Here are some ideas for your family newsletters, organization flyers, sale announcements, party invitations, kid's birthday announcements, new baby announcements, and holiday greetings using MS Word Watermarks and Backgrounds. Word's Background feature was designed primarily for use in a web page design but can be used to add gradient color, or a texture or pattern to your printed page. When you add a watermark or background it applies to all pages of the document.

On screen, background effects will only be displayed while in the Web layout view. The key here is to make sure that when you choose a background style that it is obscure enough to not overpower your document's text. Although you can add pictures using the background tool, the watermark tool is a better option as it allows you to fade it so that it sits in the background without consuming your text. Also note that you cannot combine these two features to have a background effect and a watermark effect at the same time.

MS Word offers several features you can use to decorate your documents. By adding a watermark or background to your document, you can make all of your public communications uniquely yours.

Ideas:
• Insert your family holiday picture as a watermark
• Insert a picture of an shamrock, Easter egg, bunny, Christmas ornament, Americana or other Country Flag, fireworks, holiday bow or Christmas Tree as a watermark
• Add a colored texture or pattern in the background
• Add a gradient color to the background
• Add a text message (such as Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Celebration, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays etc.) as a watermark

To Insert a Watermark
• Select Format | Background | Watermark (2003) or Format | Background (Word XP)
• Select Printer Watermark to display the dialog box

FOR PICTURES
• Browse to select the picture of your choice – be sure to choose something that will be subtle in your background
• Select the size scale to suit your preferences
• Select washout to fade the effect
• Click on Apply

FOR TEXT
• Select the Text Watermark radial button
• Select a predefined text message or type your unique message (i.e., try doing one with your name to see how it works)
• Chose a font style, size and color
• Selecting Semi-transparent is a good idea to fade it into the background
• Choose layout to be diagonal or horizontal
• Click on Apply

Reactivate the dialog box to make any changes you feel will give you the effect you want. Removing the watermark is also a simple task, simply activate the dialog box and select the No Watermark radial button.

Adding a background effect is also very simple.
• Select Format | Background | Watermark (2003) or Format | Background (Word XP)

FOR COLOR
• Simply make a color choice from the color grid or more colors feature. You want to make sure, however, that your color selection is subtle. Light pastel colors work best.

FOR PATTERNS
• Select Fill Effects
• Choose the appropriate tab for the effect you want.Gradient, Patterns, Textures, or Pictures.

Note that you cannot make the background choices transparent or faded; therefore, proper selection of a picture, pattern, or texture is critical to avoid your text getting lost in the background effect. Sometimes changing the text to a different font style, applying bold characteristics, changing the color to be contrasting with the background and making the text size larger can offset the complexity of the background effect that you choose.

To remove the effect, simply select No Fill from the Background dropdown. The key here is to experiment with the features to see the various effects that you can create.