Printing Envelopes in OpenOffice.org 2.0

I don't usually link to other content but I get a lot of questions about envelopes. A lot. I wrote an article for TechTarget.com about how to do envelopes in OpenOffice.org 2.0, and for this post I'm just going to link to it.  : )

I included some templates there; here are the same envelope templates for OpenOffice.org 2.0.

• Envelope template, not hooked up to a data source, using frames
• Envelope template, not hooked up to a data source, not using frames

The article is long and detailed. Here's the key point. You need to get to know your printer and let it know to expect envelope shapes, not letter or A4 shapes. You also need to fiddle around for a while and figure out where--left, right, perpendicular, parallel--in the tray your printer expects envelopes. Buy a box of cheap envelopes and expect to waste a few while you experiment.

Then make sure that your envelope document is set up to print to the envelope size your printer is expecting. Envelope 10 is good.

You can type in your data for the envelope or use a data source. My article goes over both.

The simplest way is to just choose File > New > Envelope, then Format > Page Size and instead of Letter or A4, choose Envelope 10 and change the orientation to landscape.  Then either with standard margin formatting or with frames, put the text where you want.

You can also choose Insert > Envelope, and use the three-tabbed window that appears.

Then just print the envelope. (If you're using data sources, click Yes in the dialog box that appears.)

The next time you want envelopes, just use that same document you already created, and change the addresses. Either save the document in myimportantdocuments\envelopes, or if you're a template kind of person, make it a template.

Note: Doing it in 2.0 is quite similar to how to do it in OpenOffice.org 1.1. Here are my posts how to do that; they're excerpted from my OpenOffice.org workbooks.

• OpenOffice.org 1.x Mail Merges, Envelopes, and Labels
• OpenOffice.org 1.x Plain Labels and Envelopes

Tip on Printer Setup
Some of the pain of envelopes is the printer setup. Here's a GREAT tip from Miriam:
"I just read your envelope printing tip. Instead of constantly changing and checking the printer settings, I add another instance of the printer, configure it for envelopes and name it "envelope." When I want to print an envelope I choose this printer instead of the default one. That way my settings are always the same."

Envelope Mantra
Here's the other main point I want to make sure everyone understands.

Envelopes aren't too bad once you figure out how to do it the first time. Honest.

I hope the article helps.

Comments

[Andrew]

Why no support for bar codes like PostNet when they've been requested on the OOo forums for two years now?

The EU is getting closer to standardizing on a similar bar code system, and GB already has one.

I can conceivably write a macro in some language that calls the Draw routines to calculate the check digit and generate the bars, but isn't this a bit of a kludge when it's been a feature in your main competitor for years now?

[Solveig]

Hi Andrew,

>> "Why no support for bar codes like PostNet when they've been requested on the OOo forums for two years now?"

I've gotten that request in class before. I'm not familiar with the process for determining features, but bar codes would be nice!

Solveig

[paul driver]

The postalnet codes in M$ Word are not longer supported, the USPS has changed the way they calculate the premise code.

Adding postalnet to openoffice (or word for that matter) if fairly trivial, once you have a postnet font.

A free postnet font is available from http://www.barcode-1.net/pub/russadam/fonts.html, specificly, I use http://www.barcode-1.net/pub/russadam/shareware/uspstt.zip as the others are crippled. The stand alone truetype font on that page is also more limited.

Once you have the font, it's a matter of calculating the postnet code, and having it available to your mail merge application.

[Solveig]

Hi Paul,

"The postalnet codes in M$ Word are not longer supported, the USPS has changed the way they calculate the premise code.

Adding postalnet to openoffice (or word for that matter) if fairly trivial, once you have a postnet font....
http://www.barcode-1.net/pub/russadam/fonts.html, http://www.barcode-1.net/pub/russadam/shareware/uspstt.zip

That's a great tip! Thank you! I'm going to post a separate blog for that.

Solveig

[Marc Nameth]

Sorry but the envelope thing in open office is dreadful.

I've followed your directions over and over and over.

I have been struggling for 2 hours now.

I guess I'll go online and find an envelope addressing program.

I do hope they get this thing to work. Such a good start on a fine office suite.

[Glenn Allen]

Sad to say, the simplest method I've found for printing an envelope is by using the word processor in Microsoft Works (something which comes pre-installed on most, if not all, Windows PCs--not that I'd suggest actually buying it, although MS has suggested they might be making it a free download sometime "soon"). It's about as simple as using a typewriter (remember those?).

[Grateful in San Francisco]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I had to print a bunch of envelopes for the first time ever in Open Office 2.0 this morning and I had an hour to figure it all out. I spent 45 minutes of it struggling on my own, ten minutes reading your blog post, and five minues watching the envelopes glide through my printer. You saved my butt, thanks again!

[Solveig Haugland]

Wonderful! That's what I love to hear. Thanks for coming by to comment.

[wthww]

Ah! I lvoe you! You saves my butt this afternoon. REALLY usefull for a 400 person party's invitations. Just awesome. I can hear the Letters goign through my printer :p

[Vince]

Solvig,

Love your website - really useful - need your help.

I'm doing letters with envolopes attached. The only trouble is that the letters take on the envolope format when I print - so I'm only printing half of the text. The problem is probably easy to rectify - so can you tell me what it is?

Vince

[Solveig]

Hi Vince,

I haven't figured out a way to make it work to have envelopes in the same document as the letter. I would just copy the address from the letter, choose Insert > Envelope, paste the address into the address field, then click New Doc. (The key part being the New Doc button; you don't have to copy and paste.)

Then when you print the envelope, be sure that the printer expects Envelope 10 (or a similar size) and print the letter normally.

Or, quite frankly, consider labels instead.

Solveig

[Michael]

Wow! What an awesome template! Thank you! I had tried using Insert->Envelope in OO Writer, selected #10 envelope from an OO dialogue box I believe, then sent it to my printer, which put the addressee field way low (at the bottom) of the envelope.

Using the template, it was as simple as filling the stuff in the correct fields. I DID (based on suggestions here) go into my Dell Printer settings, select landscape, and told the printer to look for a #10 envelope. Once that was done, the addressee field came out fine and was put EXACTLY where it should be on the envelope. Awesome!

For those in the USA and who don't know already, you can go to http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp and enter whatever address you're sending to. The site will automatically capitalize all words, properly abbreviate all street, road, apartment, suite, etc. designations, and give you the Zip+4 for where it's going. Copying and pasting what it gives you into where you need it is a snap.

Many thanks again.

[Solveig]

Michael,

I'm glad it worked!

Solveig

[Jonathan Andrew Wolter]

Thanks -- I didn't notice the third tab in the Envelopes dialog where you set the orientation of the envelopes in the print-feeder. Oops! You set me in the right direction after an hour of struggle.

Thanks!

Jonathan

[Terry]

do you know of any printer (prefer ink jet) that can print envelopes at a decent rate per minute? I'm not looking for a $50,000 machine, just a printer for our office that has an capability of loading 50 (or more) envelopes and printing them at about 20 or more per minute. Any suggestions?

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi Terry,

Sorry, no; I'm not up on hardware.

Solveig

[GHH]

that took me all of 3 min! thanks!

[Alan]

Great instructions!
Like Michael, I tried
Insert->Envelope in OO Writer, selected Env. 10, then sent it to my printer, which put the addressee field way low (at the bottom) of the envelope.
By picking a different "envelope orientation" than what should have been the correct one, it came out great!
The template worked well last time, but I lost the file I made. This was faster.
Thanks!

[Alan]

Great instructions!
Like Michael, I tried
Insert->Envelope in OO Writer, selected Env. 10, then sent it to my printer, which put the addressee field way low (at the bottom) of the envelope.
By picking a different "envelope orientation" than what should have been the correct one, it came out great!
The template worked well last time, but I lost the file I made. This was faster.
Thanks!

[rhinokitty]

ARRGHTHTHTHHTH!!!

[Ken]

While I have no trouble printing stand alone envelopes, the insert envelope is another story. The envelope prints fine, but the letter is then printed on the envelope. Seems OO should be able to develop programing equivalent to WP which not only allows printing of an envelop easily, it automatically inserts the "to" address most of the time.

[Solveig]

Hi Ken,

Yep, I agree that would be nice. WP has some stuff that's very specifically task-oriented that would excellent in OOo.

[Solveig]

Hi Andrew -- back to the topic of bar codes, if you have access to a Linux machine, use Glabels. It's one of the most simple-yet-powerful programs I've seen, and bar codes are way easy.

[suacoustic]

I'm taking on the (slow and sometimes painful) process of migrating some of our employees to OO versus the newer versions of MS Office and the templates you provided above worked great. Overcoming the barriers of software changes can often be difficult... and your templates helped me overcome one of them in just a few minutes. Thanks for the great post.

[Solveig]

Hi suacoustic,

Glad it helped! Shoot me an email if you want some tips on the settings under Tools > AutoCorrect and Tools > Options. These are essential for a good transition.

Here are some posts.
http://www.fanaticattack.com/2008/switching-office-suites-from-microsoft-office-to-openofficeorg.html

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/configuration_and_setup_2008/