How to Remove Watermark on Word

When your office or business grows, you may have to share Word files with others including the client. However, when others edit your documents, they may add watermarks to your file, which cannot be easily removed without knowing the original password. If you are sick of dealing with this situation, I have the right article for you.

Here, I will show you how to remove watermark in Microsoft Word 2016, 2010, 2013 and 2007 so that you can avoid future headaches.

How to Remove a Watermark in Word for Windows or Word Online

Under the Design tab, select Watermark, located on the far right of the screen. Select Remove Watermark.

In Word 2010 and Word 2007, Watermark is found under the Page Layout tab, and in the Page Background group.

If your watermark is still there, it’s possible Word anchored your watermark in the header area if it’s tied to a specific section. Double-click the header area, select the watermark itself, then press Delete.

If your document includes sections that are not linked together, these steps must be repeated to remove the watermark from each independent section.

How to Remove a Watermark in Word for Mac

Click the Design tab. In the Page Background group, click Watermark to display the Insert Watermark box. Select No watermark.

In Word for Mac 2011, click the Page Layout tab, select the Page Background group, then click Watermark.

If the watermark is still there, it may be anchored to the header in a specific section. The solution is the same as the Windows version of Word: Double-click the header area to open it, click the watermark, then Delete.

If your document contains multiple sections and section breaks that are not linked and contain watermarks, you’ll need to remove the watermark from each section individually by repeating the steps above.

On Windows

1. Select Design > Watermark. (In Word 2010 or 2007, select Page Layout > Watermark.)
2. Select Remove Watermark.

Remove a watermark by clicking the header area

If you can’t delete a watermark using Remove Watermark, try this:

1. Double-click near the top of the page to open the header area.
2. Put your cursor over the watermark until you see a 4-way arrow.
3. Select the watermark.
4. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
5. Repeat as necessary to remove all watermarks.

On Mac OS

1. Select Design > Watermark. (In Word for Mac 2011, select Page Layout > Watermark).
2. In the Insert Watermark box, select No watermark.

Remove a watermark by clicking the header area

If you can’t delete a watermark using Remove Watermark, try this:

1. Double-click near the top of the page to open the header area.
2. Click the watermark to select it.
3. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

How to Remove Draft Watermark in Word?

To remove draft watermark in Word, users can perform a number of techniques without using any third-party tool. For instance, you can go through the Watermark feature in Word, work from a Header section, use the Footer section, try using a 4-way arrow, delete the Footer/ Header or try saving the file as XML format to edit the watermark.

These steps can be performed in Microsoft Word 2016 as well as 2010 on Windows or Mac computer or laptop. To know further about Microsoft Word’s remove watermark procedure, below are the solutions listed with a manual procedure. By following these methods carefully, anyone can remove watermark in Word. Let us know more in detail.

Method 1: How Do I Remove a Watermark in Word using Watermark Feature?

Microsoft Word offers a number of tools to organize and customize your document. Watermark tool is one of the helpful features provided by Microsoft Word using which you can add or remove watermark in Word. If you are struck by this question how do I remove a watermark in Word then here are the following steps for you.

• To begin, you need to open the document that has the watermark.
• Next to this, you can follow steps based on the Word version. For Word 2010 or 2007, you can go to the Page Layout tab located in the top toolbar whereas, for the latest edition such as Word 2013 or 2016, users can go to the Design tab located in the top toolbar.

• Then, you can go to the Page Background of the Page Layout or Design tab.
• After this, you can click on the Watermark option.
• Here, you will see the Remove Watermark option. Once you select this option, you will find the watermark removed from your document.

Note: When you choose to Remove Watermark, the watermark gets removed from each page of your document.

Method 2: How Do You Remove a Watermark in Word from Header?

Watermarks are usually added to the header’s area. This becomes a perfect way to remove draft watermark in Word. If you want to know how to remove watermark in Word 2016.

• First of all, open the document from where you want to remove watermark in Word.
• Once opened, click twice on the header part of your document.

• Once you get access to the header of your document, you can click on the watermark option. This will select the watermark area.
• As the last step, you can hit the Delete button and the selected watermark will be removed easily.

Note: Once you apply this method, the actions will be implied to each page of the document. In order words, deleting the watermark from the header area will remove the watermark from each page of your document.

Method 3: How to Remove Picture Watermark in Word with the Footer Section?

If Microsoft Word can’t remove watermark then you can simply try using the Footer section. This becomes very easy for you to remove draft watermark in Word. When you can’t remove watermark in Word, use this quick method with the following steps:

• To initiate the process, open the Word document that contains the watermark sign.
• Next to the step, click twice on the Footer part in order to access it.
• At this point, you can click on the Watermark option.
• Now, you need to hit the Delete option.

These steps can be repeated in other sections in the document in order to remove watermark in Word.

Method 4: How to Remove a Watermark on a Word Document with 4-Way Arrow?

The method with a 4-way arrow is one of the beneficial methods. It helps you to replace the Select-Object arrow and remove draft watermark in Word. If you want to learn how to remove watermark from Word document 2010 then go through the following steps instructed below.

• First of all, make sure that you have opened your document that has a watermark.
• Now, you can go to the menu on the top and click on Review.
• Under the Review tab, you will see the Track Changes option.
• Then, you can delete any of the markups (appears on the right) in your document by rejecting/accepting or deleting the comments.
• Once done, you can click twice on the header of the page.
• Next to this, you can move your cursor over your document while making it up as a watermark until it converts to a 4-way arrow.
• When you are able to pick the watermark, you can click on it.
• After this, you can delete the watermark and do the same for other sections to remove watermark in Word.

Method 5: How to Remove Draft Watermark from Word Document by Removing Footer/Header?

In some situations, Word files become corrupted which as a result does not allow you to remove the watermark easily from your Word document. If you want to know how to remove draft watermarks from Word documents, below are the following steps for that.

• As usual, open your Word document containing a watermark.
• Make sure that you place your cursor on the Header section.
• Next to this, you can go to the insert option and select the Header option.
• After his, you can click on the Remove Header option.

This will remove watermark in Word yet if you see the same issue in your document, you can then try removing the Footer section. To do so, you can follow the steps mentioned below:

• Open the document in your Word.
• Now, place your cursor in the Footer section or the area with a watermark.
• Then, you can click on the Insert the Footer.
• After this, you can select the Remove Footer option.

This will surely help you to remove draft watermark Word following a few simple steps.

Method 6: How to Remove Watermark in Word 2016 Saving as XML Format?

XML is a markup language that is quite similar to HTML format. When you save your Word file as XML format, you will find your file in plain text. Then, you can edit the watermark from your Word file. Let us know more in detail how to remove watermark in Word 2016.

• To start, save the Word file as XML format. To do so, open your Word document, go to the File and click Save As.
• You can save the file with the preferred location on your computer or laptop.
• Then, you will have a list of supported formats when you type a name.
• After that, you can click on Save as and pick the Word XML format from the list.
• When you are done saving your file, go where it is stored, click right, and open the file with Notepad.
• Here, you will find your document in the plain-text form. You can search for the watermark. To make your task easy, use the Ctrl + F key.
• Wherever you find the watermark, you are required to remove the word or phrase.
• This is how you have to remove all the watermarks available in your document and do not forget to save your file.
• After you save the file, you can open the file in your Word document.
• As the last step, you can save it as a Word file.

As a result, you will find your file back to the Word document but without a watermark. This can be the trickiest but one of the useful methods to remove the watermark.

Conclusion

Most of web users are using Microsoft Office Word to handling text documents. So, having an watermark in your Microsoft Word is not a big deal. If you are facing this problem, here you find the best ways to remove watermark from Word file.