Learning Microsoft Word 2007 - Step 9

This tutorial covers the Word 2007 Page Background section of the Page Layout tab. The first button is watermark. I like using the watermark feature in this section for printing flyers or Christmas letters. The watermark feature places a very light image in the background of the entire document that you can type over.

Click the down arrow on the Watermark button. The Watermark button gives you a list of default watermarks you can put in your document. To use the default features simply scroll through the options with the side scroll bar then click on the selection you would like to place in your document.

The next option is to create a Custom Watermark. Click the Custom Watermark button. When the Printed Watermark window appears select the radio button next to Picture watermark. Then click select picture. Your explorer window will open for you to browse to the picture. It is also great if you want to do children’s birthday invitations with a picture of your child as the background.

The Text watermark selection will allow you to customize the text, font, size and color to appear in the background.

I encourage you to play with this feature it can make some really cute documents.

Now let's change the entire background color of the greeting card document we are working on.

Click the dropdown arrow next to Page color. You can select one of the colors provided, click more colors, or select fill effects.

I have selected fill effects. If you choose to use this option the Fill Effects window will open. For my greeting card I used a Gradient fill effect. I choose to use 2 colors (white and purple) Then selected From Corner for the Shading styles. I then choose the direction I wanted to gradient to go from the Variants section. When you are finished click OK. Play with the other tabs, Texture, Pattern, and Picture to customize your card the way you want it.

Remember that any choice you make will fill the entire background of your document.

The last button in the Page Background section is Page Boarders. Click the Page Boarders button.

The Boarders and Shading window will open. This window gives you options to place a customized boarder around your document. The left had settings let you choose the type of boarder. Scroll down the style list to see all of your options. You can play with some of the options and preview them in the right side of the window. Browse the colors the width and maybe some of the art options. The Apply to: section on the right gives you the option to just put a boarder around a certain section, a single page or the whole document. The 4 little squares in the preview window let you customize where you want the boarder lines on your document.

You don’t have to have all 4 lines you can have just a line at the top or maybe in the left margin. If you don’t want a boarder around your document and have tried some of the selections click Cancel.

That concludes the Word 2007 page background tutorial. Click the next button to learn about the last two sections of the Page Layout tab or select another tutorial from below.