How To Add and Remove a Watermark in Excel

Excel has no Watermark button, which is why watermarks here are confusing to add and even more confusing to get rid of. What looks like one watermark is actually one of three unrelated things: a picture sitting in the page header, a floating WordArt shape, or a sheet background image. Each is removed in a completely different place.

Answer: To remove a watermark in Excel, go to Insert then Header & Footer, click into the header box, and delete the &[Picture] code. If nothing is there, check Page Layout for a Delete Background button. To add a watermark, insert a picture into that same header box.

Last updated: August 19, 2026

What this guide covers:

• Why is there no Watermark button in Excel?
• How do you remove a watermark in Excel?
• How do you add a watermark in Excel?
• How do you add a DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL watermark?
• How do you make an Excel watermark transparent?
• How do you put the same watermark on every sheet?
• Why is my watermark not showing or not printing?
• Frequently asked questions about Excel watermarks

Why is there no Watermark button in Excel?

Word has a Watermark command on the Design tab. Microsoft Excel does not, and never has. Every watermark you have ever seen in a spreadsheet is one of three workarounds wearing a disguise.

Work out which of the three you are dealing with before you touch anything. Almost every "I cannot remove this watermark" problem is someone looking in the wrong one of those three places.

Microsoft documents the header method as the official approach in its guide to adding a watermark in Excel.

How do you remove a watermark in Excel?

Work through these in order. The first one covers the large majority of cases, because the header method is what most people and most templates use.

Remove a watermark that lives in the header or footer

1. Go to the Insert tab and click Header & Footer in the Text group. Excel switches to Page Layout view.
2. Click into the header section that contains the watermark. There are three boxes, left, centre, and right, so check all three.
3. You will see the code &[Picture] rather than the image itself. Select that code and press Delete.
4. Check the footer boxes the same way, then click any cell to leave the header.

If you prefer not to switch views, the same thing is reachable from Page Layout, the small Page Setup arrow, the Header/Footer tab, then Custom Header. Delete the &[Picture] code there and click OK.

The header stores a code, not a picture. If you go looking for an image to click on, you will not find one, and you will conclude the watermark is unremovable.

Remove a sheet background image

Go to the Page Layout tab and look at the Page Setup group. If a background is set, the Background button has changed into Delete Background. Click it once and the image is gone.

If the button still reads Background, this sheet has no background image and your watermark is coming from somewhere else. Note that backgrounds are set per worksheet, so you may need to repeat this on each tab.

Remove WordArt, a text box, or a picture floating on the sheet

Click the edge of the object once so it shows sizing handles, then press Delete. Clicking into the middle puts you in text-editing mode instead, which is why pressing Delete sometimes seems to do nothing.

If you cannot select it at all, because it is behind the cells or locked in place, use the Selection Pane:

1. Go to Home, then Find & Select, then Selection Pane.
2. Every floating object on the sheet is listed there, including ones you cannot see.
3. Click a name to select the object, then press Delete. The eye icon next to each name hides it temporarily if you would rather not delete it.

The faint "Page 1" text is not a watermark

If the grey text across your sheet says Page 1, Page 2, and so on, nothing has been added to your file. You are simply in Page Break Preview, which is a view mode.

Go to the View tab and click Normal. The text disappears immediately, and it never prints in the first place.

Page numbers in grey behind the grid are a view setting. No amount of deleting will remove them, because there is nothing in the file to delete.

How do you add a watermark in Excel?

Three methods, and the right choice depends almost entirely on whether the file will be printed or read on screen.

Method 1: Using Header & Footer

This is the method Microsoft documents and the only one that repeats on every printed page. It embeds the watermark in the worksheet's header or footer, which renders behind your data rather than on top of it.

Steps:

1. Open your Excel file and go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.

2. In the Text group, click Header & Footer.

   

3. The worksheet switches to Page Layout view. Click inside the centre header box.

4. On the Header & Footer tab, click Picture in the Header & Footer Elements group, then choose your image file. The code &[Picture] appears in the box.

   

5. With the cursor still in that box, click Format Picture on the same tab.

6. On the Picture tab, set Color to Washout. This is what makes the image faint enough to read through. Use the Size tab in the same dialog to scale it.

7. Click any cell outside the header to see the result.

   

By default the image hugs the top of the page. To push it toward the middle, click into the header box in front of the &[Picture] code and press Enter several times. Each blank line moves it further down.

Method 2: Using WordArt for text watermarks

WordArt is the fastest route to a text watermark such as CONFIDENTIAL or DRAFT, with the trade-off that it is a floating object rather than part of the page, so it appears once wherever you put it.

Steps:

1. Go to the Insert tab and select WordArt from the Text group.

   

2. Choose a style and type your text, for example CONFIDENTIAL.

3. Drag the green rotation handle to angle it, then resize and position it over your data.

4. Right-click the WordArt, choose Format Shape, open Text Options, then Text Fill, and drag the Transparency slider to around 75 percent.

5. Check that it does not sit directly on top of numbers people need to read.

   

A common mistake here is dragging the transparency slider under Shape Options instead of Text Options. Shape Options controls the invisible box around the letters, so nothing appears to change.

Method 3: Inserting a background image

This sets an image behind the whole grid. It is the quickest of the three and it looks good on screen, but it does not print, so never use it on anything headed for a printer or a PDF.

Steps:

1. Go to the Page Layout tab.

2. Select Background in the Page Setup group.

   

3. Choose an image from your computer, from stock images, or from an online search.

4. The image tiles behind the entire worksheet.

   

Backgrounds tile and cannot be scaled, positioned, or faded inside Excel. Whatever you want it to look like, the image file has to look like that before you insert it.

How do you add a DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL watermark?

Excel has no ready-made DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL stamp the way Word does, so you are choosing between the two methods above depending on whether it needs to print on every page.

For a printed report, turn the word into an image

The header method only accepts pictures, not typed text, so the word has to become a file first.

1. Open Word or PowerPoint, type DRAFT in a large light grey font, rotate it about 45 degrees, and remove any background fill.
2. Right-click it and save it as a picture, choosing PNG so the background stays transparent.
3. Back in Excel, follow Method 1 above and insert that PNG into the centre header box.
4. Set Color to Washout in Format Picture if it still looks too strong.

It is more steps than it should be, but this is the only version that appears on page four of a twelve page printout.

For a file that stays on screen, use WordArt

Follow Method 2, type DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL, rotate to roughly 45 degrees, and set text transparency to about 75 percent. Thirty seconds of work, and perfectly good for a file that will be read in Excel rather than printed.

That last row is worth saying plainly. A watermark is a visual label, not protection. Anyone who opens the file can delete it in two clicks, so do not treat CONFIDENTIAL on a sheet as a control over who sees the data.

How do you make an Excel watermark transparent?

Transparency works differently in each of the three methods, which is why one set of instructions never works for everybody.

• Header picture: click into the header box, click Format Picture, open the Picture tab, and set Color to Washout. Washout is a preset that lightens and reduces contrast in one step. The Brightness and Contrast sliders underneath let you fine-tune it.
• WordArt: right-click, Format Shape, Text Options, Text Fill, then the Transparency slider. Between 70 and 85 percent usually reads well without hiding data.
• Background image: no transparency control exists in Excel. Fade the image in an image editor before you insert it.

Washout for pictures, Text Fill transparency for WordArt. Those are different controls in different dialogs, and neither one appears where the other lives.

If you want the watermark visibly behind your numbers rather than over them, the header method wins by default, because header content always renders behind cell contents while shapes always render in front.

How do you put the same watermark on every sheet?

Headers and backgrounds are both stored per worksheet, so adding one to Sheet1 does nothing to Sheet2. Grouping the sheets first fixes that in one pass.

1. Right-click any sheet tab and choose Select All Sheets. To pick only some, hold Ctrl and click the tabs you want.
2. The title bar now shows [Group]. Insert the header watermark exactly as in Method 1. It is written to every selected sheet at once.
3. Right-click a tab and choose Ungroup Sheets as soon as you are done.

While sheets are grouped, every keystroke goes to all of them. Ungroup the moment the watermark is in, or you will quietly overwrite data on tabs you are not looking at.

This is one of the more useful habits to build if you regularly work across a multi-tab Excel workbook.

Why is my watermark not showing or not printing?

Final thoughts on Excel watermarks

The whole topic gets easier once you stop thinking of a watermark as one feature. It is three separate workarounds that happen to look similar. Header pictures print and repeat. WordArt is fast and floats. Backgrounds are screen only. Identify which one you have and both adding and removing it become a thirty second job.

For more easy-to-follow Excel guides and the latest Excel Templates, visit Simple Sheets and the related articles section of this blog post.

Subscribe to Simple Sheets on YouTube for the most straightforward Excel video tutorials.

Frequently asked questions about Excel watermarks

Does Excel have a built-in watermark feature?

No. Unlike Word, Excel has no Watermark command anywhere on the ribbon. Every Excel watermark is one of three workarounds: a picture inserted into the page header, a floating WordArt shape, or a sheet background image.

How do I remove a watermark in Excel?

Go to Insert, then Header and Footer, click into each header and footer box, and delete the code that reads &[Picture]. If there is no such code, check the Page Layout tab for a Delete Background button. If the watermark is a WordArt shape, click its edge and press Delete, or find it under Home, Find and Select, Selection Pane.

Why does my Excel watermark not print?

Because it is a sheet background rather than a header picture. Sheet backgrounds added from Page Layout, Background are display only and never print. Delete the background and insert the image into the page header instead, which prints on every page.

How do I add a DRAFT watermark in Excel?

For a printed report, create the word DRAFT as a PNG image in Word or PowerPoint, then insert it into the centre header box via Insert, Header and Footer, Picture, and set Color to Washout in Format Picture. For an on-screen file, insert WordArt, type DRAFT, rotate it, and set text fill transparency to about 75 percent.

Can I add a watermark in Excel for the web?

No. Watermarks are not available in Excel for the web, which is why the Header and Footer and Background buttons are missing there. Use Open in Desktop App to switch to the installed version of Excel, add the watermark there, and save.

Is the faint Page 1 text on my sheet a watermark?

No. Grey Page 1 and Page 2 labels behind the grid mean the workbook is in Page Break Preview, which is a view mode rather than anything stored in the file. Go to the View tab and click Normal. That text never prints.

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