Mailing Paper or Pixels with Microsoft Word 2013

One of the most common uses of Microsoft Word 2013 is the creation of documents that are to be sent to other people. The documents might be printed on paper and mailed in an envelope, or they might be attached to an email message. They can be generated one at a time or built in large numbers from information in a worksheet or a database.

The mail merge feature in Word 2013 has many more uses than just mailing letters. Any task that involves a standard format that you want to populate with many pieces of information is a candidate for a merge. Think of name labels for a meeting, certificates for completing a course, a catalog of items for sale, or a voter registration list—any of these could be created with an appropriate mail merge.

Printing a single envelope

If you’re addressing a letter, a greeting card, or other one-time item, you might want to print the envelope but not save it for future use. Word 2013 includes predefined layouts for many common envelope sizes, and you can define a custom size if necessary.

Address an envelope and print

1. If you’re addressing a letter that contains the recipient’s address, open the letter document. Otherwise, open any document (such as the default blank document).

   If you create an envelope while the cursor is in a letter document, and if the document starts with up to four single-line paragraphs that are left-aligned, those paragraphs will automatically appear as the delivery address in the Envelope dialog box. If you want to determine which paragraphs will appear in the Envelope dialog box, select those paragraphs in the letter document before you launch the dialog box.

2. On the Mailings tab, in the Create group, click Envelopes.

   

3. In the Envelopes And Labels dialog box, if the Delivery Address box is empty, or if the text is incomplete or incorrect, add or edit the text as needed.

4. If the Return Address box is empty, or if the text is incomplete or incorrect, add or edit the text as needed. If you don’t want a return address to print on the envelope, select the Omit check box.

5. If the envelope size shown in the Preview thumbnail is incorrect, or if the orientation shown in the Feed thumbnail is incorrect, see “Change envelope size and print options” on page 318.

6. Click the Print button.

   

Change envelope size and print options

1. On the Mailings tab, in the Create group, click Envelopes.

2. If you want to change the size of the envelope or the feed orientation, click the Options button.

3. On the Envelope Options tab in the Envelope Options dialog box, click the Envelope Size box and click the desired size in the drop-down list.

   If none of the listed sizes match the envelope that you want to print, click Custom Size at the bottom of the list and enter the correct measurements.

4. If you want to change the font formatting of the delivery address, in the Delivery Address section in the Envelope Options dialog box, click the Font button, select the formatting in the Envelope Address dialog box, and then click OK. If you want to change the distance of the delivery address from the left and top edges of the envelope, in the From Left and From Top boxes enter the desired measurements.

   If you want to change the same settings for the return address, use the Font button and the From Left and From Top boxes in the Return Address section of the Envelope Options dialog box.

   

   Click to view larger image

5. If you want to change the feed orientation, on the Printing Options tab, click the icon that matches the direction of your printer’s envelope feed and the position of the envelope in the feed tray. If necessary, select whether the envelopes are placed in the feed tray with the printing side up or down, and which tray contains envelopes.

6. Click OK.