If you routinely use very long addresses in the envelopes you create in Word, you may have noticed that Word limits the number of lines you can put in an address. This limit does not make itself manifest while you are using the Envelopes tool (available on the Mailings tab of the ribbon) where you can enter as many lines as you like. Instead, Word just may decide to not print all of your address lines when you actually print or create the envelope. Different readers report an ability to print anywhere from six to eight lines, depending on font size.
The reason for this is quite simple. The Envelopes tool in Word depends on a predefined style when creating an envelope. The address style, appropriately enough, is named Envelope Address. When you click on either the Print or Add to Document buttons in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, this style is grabbed and used for the address area itself.
The problem is that the style is defined to use a frame, which in and of itself is not a problem. The problem is that the frame is defined to be exactly a certain height. If the text won't fit in that frame, the bottom portion of your text is just cut off.
There is a simple fix to this problem: All you need to do is change the style. To do this, and get rid of this problem, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Style Pane Options dialog box.
Figure 2. The Frame dialog box.
When you save your document or close Word, you are asked if you want to save your changes to the template. Make sure you do this. Now you will be able to have as many lines in your envelope as you desire, since the frame used by the Envelope Address style will grow to accommodate the length of any text you enter.
There is one caveat to this, of course: Envelopes are not physically infinite in size. This means that eventually your frame will overrun the bottom of the physical envelope. There is no real way to guard against this; you need to simply make sure that you manually limit the number of lines in your address.
For those who are familiar with frames, one way around this problem is to modify the other frame attributes used by the Envelope Address style. You can adjust the frame so it appears higher on the envelope, and simply change the "Exactly" height so the frame won't run off the page. You can also change other style attributes, such as the font size used. How you handle this is entirely up to you and the types of envelopes you create.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (5974) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Increasing Envelope Address Lines.
The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
Need to customize the way that Word prints envelopes? There are a couple of approaches you can use, as discussed in this tip.
Discover MoreOne of the switches you can use with the index field allows you to specify how index entries should be separated from the ...
Discover MoreWant to save a bunch of envelopes in a single document so that you can print them all out as a group? Here's how to ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-06-15 05:29:30
Chris Robinson
I've tried this fix, but I am finding that although there is plenty of room in the frame, Word 2016 is formatting the sixth line of the outward address with the Envelope Return style and putting it in the top left corner of the envelope. I don't know why. Adding the envelope to the document and changing the style of this line to Envelope Address fixes the problem for this document, but not for the future.
2018-04-23 06:30:41
Alex
Thank you so much! This was really helpful!
2016-02-13 02:38:02
Hys
Excellent and clear.
2016-01-23 07:31:52
Brian
Marvellous pratical advice, I had forgoten about the other options in the styles box
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2021 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments