. When you use SaveAs Word 97-2003 the SDT in the header goes
away and shapes are saved.
The 'Remove Watermark' internal routine can find and can in some scenarios remove any of the three watermark types, while it should
also be able to leave other graphics/shapes in the header, but Word can be confused (or actually it's probably not confused, so it
just confuses us instead <g>) by the sequence in which you put items in the header.
For example.
Sample Document Method A - Things you might expect
A1. Start a new document in Word 2007 in Print layout view and double click on the header area of the page to enter the header.
A2. Use Insert=>Picture and put a picture in the header and apply one of the picture frame styles to it. (if the picture is
inserted inline with text, change the wrapping to 'behind text' and move it aside.
A3. Use Insert=>Shape and put in a text box or a shape and select a shape style to color it. (change its wrapping and move it away
as well.
A4. Type some text in the header.
A5. Double click back into the document body and use
Page Layout=>Watermark
and right click on 'Remove Watermark' and choose the option to add it to the Quick Access toolbar.
A6. Use Page Layout=>Watermark and insert Confidential1 (the angled version of that watermark).
A7. Test the 'Remove Watermark' item on the QAT. The 'Confidential' item (only) should be removed (there can be a small delay).
Then use 'undo' to put it back in.
A8. Close and save the document as a Word 2007 .docx document.
A9. Reopen the document then retest the Remove Watermark choice, then close it without saving.
Sample Document Method B - 'What did I do wrong that changed Word behavior' <g>.
B1. Start a new document in Word 2007 in Print layout view, don't go into the Header are, but instead use
Page Layout=>Watermark and insert Confidential1 (the angled version of that watermark).
B2. Double click on the header area of the page to enter the header. That should bring up the 'Header Tools' ribbon. Note that
except for the 'Quick Parts' gallery choice the other 'Insert' choices are greyed out.
B3. Click on the 'Confidential' watermark. That should relight the Insert items.
B4. Use Insert=>Picture and put a picture in the header and apply one of the picture frame styles to it. (if the picture is
inserted inline with text, change the wrapping to 'behind text' and move it aside.
B5. Use Insert=>Shape (from the Home tab, not the Header & Footer Tools, beause it's not there as a choice <g>) and put in a text
box or a shape and select a shape style to color it. (change its wrapping and move it away as well.
B6. Type some text in the header.
B7. Double click back into the document body and save the document as a .docx (Word 2007 format) document.
B8. Click the 'Remove Watermark' choice. Did everyting except the text in the header vanish?
What happened at step B2, is that Word created an SDT to package non-text content in the header. When you chose the only item
available to you in the header in B3 (the watermark) the choices to add to that watermark appeared active again, and it all becomes
part of the SDT (and call be saved as a single entry in the Watermark or Quickpart gallery). Word only allows one SDT 'watermark'
in the header. If you insert a different one all of your other items when using Method B, will be replaced. If you use Method A,
only the parts that are wrapped in the SDT will be affected. All Gallery entries in all 36 of the document parts are SDTs. For
example, go back into the header in Sample B and select just the text you typed and save it to the Watermark gallery, then Insert
that gallery entry in Sample B, and it will likely replace the prior work (fortunately a quick 'undo' will bring it back <g>), or if
you go into the header, the text is still accessible and editable as text.
When you save as a Word 97-2003 document and then reopen in Word 2007 or use Office Button=>Convert to put the new features 'back'
into play. For example, if you had the Date Saved field you mentioned vertically centered in the textbox, it will go to the top of
the textbox when you save as Word97-2003 and go back to center when you use Office button=>Convert, but the
Word's behavior now, whether you used Method A or Method B, appears to be that the 'Remove Watermark' command should still be able
to remove the legacy (Picture and Text) watermarks, (if they're not grouped with other shape/graphic content - I had hoped that you
could fool Word by attaching the three text boxes you mentioned to the 'watermark' so that the Remove Watermark command would take
it all from a Word 97-2003 document). The 'Remove Watermark' should pull the 'classic' watermark, but leave the other content
(unlike the Word 2007 .docx behavior if you used Method B).
On working with macros to remove the shapes, if the content you created was not one of the classic 'custom watermark' types, then it
would take a macro, and the complexity of that macro would depend on if you're trying to zap the entire set of shapes from the
header or a specific one. As I understand it shapes can be deleted by name and that should include the ability to locate it by a
name you put into the Textbox properties under the 'AltText' tab. If you add text (a name) to Alt Text in the textbox(es) and save
to the Watermark Gallery, the textbox retains that name even when saved as Word 97-2003 format.
Tony, Jay, Graham, Taz or the other macro-fluent folks can confirm if it's possible to find and delete specific textboxes by that
data
There were some earlier discussions on doing this with macros (which of course I'm not finding now
. If I recall correctly, it's
also possible that you can also find the name/ID of a specific shape if you want to selectively remove it.
================
I have a somewhat complex custom watermark I created in Word 2007,
made up of 3 separate text boxes, one of which includes a SaveDate
timestamp. The watermark works fine, but if it is used in a file that
is saved in .doc format, I run into a problem removing the watermark.
Once the file has been saved as a .doc, I can no longer remove the
watermark by going to the Page Layout ribbon, Watermark, Remove
Watermark command - nothing happens at all. I can remove the
watermark by going into the header, selecting the watermark itself,
and deleting that.
My question is, can I do something to fix this watermark so that the
Remove Watermark command will work, or is this just something I will
have to live with for this type of watermark? Other watermarks,
including simple custom watermarks, don't seem to have this problem.>>
--
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
