Why is there no insert watermark? Am I missing it?

[ArthurKretzschmar]

Can someone please tell me why there is no insert watermark feature within ArcMap (currently using ArcGIS 10)?  This seems like something that should be included when doing cartographic layouts.  A nice simple watermark to say that it is a Draft, or to make sure it is inserted each time into data driven pages automatically, or when creating a mapbook for clients, it would be nice to have.  And yes, I realize that I could probably figure out a way to do this with about 20 extra steps, but it seems to me that this should just be a simple feature that is easy to insert as say, an image.  But I want it to be able to stretch and change with the layouts in data driven pages as the extents change.

Thanks to anyone that can help me.  If it is not missing, this is something that should be included in upcoming updates/versions of ArcMap

[SimonKettle]

This is a good point...I do not know of a watermarking system in ArcGIS...I would normally manually add an annotation or in the layout view some text (e.g. 48pt, bold red). But as I am sure you know having to set this up for Nth map will be silly.

You could explore this site http://arcscripts.esri.com/scripts.asp?pg=1&sb=1&ob=asc&eDate=&n=&top=&eLang=6&eProd=28&perPage=10&e... where you can stamp a map with a watermark usiong ArcObjects

I hope this helps. I dot think it would be nice for ESRI to add this feature to ArcMap in a similar way that Adobe have there watermark feature in Acrobat.

[ArthurKretzschmar]

Thanks for sharing my sentiment.  I looked at the arcscripts link you gave, and it seems like it is on the right track there as well.  So that might be something in the future.  I also realize that you could just do a text insert, and make it a light grey color.  this would enable you to place it anywhere that you like and have multiple if needed.  The one problem I have with this is then the ordering is not always going to be what you like, and there is no way to control the transparency of this feature.

I also found that there is actually a setting in our printers that has the ability to add watermark.  Once again, there is an issue with how transparent this is when printed out.  While this will work, it would be nice to have the ability to add a watermark within arcmap, that would let you insert text or an image, and also allow for color and transparency settings to take affect.

Thanks again for your help

[Bo_King]

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