Excel help please - entering cells on top of watermark

[pjrose]

I'm using Excel 2004 for Mac (though presumably it should be the same in other versions).

I want my cell contents to fit the shape of a graphic that I have defined as a watermark. The problem is that when I click any cell that is in (presumably above) the graphic, I get the graphic, not the cell. This makes it rather hard to enter data.

It's not supposed to be just a semi-transparent graphic, though Excel seems to be treating it as one. I told Excel that it is a watermark using the Image Control icon under Picture Formatting Options on the Formatting Palette. I also chose "send to back" under Layering. Thus it SHOULD be sitting underneath the cells.

Any ideas? The only thing I can think of is that it's not really a watermark, that Excel just makes it appear like one by making it semi-transparent, but it isn't really in back of the cells.

 

[Autoeng]

From Excel help...

Mimic a watermark in Excel
Watermark functionality is not available in Excel. If you want to display a graphic on every printed page (for example, to indicate that the information is confidential), you can insert the graphic in a header or footer. This way, the graphic appears behind the text, starting at the top or bottom of every page. You can also resize or scale the graphic to fill the page.

Click the worksheet that you want to display with a watermark. Make sure that only one worksheet is selected.
On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Header & Footer.


Under Header, click in the Left section, Center section, or Right section box.
On the Design tab of the Header & Footer Tools, in the Header & Footer elements group, click Picture , and then find the graphic that you want to insert.


Double-click the graphic to insert it in the header section box.
To resize or scale the graphic, click Format Picture in the Header & Footer elements group, and then, in the Format Picture dialog box, select the options that you want on the Size tab.

 

[nightnurse613]

OK, so you can't do it in Excel. I have never been successful in doing it in Word either! I thought it would be cool to put a big J in the center of my documents as a watermark. Tried about four times and then gave up in frustration. Someone see a simpleton explanation on how to do it?

 

[pjrose]

The specifics will very by version of Word, but you should be able to do this in Word, either with a graphic J or a text J.

You can add a semi-transparent graphic and define it as being behind your text. In Word you would paste in or insert your big J as a picture, then double-click it to select it. From there view the formatting palette or go under the Format menu and choose format picture or format graphic. There'll be an option for transparency - set it to something like 80% or so. There'll also be an option for the picture layout - click the option for behind text. That way the text will be on top of it, and you can drag the graphic wherever you want.

If instead of a graphic, it's text, you can define as a watermark in Word under Page Setup and then type your J. There you will have options for the font, size, whether it's at an angle, transparency, and so forth.

If you want more details or want me to play with a test file, pm me.