With Microsoft Word, it is easy to add a background to your document because it allows for an image to be added. The same does not apply to Google Docs. It only lets you change the colour of the page. However, you do not need to worry as Team Tech Thirsty has found a way around this issue that is extremely simple to implement.
Suggested read: Here’s How to Check Plagiarism in Google Docs
How to add a background in Google Docs?
Using the Watermark feature
- Open a Google document
- Choose the Insert menu
- Select the Watermark option
- Ensure that you are on the Image tab when the Watermark menu opens
- Click on Select Image
- Locate and select the image of your choice
- Go ahead and insert the same
You can upload an image, take a picture using your camera, choose a photograph from Images, Photos, or Google Drive, or enter a URL with an image.
The image shall appear as a watermark and it will be displayed in the Watermark sidebar as well.
You may use the drop-down box beside the Scale option to change the size of the image. If you want to remove transparency, uncheck the box beside the Faded option.
To make more changes or adjustments like contrast, brightness, rotation, etc. click on the More image options.
Once you are done with all the changes, hit the Done option to save the image as background.
With the picture becoming a part of the document now, text, tables, etc. can be added. In other words, you can create the document as you would normally. The background will not be disturbed in any way.
To edit the image later, you need to double-click on the background and choose the Edit Watermark option at the bottom of the page. The sidebar will open for you to make changes.
Limitations of the Watermark feature and the solution
There is one problem with the Watermark feature. When you insert an image as a watermark in any document, all the pages in it get the watermark. To ensure that the image is applied to only one page as the background, you need to use the Insert option. To do that:
- Go to Insert
- Choose the Image option
- Select from where you want to upload the picture
- Adjust the image to the document as required
- Alternatively, select Image Options from the toolbar
- Expand the Size & Rotation section
- Fill in the measurements in the Size area.
You may choose to make any other adjustments as you want like placing the image behind the text, locking the position of the image, recolor, etc.
Save the document
Once you have made the necessary changes in the document, it is time to save it to access and edit it in the future if required. To do that:
- Click on the File tab
- Select Save from the drop-down menu
- Rename the document
- Hit the Save icon found at the bottom of the window
- Choose the Save to My Computer option
Watch this YouTube video:
Hope getting to know how to add a background in Google Docs was easy. Try out the method and let us know if you could do it properly or came across any issues while doing so. We will guide you in case you need our assistance. Stay tuned for more such tutorials by Team Tech Thirsty.
