How to Add an Excel Watermark to Your Sheet

In Microsoft Excel, you can add a watermark, sort of, to an Excel sheet. How to do this is not intuitive. In Microsoft Word you have templates to chose from such as “Confidential” or “Do Not Copy” for a watermark.

I am going to discuss one method; adding an image background as a watermark. We are going to insert an image which could be a photo or a company logo. Let’s see how to implement this watermark.

This is for Excel for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of Excel will be similar.

Your Excel Sheet

• Create an Excel spreadsheet or use an existing one. Refer to my newly created sheet (Sheet1) below:

• Click Insert>Text>Header & Footer

• Select Picture

Select Your Watermark

Select your option for inserting a picture. Refer to following screenshot

• Select your image
• Click Insert
• You will see &[Picture] in the Header.

View Your Watermark

• Tap anywhere outside the Header to see your watermark. Refer to following screenshot for my selection of a logo:

Formatting Your Watermark

To format the image:

• Tap anywhere outside the Header
• Click Insert>Text>Header & Footer
• Select Format Picture. You will see the following screen:

From here you can resize the image

• Click the Picture tab
• Select the Color box and change it to the Washout option
• Click OK. This allows the background image to be less intrusive.

Refer below to my final capture of the watermark screen:

• Save your spreadsheet and close or exit Excel

For a Microsoft Word look-a-like watermark, use the WordArt feature in Excel.

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