The Problem With Envelope Printing in Microsoft Word
Matching items can be a stylish choice, but sometimes creating a matched set may cause problems. After typing a Microsoft Word document, it may seem like creating a matching typed and printed envelope would be an ideal undertaking. While still possible, printing envelopes presents a couple of problems you may encounter while trying to get your check, letter, report or other materials in the mail.
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Difficult Menus
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Unlike other software -- even programs within the Microsoft Office Suite itself -- Word doesn't allow menus to be left open while navigating through a program. This means that if you click through four levels of menus -- the average required to create an envelope -- and need to check something, you can't leave the menu open because Word doesn't allow you to click anywhere else. You need to either go on with the open window or close it, necessitating starting over entirely.
Invisible Text
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After you've gotten through all the menus and actually created the envelope to be printed and added it to the Word workspace, you're looking at a blank screen. This may be excellent in real life when you have a pen handy, but not so great when you want to type. Most Word templates come with two text boxes, a smaller one in the top left for the sender's information and a large one in the middle bottom for the recipient. Unfortunately, Word gives no indication that these text boxes are actually on the envelope; they're invisible. You must click around repeatedly until, by chance, happening on a text box and its dotted lines appear, signifying the outlined area for adding text.
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Envelope Sizing
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Creating an envelope in Word is something like an all-you-can-eat buffet -- Word's templates include the most common envelope sizes such as the business A10 and the option to create custom-sized envelopes as well. One problem, though, is when you don't know what size your envelope is. Trying to eyeball the envelope may result in text running off the page or improperly printing into the postage area. Getting out a ruler and measuring the envelope is one fix to this issue, but with Word's margin areas, creating a new envelope without the box or accurate size may be a guessing game.
Paper Jam
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Envelopes, created to safely house the paper they hold, are usually much thicker than the paper itself. Therefore, printing envelopes takes more effort than just feeding a ream of copy paper into the print tray. In some cases, envelopes may need to be printed one by one. Since most basic printers are set up to print on copy paper, levers in the print tray should be adjusted to secure the envelopes. Unlike white copy paper, where printing on one side or the other doesn't matter, you'll have to take a cue from your printer to determine whether to set the envelopes face up or face down.
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