Working with watermarks

You can call it a background image, or semi-transparent text, but it is also known as a watermark, some sort of background image that can appear throughout a PowerPoint presentation. Like a company logo, for example.

Watermarks can be used for identification or branding, for security or legal purposes, or simply as a design or decorative element.

Let's add a watermark to this presentation that identifies it as a draft version.

Click the VIEW tab and open the Slide Master.

Then, select the slide master.

By putting the watermark here, it’ll appear on the background of every slide.

On the INSERT tab, click Text Box. Then, draw a large text box, and type "DRAFT".

Select the text, enter a font size of around 250 to 300, and change the font style, if you want.

You may need to widen the text box a bit.

Next, go to the top of the text box and click this circular arrow called the rotate handle.

Drag it to the left, so the text angles upward and fills the slide.

Then, center the text in the text box, and go to the DRAWING TOOLS FORMAT tab, and click Align and Align Center.

Then, click Align Middle.

Next, we need to do something to the watermark, so it doesn’t fight with our foreground elements.

Select the text, and on the DRAWING TOOLS FORMAT tab,

click the Format Text Effects dialog box launcher, and this pane opens.

Click the TEXT OPTIONS tab, and then, click the Text Fill & Outline tab.

Under TEXT FILL, click the Transparency slider, and drag it to about 80.

You need to find the right balance between being 'too prominent' and 'too much' in the background.

Finally, click Send Backward, and Send to Back.

This places 'DRAFT' on a layer behind the elements on your slide, but just above your slide background.

To make the text even less obtrusive, you can come up here to Text Fill and remove the fill, and add an outline color. Then, adjust the outline transparency.

Close the slide master and let's see how the watermark looks behind our content.

Check through the slides. If you need to, go back into the slide master and readjust the transparency level.

You decide how noticeable you want the watermark to be. You could even cut it back to 90%.

One more thing: if you are happy with a watermark, you can turn it into an image file.

Right-click the text box and click Save as Picture.

Decide where you want to save it, type a name, and click Save.

Now, you can insert the picture in your next slide show.

You’ll see how to add a picture as a watermark in the next movie.