Have you had a play with watermarks in Word 2007 or 2010? It looks great – a nice little graphical drop down so you can see what you’re inserting, the ability to create custom watermarks, what’s not to like?
For simple documents, this works really well. The problem is once you come to a document with multiple sections, or with different page headers. For example, set up a document with a few sections, and make sure the “Link To Previous” setting is off. Now go to any section, and insert a new watermark. See – it looks good. But now look at the other sections – they don’t have the watermark. That’s not too big a deal – so you then go to the other sections and add the watermark again. That looks good too, but now go look at the first section you put the watermark on, and it’s gone! The process removes all watermarks from all other sections, and only inserts the watermark on the new section. Now this is getting dangerous when it comes to legal documents. You get the same issues when you use different first page footers within a section.
It’s very easy to create your own custom code for inserting and deleting bookmarks, and even use the existing built-in bookmarks in 2007/2010. Turns out the bookmarks you see are just auto-text entries, and it’s the name of the entries you see in the list. For example the Draft watermarks are auto-text entries “DRAFT 1” and “DRAFT 2”. So you just need some code to insert the appropriate auto-text into the document, so look no further…
Sub InsertWatermark(ByVal WatermarkAutoTextName As String)
If Documents.Count > 0 Then
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
‘ Store the current location in document
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, Name:=“WatermarkTempBookmark”)
‘ Load all building block templates
Templates.LoadBuildingBlocks()
‘ Find autotext entry first
Dim oTemplate As Template
Dim oAutoTextEntry As AutoTextEntry
Dim EntryFound As Boolean
Dim oSection As Section
Dim oRange As Range
EntryFound = False
For Each oTemplate In Templates
For Each oAutoTextEntry In oTemplate.AutoTextEntries
If LCase(oAutoTextEntry.Name) = LCase(WatermarkAutoTextName) Then
‘ Insert autotext in all headers in all sections of document
For Each oSection In ActiveDocument.Sections
oRange = oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range
oRange.Collapse(wdCollapseStart)
oAutoTextEntry.Insert(rngRange, True)
oRange = oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage).Range
oRange.Collapse(wdCollapseStart)
oAutoTextEntry.Insert(rngRange, True)
oRange = oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterEvenPages).Range
oRange.Collapse(wdCollapseStart)
oAutoTextEntry.Insert(rngRange, True)
Next oSection
EntryFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next oAutoTextEntry
If EntryFound Then Exit For
Next oTemplate
‘ Return to original place in document
If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists(“WatermarkTempBookmark”) Then
Selection.GoTo(What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:=“WatermarkTempBookmark”)
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(“WatermarkTempBookmark”).Delete()
End If
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End If
End Sub
Now just setup a sub to call the above with the appropriate autotext name, and add a button and callback to call this sub. As an example, the following sub will insert the first DRAFT watermark – “DRAFT 1”.
Sub InsertDraftWatermark()
InsertWatermark(“DRAFT 1”)
End Sub
Now all you need is a routine to remove the watermarks. That’s the easy part. All the watermarks inserted by the default autotexts contain “PowerPlusWaterMarkObject” in the name – so we just need to check the name of the shape objects throughout the document and delete them.
Sub RemoveWatermarks()
‘ Removes all Word 2010 watermarks
On Error Resume Next
If Documents.Count > 0 Then
Dim WatermarkShape As Shape
‘ Remove from body of document – the normal 2010 option inserts into the body
For Each WatermarkShape In ActiveDocument.Shapes
If InStr(1, WatermarkShape.Name, “PowerPlusWaterMarkObject”, vbTextCompare) = 1 Then
WatermarkShape.Delete()
End If
Next
‘ Remove from headers
Dim oSection As Section
For Each oSection In ActiveDocument.Sections
For Each WatermarkShape In oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes
If InStr(1, WatermarkShape.Name, “PowerPlusWaterMarkObject”, vbTextCompare) = 1 Then
WatermarkShape.Delete()
End If
Next
For Each WatermarkShape In oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage).Shapes
If InStr(1, WatermarkShape.Name, “PowerPlusWaterMarkObject”, vbTextCompare) = 1 Then
WatermarkShape.Delete()
End If
Next
For Each WatermarkShape In oSection.Headers(wdHeaderFooterEvenPages).Shapes
If InStr(1, WatermarkShape.Name, “PowerPlusWaterMarkObject”, vbTextCompare) = 1 Then
WatermarkShape.Delete()
End If
Next
Next oSection
End If
End Sub
So there you have it, code to insert and remove watermarks throughout the entire document, no matter how you setup your sections and headers. The code could probably be done a little better. Also there is the issue of creating custom watermarks. And then there’s the question of getting this functionality into the ribbon. If you need the answers to all those questions (and more) then get in touch with us. You might be surprised what we have hidden up our sleeves (just wish there were some descent cards up there – I still can’t manage a win at poker, or do a card trick that slightly impresses the kids)
Update on Monday, February 10, 2014 at 10:32PM
Just to let you all know that this issue has been fixed in Word 2013.
