How to Remove a Watermark in MS Word That Has Become
Persistent
Version: MS Word 2007, but will probably work the same for Word 2010.
Problem: A custom watermark would not go away using the normal procedure (Page Layout > Watermark >
Remove Watermark). The problem began after a crash. I was able to remove the watermark on pre-crash copies of
the document using the normal procedure. Unfortunately, the copy I saved after the crash had become corrupted
in such a way that the watermark was persistent no matter what I tried.
Research: Many of the posts I saw online said that somehow the watermark becomes part of the header. I tried
highlighting and deleting the header. That didn’t work. I tried highlighting and deleting individual objects in the
header and that didn’t work either. Somewhere in the header – in an area that I probably couldn’t access – was
one wee pixel that had the encoding. I located it via HTML, but you don’t have to; instead you can do the Quick Fix,
below. If you are interested you can see the code that causes the problem in the More Explanation section.
Quick Fix
1.
Open the document and make sure you are positioned in a section that has the watermark.
2.
Navigate to Insert > Header and select> Remove Header. Do it this way and not by removing individual
objects.
a.
If the watermark disappeared, congratulations.
b.
If the watermark did not disappear, navigate to Insert > Footer and select Remove Footer. Now,
it should be gone.
3.
Rebuild the header and footer. Do not copy it from corrupted versions or you’ll copy the problem back
into the document.
More Explanation
Approach: One of the problems in Word is that the user can’t see what is going on. I decided to try to get around
this regrettable limitation by saving the file as an unfiltered html file and seeing if I could find where the problem
was occurring.
When viewed the html file in TextPad, the first thing I noticed is that there was a Request for Proposal_files folder
in the directory. In it were some XML files, png files, and header.htm. The header file was the place where the
problem resided.
I opened header.htm and did a search for the word, “DRAFT,” the custom watermark I was using. Sure enough, I
found it in an “h2” definition block. My html knowledge does not extend to understanding everything in the /div,
but I figured that I had found it when I saw the rotation (315 degrees) and the font size of 159.6 pts, a little over 2
inches (144 pts).
I backed up the html file and then deleted the block of text that seemed to be causing the problem. I saved the
html file and then reopened the Word file, which I had saved as HTML. Then, I resaved the Word HTML file as a
DOCX file. The watermark was gone! It sounds more complicated than it was. Here’s a summary by extension:
•
DOCX file to HTML
•
Optional: back up one or both of the files
•
Manipulate HTML
•
Save HTML file and also do a Save As DOCX
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How to Remove a Watermark in MS Word That Has Become
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•
View the DOCX file. The content in this version of the Word DOCX file should be identical to the content
the original DOCX file, but without the watermark. Note: You may need to create the header and or footer
again.
It turns out that the watermark is generated in VML, a language I never even knew existed. Here’s a link to the
texpath element as described in the W3 site: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-VML#_Toc416858398. But even
without knowing VML, I noticed stuff in the code that told me I was in the right place. The clues are highlighted in
red in the code snippet that follows.
Here is the code that caused the problem. It is only visible when the document is saved as html:
<div style='mso-element:header' id=h2>
<table class=MsoTableGrid border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
style='border-collapse:collapse;border:none;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt:
0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-border-insideh:none;mso-border-insidev:none'>
<tr style='mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes'>
<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='mso-no-proof:yes'><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t136"
coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="136" adj="10800" path="m@7,l@8,m@5,21600l@6,21600e">
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="sum #0 0 10800"/>
<v:f eqn="prod #0 2 1"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 21600 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @2"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 21600 0 @3"/>
<v:f eqn="if @0 @3 0"/>
<v:f eqn="if @0 21600 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="if @0 0 @2"/>
<v:f eqn="if @0 @4 21600"/>
<v:f eqn="mid @5 @6"/>
<v:f eqn="mid @8 @5"/>
<v:f eqn="mid @7 @8"/>
<v:f eqn="mid @6 @7"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @6 0 @5"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path textpathok="t" o:connecttype="custom" *** I CREATED THE MARK AS CUSTOM
o:connectlocs="@9,0;@10,10800;@11,21600;@12,10800"
o:connectangles="270,180,90,0"/>
<v:textpath on="t" fitshape="t"/>
<v:handles>
<v:h position="#0,bottomRight" xrange="6629,14971"/>
</v:handles>
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How to Remove a Watermark in MS Word That Has Become
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<o:lock v:ext="edit" text="t" shapetype="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_s2055" type="#_x0000_t136"
style='position:absolute;
left:0;text-align:left;margin-left:0;margin-top:0;width:471.3pt;height:188.5pt;
rotation:315;z-index:-2;mso-position-horizontal:center;
mso-position-horizontal-relative:margin;mso-position-vertical:center;
mso-position-vertical-relative:margin' o:allowincell="f" fillcolor="#d8d8d8 [2732]"
stroked="f">
<v:fill opacity=".5"/>
<v:textpath style='font-family:"Arial";font-size:1pt' string="Draft"/>
**** The string said “Draft” and was anchored somewhere invisible to me (1 pt).
<w:wrap anchorx="margin" anchory="margin"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t"
path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe"
filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1027" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:159.6pt
(*** about 2 inches tall, the height of the letters);
height:24.6pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="image003.png" o:title=""/>
</v:shape><![endif]--></span></p>
</td>
<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader align=center style='text-align:center'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
</td>
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How to Remove a Watermark in MS Word That Has Become
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<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader align=center style='text-align:center'><b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'>Request for
Proposal<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class=MsoHeader><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
</div>
In the Investment Plan doc, I also had to remove the footer html code:
<div style='mso-element:footer' id=f2>
<table class=MsoTableGrid border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
style='border-collapse:collapse;border:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid #39275B .5pt;
mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.75pt 0in 5.75pt;mso-border-insideh:
.5pt solid #BFBFBF;mso-border-insideh-themecolor:background1;mso-border-insidehthemeshade:
191;mso-border-insidev:none'>
<tr style='mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes'>
<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;border:none;border-top:solid #39275B 1.0pt;
mso-border-top-alt:solid #39275B .5pt;padding:0in 5.75pt 0in 5.75pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader><span style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";
color:#39275B'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;border:none;border-top:solid #39275B 1.0pt;
mso-border-top-alt:solid #39275B .5pt;padding:0in 5.75pt 0in 5.75pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#7F7F7F;mso-themecolor:
background1;mso-themeshade:127;letter-spacing:3.0pt'>Page</span><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'> | </span><!--[if
supportFields]><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>PAGE<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
</span>\* MERGEFORMAT <span style='mso-element:fieldseparator'></span></span><![endif]--><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'><b
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How to Remove a Watermark in MS Word That Has Become
Persistent
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='mso-noproof:yes'>2</span></b></span><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><span
style='font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";color:#39275B'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td width=266 style='width:159.6pt;border:none;border-top:solid #39275B 1.0pt;
mso-border-top-alt:solid #39275B .5pt;padding:0in 5.75pt 0in 5.75pt'>
<p class=MsoHeader align=right style='text-align:right'><b style='mso-bidi-fontweight:
normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style","serif";
color:#39275B'>DRAFT<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class=MsoFooter><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>
</div>
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