Envelopes can be problematic. Yes. This is primarily because envelopes are not Letter or Legal. Each printer has its own approach to printing, and you'll need to do a little experimenting.
But you can do it. The Envelopes category and the Mail Merge catogory of my blog each has various approaches.
But with this new entry I've tried to clarify what I think is the best and most straightforward approach to making envelopes. The thing is, creating the first doc is a little work, and figuring out how to print is a little work. But once you do it, you don't have to create the envelope document again. You don't have to figure out which way the printers go in. You know. So the second time and all other times, you just open the old doc, whether you made it into a template or just saved it in
C:\myreusabledocs\envelope.odt
and retype the info. Then you print, and you now know how to print.
Just do the hard work once. Then re-use.
THE PART YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO ONCE: CREATING THE ENVELOPE THE FIRST TIME AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO PRINT
A) Make the envelope document once
B) Print
C) Save it as a template so you never have to make it again
THEN ONCE YOU'RE SET UP PRINTING ADDITIONAL ENVELOPES IS MUCH SIMPLER
D) Open the template, retype or paste, and print
Here we go.
THE PART YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO ONCE: CREATING THE ENVELOPE THE FIRST TIME AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO PRINT
A) Make the envelope document once
1. Create a new empty document. This will be your envelope.
2. Now make it look like an envelope. Choose Format > Page, Page tab. Make your window match the settings in this window, then click OK.
3. This is what it should look like.
4. Type the return address if you want (skip it if you've got that already on your envelopes.)
After typing, you want to take the cursor, the entry place where you type, down and over.
Click after the return address and press Enter a few times til the
cursor is about as high as you'd want it to be for the regular address.
5. See the top item circled on the ruler? Click and hold down on the bottom triangle and drag it about halfway over.
6. And now the cursor is where you need it to be to type the address.
7. Type the To address.
8. And now you can format it of course any way you want.
9. If you don't like where the To text is, click above the text and press Enter a few times to lower it or press Backspace a few times to raise it. Just the same way you'd do it in a normal doc.
10. And to move it left or right, select at least part of the To text and drag that bottom triangle left or right. Same way you did it before.
B) Print
Take out some cheap envelopes. You're going to need to experiment a little potentially.
1. Choose File > Print. In the Print window, click Options and in the window (this varies by printer), find the paper size and choose Envelope 10. This is the most important part of printing. You must do this or it won't work.
Click OK in the settings window, then specify your print options and click OK to print.
Now, it's up to you to fiddle with which way to insert the envelope, up or down or one end first or the other. That's allllll your printer.
If you end up getting the address printed 90 degrees off, then make this change to the print setup in your print window too. Print it landscape. How it looks in your printer will vary.
Click OK in the settings window, then click OK to print.
At this point it should work.
Once you've got it working, write down all the settings you did that work.
Note: You can also choose File > Printer Settings in your document and make the same paper size and landscape/vertical settings there. And theoretically those settings are saved so you don't have to do it again each time you print. If it works for you, great. However, I've found this slightly less reliable.
C) Save it as a template so you never have to make it again!
Had enough formatting? Then just save it as a template so you never have to create it again. You can make it into a template by choosing File > Templates > Save, selecting the My Templates category, naming it, and clicking OK.
Then use the template. When you want another envelope, choose File > New > Templates and Documents, click the Templates icon in the window that appears, and open the My Templates category.
Inside the category, find your envelope. Double-click it. And you'll get a new untitled envelope document just like the one you made.
Then just type or paste new info.
THEN ONCE YOU'RE SET UP PRINTING ADDITIONAL ENVELOPES IS MUCH SIMPLER
D) Open the template, retype or paste, and print
This is all you have to do once you've done all this stuff.
- When you want to print an envelope, open up that template. (Or skip the whole template-making thing and just open the old document, wherever you saved it.)
- Type or paste in new information.
- Print, being sure that the printer is set for Envelope 10 and, if necessary, Landscape.
That's all.