Printing Envelopes

Computers have always been great for printing documents on standard-size paper, but envelopes present a little bit more of a challenge. Envelopes are oddly shaped and kind of thick. And on some machines, the text needs to print sideways. Fortunately, Word 2007 and most modern printers have overcome the hurdles presented by printing on envelopes. The first step for successful envelope printing is to make sure that your return address info is stored in Word.

• Go to Office button => Word Options and click Advanced. The buttons on the left side of the Word Options box show you different panels of Word.
  
  
• Scroll down to the General group. Oddly, the General group is almost at the bottom of the Advanced options.
  
  
• Enter your information in the "Mailing address" box. Click OK when you are done.

With your vital details stored in Word, you are ready to print an envelope. Here are the steps:

• On the ribbon, go to Mailings => Create => Envelopes (Alt+M, E). Most of the tools on the Mailings tab are for mail merge and mass mailings. The Create group, with two buttons Envelopes and Labelsis on the left side. Clicking Envelopes opens the Envelopes and Labels dialog box to the Envelopes tab.
  
  
  
  

  The Envelope tab in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box provides a place to enter both a delivery and return address. The Preview and Feed icons in the lower-right corner show you how the envelope will look and the way to place your envelope in the printer.

• At the top of the Envelopes tab, in the "Delivery address" text box, type a name and address. Just type in the information on different lines as you'd put it on an envelope.
  The little book icon above and to the right of the Delivery address text box opens your Outlook address book. Click it to select an existing contact.
  The first time you click the Address Book icon, the Choose Profile box opens. There you can select a source for addresses, including your Outlook address book.
  
  
• In the bottom text box, inspect your return address and edit if necessary. If you provided an address in your Word Options, as described in the previous steps, that information appears in the Return address box. If you want, you can change the details now. Just delete the existing address and type the new information. (If your envelopes have a preprinted return address, turn on the Omit checkbox to prevent your stored return address from printing on the envelope.)
  
  
• Check the preview window and take notice of the feed direction for your envelope. The Preview panel shows you how the envelope will look with the addresses printed on it. The Feed panel gives you guidance for placing envelopes in your printer.
  The Options button leads to another dialog box where you can choose a different envelope size (assuming your printer can handle it). You can also change the font and font size.