How to make a background in a Word document – 5 ways

When working in a text editor, it becomes necessary to add or change the text background in Word, choose a different color instead of the default white document background. According to the user, it was necessary to make another suitable background color to visually change the original look of the Microsoft Word document.

The background for a Word document will change the visual perception of the entire document or individual blocks of text on the document page. The need to change the background color in Word arises when creating e-books, brochures or booklets, in other cases.

In some situations, the user needs to highlight a separate fragment in the text of the document, to draw attention to a specific test block, or to individual sentences. Users often see this option of highlighting or attracting attention on websites on the Internet.

Let’s figure out how to make a background in Word in different ways, what program settings you need to use. The application has several options for changing the background in a document:

• fill the entire page of the document with color;
• use as a background picture;
• changing the background color just below the text.

The background in Word can be not only plain. To design the appropriate look of the document, you can make the background of the page with special effects in the form of a texture or pattern, or add a picture downloaded from a computer as a background image.

Background changes on the page are performed in two modes that serve to display the document in the Word program window:

• Page layout.
• Web document.

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to change the background in Word 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007 in several ways: fill the background on the entire page, add a picture (image) as a page background, how to change the background behind the text, not changing the background of the entire page.

How to make a page background in Word

First, we will figure out how to make the background in Word color for a document page. With this method of changing the background, it makes no difference whether there is text on the page now, or whether the document page has no text yet. After applying the page background change, text can be added to the document later.

Do the following:

1. Open a Word document, go to the Design tab (in Word 2019).

2. In the upper right corner of the ribbon, click on the “Page Color” button, located in the “Page Background” group.

 

3. The “Theme Colors” window will open, in which you need to select the appropriate color for filling the background of the page.

 

4. If the standard colors do not suit you, click on “Other colors …” to select the desired option. In the “Color” window, in the “Normal” or “Spectrum” tabs, select the desired color to fill the background.

 

After choosing a background color, the background in the document will change from white to another color selected by the user.

 

The selected background can be changed so that the document does not have a solid color fill, but also uses other fill options.

Make settings for the fill method:

1. Click on the “Page Color” button.
2. The “Fill Methods” window contains the “Gradient”, “Texture”, “Pattern”, “Picture” tabs. Select the appropriate fill option and type.

 

The background of the document will change according to the selected options.

 

How to change the background of Word to a picture – 1 way

Now we will make the background image of the document a drawing. Drawing (image, photo, picture) from the computer will be used as a background on the page of the Word document.

To do this, you need to follow these steps:

1. Enter the “Designer” menu (in Word 2019), in the “Page Background” group, click on the “Page Color” button.

2. In the “Theme Colors” window, click on the “Fill Methods …” item.
3. In the Fill Methods window, click the Picture tab.
4. Click on the “Picture…” button.

 

5. In the “Insert Images” window that opens, click on the “From File” button, or upload an image from the Internet.

 

6. In the Explorer window, select the appropriate image (graphic format file supported by Microsoft Office) from your PC.
7. In the window with the selected background image, click the OK button.

 

The image added from the computer will become the background image on the page of the Word document.

Image as Word Page Background – Method 2

There is another way to add a picture as a background image to a Word document page.

1. Open the Insert tab in the Illustrations group.
2. Click on the “Pictures” (“Picture”) button.
3. In the window that opens, select a picture from your PC.
4. Click on the picture, markers will appear along the edges of the image, with which you can stretch the picture to the desired size.
5. In the “Picture Format” tab, find the “Text Wrap” item, in the context menu select the “Behind Text” option.

 

6. Click on the picture, enter the text that will be displayed on the image.

To ensure that the text you enter is clearly visible against the background of the image, change the font color to match the color of the background image.

How to Change the Background of Word Text

Earlier in this article, we looked at ways to add a background that occupies the entire page size of a Word document. In some cases, it becomes necessary to highlight the background behind individual pieces of text, paragraphs, sentences or words.

In this case, we need to insert a background in Word only behind the entire text of the document or behind certain text in the document, without filling the entire page with the background. In Microsoft Word, there are two ways to highlight text with a background: fill a piece of text or the entire text, or highlight only the text, which will leave the line spacing with a white background gap.

In both cases, the background will appear only behind the selected text in the document, the background of the entire page will not be filled.

Adding a background after text – 1 way

First, let’s analyze the method when highlighting the background behind the text, without filling the interval between lines.

To add a background, do the following:

1. Highlight text in a Word document.
2. In MS Word, open the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Text Highlight Color button.
3. Choose the color you want.

 

As a result, lines with text will be selected, and the space between the lines will remain with the default background.

 

In a similar way, you can highlight individual words or sentences.

 

Making the background behind the text – 2 way

With this method, certain text will be selected in the form of a rectangular block. Similarly, you can select all the text on the page or just a specific piece of text.

Do the following:

1. Highlight the desired piece of text.
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the Fill button.
3. In the Theme Colors window, select the color you want. In addition to the standard colors, there is an option to select other colors that can be used as the background in the document.

 

We get the result with a selected rectangular background, which is behind the text.

 

Article Conclusions

If necessary, the user can replace the background in the Word document. There are several ways to change the background: filling the background image on the entire page of the document, using a picture (pictures, images, photos) as the background, highlighting the background behind all text, or only behind a certain piece of text in the document.