Excel is a powerful tool with a great deal of features. However, it does not include a feature to add a watermark to an Excel sheet. For example, if a document is in draft mode, you may want to indicate this status by adding a watermark to the Excel sheet.

While you could insert an image in order to make it a watermark, it is not the most ideal solution. First of all; you would need an image that says ‘draft’ or another text you want to use. This means you would need a program such as Photoshop in order to create such an image.

My solution is the use of WordArt. Here are the steps in order to insert a watermark overlay in Excel 2016 or older versions as well:

1. Open the worksheet where you want to insert the watermark overlay
2. Go to Insert and choose WordArt and choose which style you want to insert
3. Type the text: for example ‘Draft’ or ‘Confidential

As a last step, you may want to make the text transparant so the worksheet contents are better visible. In order to do so, right-click on the WordArt you just inserted and choose Format Text Effects. Under Text Fill, you can fill in a transparency percentage or drag the slider.