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Changing the envelope layout |
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Envelope
layouts provide hours of fun, if you don't know their secrets. The most
important thing to note is that you can only have one envelope
size for a given template. If you use different envelope sizes for
different document types, then you will need different templates to hold
the settings. If the envelope settings have not been changed for a given
document template, the default settings are those stored in the standard Normal template.
While the illustrations on this
page are from Word 2010 and Windows 7, the principles involved
are the same for
all recent Word versions and operating systems. The menu layouts may however be slightly different
from those illustrated here.
The process described may appear daunting, but it is
infinitely quicker to do it, than to explain how to do it, and the
suggested method has the advantage that you can see the results of your
changes as you go along, so try to stick with
it.
You may also find it simpler
not to use the built-in envelope function and create envelopes from a
dedicated template. You will find add-ins elsewhere on this site that
follow this approach -
http://www.gmayor.com/EnvelopesAndLabels.htm and
http://www.gmayor.com/Envelope_Label_Add_In.htm. See also the
link at the bottom of this page.
There are
three things you can change:
1. The
envelope size - this is selected from the 'Options' button in the envelope/label
tool dialog.
2. The
envelope address position and format - these are fixed by the Envelope
Address paragraph style. Note the Envelope Address style incorporates a
frame - by default this has fixed height and width, but this can be
changed as shown below.
3. The
envelope return address position and format - these are fixed by the
Envelope Return paragraph style. See
Alternative Return Addresses
for a means of expanding the use of return addresses on envelopes. |
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Note: |
The
Envelope Address paragraph style, by default, is based on the Normal
paragraph style. Unlike earlier versions, In Word 2007/2010, the Normal style has 10 points of added
spacing which in some circumstances can give the envelope addresses the appearance of double
spacing. The default Envelope Address style takes account of this, but,
for example, where upgrades from earlier Word versions are involved, the
Envelope Address style may not take account of the spacing.
This may be addressed either
by using the Word 2003 style set (see illustration below) in which the
Normal style has no added spacing .... |
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.... or better still modify
the Envelope Address paragraph style to remove the spacing. |
| Getting started |
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Start by putting a dummy
address on an otherwise blank document (created from the document template
if you only want the envelope changes to apply to that template). This is purely an aid to layout and will be
discarded later. The content is thus immaterial. |
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The envelope dialog is
accessed from the 'Envelopes' tool on the 'Mailings' tab of the ribbon
(from the Tools menu > Letters and Mailings in versions before the
ribbon) |
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Use the tool to add an
envelope to the document (if the default envelope size is not what you
require, select the required envelope size from the wizard 'Options').
The address you have entered should be picked up automatically. If it is
not then either cancel and select the address, or simply type the
address in the Delivery Address window. When the address is present in
the window, click 'Add to Document' |
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The address is transferred to an envelope which is added
to the top of the document. Click on the address and the frame will come into view,
as shown above. This frame is crucial to the positioning of the address
and is part of the Envelope Address paragraph style which Word uses to
format envelope addresses.
Click the edge of the frame and from the Home tab of the
ribbon, click the arrow at the bottom right corner of the Paragraph
section as indicated below. This will open the paragraph formatting
dialog. Set the values as shown and click OK: |
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The address will move to the left of the frame |
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By default the
frame size is fixed. This should be sufficient for any normal address,
but you may prefer to allow the frame to expand to accommodate large
addresses. Note that if you do so, there is a danger that an especially
long address
could run off the bottom of the envelope. To make the change, right click
the frame and select 'Format Frame'. |
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Change the height of the frame from Exactly to Auto. You could also set
the width of the frame from this dialog, but without some indication of
how wide the frame needs to be to accommodate addresses at the preferred
font size, it is easier to adjust the width of the frame by dragging the
edge - see later. |
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This will cause the frame to collapse to the height of the text it
contains: |
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The address is now hopelessly misplaced and contained in a huge frame.
Drag the right side of the frame to make it smaller and from the Home
tab apply whatever formatting you prefer. In the following example I
have set the font to 14 point Times New Roman Italic, and reduced the
width of the frame. |
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Position the address by selecting and dragging the frame
to the preferred position |
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Essentially
that is the job done, however you now need to store the changes so that
you won't have to repeat the above next time you wish to create an
envelope. |
| Apply the changed settings to
the template |
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There is more
than one way to apply the changes to the template. If you are familiar
with style editing you may have your own preferred method, but I find
the following to be a simple approach.
From Word's Options dialog > Advanced > Editing options, check
'Prompt to update style'. (In versions before the ribbon that
would be Tools > Options > Edit). |
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Scroll down the dialog to
the 'Save' section and check the box 'Prompt before saving the Normal
template'. |
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The next step is to re-apply
the Envelope Address paragraph style to the selected frame. Because of
the above setting, this will cause Word to request a decision whether to
re-apply the original style or to update the style to reflect the
changes you have made to it. Obviously you need to do the latter. If you
make the wrong choice and the style reverts to the original, then CTRL+Z
will undo the change and you can try it again. |
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This
produces the following dialog in which you can check the button to add
the style updates to the template. |
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Note: |
The styles have now been
added to the template, but the template changes have not yet been saved
for the future This
will occur when you next close Word. Answer 'Save' at the prompt in the
next illustration. |
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The option to 'Prompt
before saving Normal template' is by default unchecked. It is always
desirable to know when Word needs to make changes to this critically
important file, so rather than allow Word to simply make changes that
you might not wish to retain, it is a good plan to leave this option
checked. It is also desirable to check the option below it to 'Always
create backup copy' as this will provide another rescue plan in case of
a problem. |
| Envelope return address |
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If you have survived so far, the envelope
return address changes should hold no fears - the only difference is that
the style does not employ a frame and thus positional changes are made by
indents and spacing as part of the style format. However, the facility to
use Alternative Return
Addresses adds so significantly to the use of return
addresses that you will probably prefer to do things this way instead.
You may also find
http://www.gmayor.com/Envelope_Label_Add_In.htm useful. |
| Window Envelopes |
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Window
envelopes have nothing to do with any of what has gone before, but for
the sake of completeness the following shows how to set up a template to
use window envelopes. The following illustrations are from Word 2007
under Windows XP, but the dialogs are very similar in other versions.
Start by
taking a window envelope, remove any cellophane from the window and
insert a blank page that would be used for your letter, folder to fit
the envelope. Insert the folded page into the envelope so that the top
left side of what would be the letter will appear in the window of the
envelope.
Take a
pencil and draw around the window onto the folder paper inside. |
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Remove the
paper from the envelope and unfold to reveal the pencil marks. Measure
the distances from the edge of the paper. |
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Print out a
letter with the addressee information at the top and use a ruler to
establish whether the address would fit within the rectangle. Adjust the
margins and indents or paragraph spacing to accommodate any mis-match. |
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| Custom Envelopes |
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Word can
only print what the active printer driver will allow, and as many
drivers are poor when it comes to custom paper sizes, Word will tend to
substitute a standard paper size that the driver can print. This can
prove a problem when printing non-standard envelopes, e.g. for greetings
cards (and unusual sized documents generally).
The
simplest workaround is to create an envelope template for such
envelopes. As Word has no idea whatsoever what size paper you are going
to run through your printer, you can start by setting up the page layout
to any standard size that you wish that is larger than the
document/envelope that you wish to print. The most obvious size to use
is your standard page size of A4 or US Letter.
Establish
whether the printer guides, when adjusted for your narrower document,
are set for centre or side feed and attach the envelope to a blank piece
of paper either at top centre or top left (right feed). Tip: If
centre feed, fold the narrow edge of the paper and the top edge of the
envelope in two and nip the edges to mark the centres. Superimpose
envelope over paper so that the nip marks coincide, |
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You should
end up with something like the image above. Take a note of the two
measurements (in the case of the centre feed printer - the measurement
at the left side of the envelope will be the same as that at the right.)
Open a
blank document based on the normal template and add the measurements to
the page margins. The page setup dialogs are similar for Word 2007 and
earlier versions so I have shown that from 2007 below. |
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This will
almost certainly produce the following error message as most drivers
cannot print to the edge of the page. Click Fix to correct the errors. |
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| Note: |
If you
would prefer to use a document template to produce envelopes, samples
in #10 size are available from the downloads
page for you to use or adapt. |
