PDF Documents | Watermarks for Protection

I'd published an article about using a PDF Printer last December about how to save webpages such as Facebook pages, or documents sent to clients or other lawyers. Jim Ryan then emailed me about the use of watermarks. I had recommended them but never used them. I decided to look up Microsoft's Help Page on watermarks and learned a lot. Here is a tiny tutorial that will help you protect documents that you send, converting the doc to PDF before sending so that (a) no one can change the content of the document and (b) the document will paginate the same way it does on your computer, rather than as on the recipient's computer which is scaled to the particular printer that is in default use there. At the end is a link to the full Microsoft tutorial.

The sample used in this tutorial is a durable power of attorney that I use to eliminate precious time lapses when dealing with clients who are far way--Kuwait, Spain, Germany, Alaska, etc. So you can blame me for ruining business for FedEx, UPS, and the USPS. But sometimes I need an original signature quickly for a document to be filed. The sample you find here is one such document. Now, let's learn how to put a watermark into this document so that noone can change the content:

In Word 2007:

1. Click on Page Layout
2. Click on Watermark (just under “View” on the Toolbar)
3. Choose one of MS Word’s Watermarks or make your custom watermark [I use here “DRAFT” . . . one of MS Word's templates.]
4. Click on Watermark again, and choose at the bottom “Custom Watermark”
5. You will get a pop-up screen. Go to “Color” and darken the grey just a little. [I find Microsoft’s watermark just a little to subtle. Perhaps I need a stronger pair of glasses.]
6. Save the document in Word wherever you choose.
7. Then use your PDF Creator [See this previous blog post] to print the document to PDF and save in the client’s folder. I normally use a date in the document title. This example might be 110111.DPOA.pdf
8. See a sample of the completed document here.

For more information about using watermarks in your documents (So Easy!) see Microsoft's Help Page at: http://tinyurl.com/2334y69

Comments

[Jeanne M. Hannah]

Hi Faith,

I wrote a blog article about this topic. It is titled "How Old Does a Child Have to be to Choose Which Parent to Live With?" You can read it by using this tiny URl: http://tinyurl.com/23qsnjb It will also link to you another article.

Jeanne M. Hannah

[faith wilson]

hi, my name is faith im 12 almost 13 years old my parents divorce was just finalized about 3 months ago and my mom got full leall custidy untill my dad can get his "stuff"together .i want to be with my dad so how old sdo i have to be to make that decision?