I bought some cute Christmas paper for sending letters to the grandkids. I've attached a PDF showing one.

Using these in Word entails a lot of messing around with headers and footers to be able to make use of the white space without putting text on top of the graphics.

Is there a way for me to use this image so that it shows up on the page but won't print? If I could see it on the page, I could arrange the text accordingly.



I'm pretty sure I can do this in Publisher, but I don't use that program much. I'd prefer to do it in Word, if possible, where I have a lot of custom aids set up.

Attached Files

Stationery, 8.5x11, Santa & reindeer.pdf (451.8 KB, 9 views)

Simple method would be to put a text box in your header that would cover the space and set for text to wrap around it tight. Put a second text box in the footer that would be about 2 inches high (experiment).

Both text boxes would not have outlines or fill. Such text boxes are demonstrated for letterhead in the Letterhead textboxes and styles tutorial you can download from my site.

Tutorials

In answer to your immediate question, though, you could scan the page in as a jpg or other image file and put it in the header behind text and set your print settings to not print graphics or delete it after you have spaced your text.

The text box method requires too much trial and error. And I want to be able to see the preprinted material while I am composing the letter.

I hit on a method something like your second suggestion. Instead of pasting the image in the header itself, I make it into a watermark. Your suggestion seems to be a little better in that it is a little easier to delete.

I was hoping that I would be able to code the image as hidden, but that didn't work.

In Visio, and I imagine in Publisher, it is easy to mark any object as non-printing. That makes it very easy to "see" the image and guide the text around it. In Publisher, if I recall correctly, you can draw an outline and get the test to flow around it. I suppose this can be done in Word, too, but it is much more difficult to make the images stay put.

It's a pity that Microsoft doesn't allow images to be hidden. That solve this problem very neatly.

You can tell Word to not print images, but that applies to all images. On the print dialog box, there is a button for options. Uncheck "Print drawings created in Word."

Jennifer, I could set up the text boxes in less than ten minutes. To do it, I probably would put the image in the background in the header and then put the text boxes in front, still in the header, then delete the image. Otherwise, without the image, I would just eyeball it.