Saving an Envelope for Future Use

There are times when you may need to print several envelopes that have the same delivery address, or you may need to keep an envelope on file for future use. The developers at Word provided the capability to add an envelope to your current document, but not to create a new document that contains just an envelope (as they did with labels).

If you find yourself in this situation, follow these steps:

1. Open the existing document that contains the address you want to use on your envelope.
2. Highlight the address and copy it to the Clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C.
3. Create a new document.
4. Display the Mailings tab of the ribbon.
5. Click Envelopes in the Create group. Word displays the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.
6. Make sure the Envelopes tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Envelopes tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

7. Place the insertion point in the Delivery Address area.
8. Press Ctrl+V to paste the address you copied in step 2.
9. Using the tools in the dialog box, format the envelope as you desire.
10. Click on the Add to Document button. This creates your envelope.

You now have your envelope and can save it in a file, if you so desire. When it is time to print your envelope, you can do so as you would with any other document, including printing multiple copies. The only caveat is that you should only print page 1 of the document (which is the envelope itself). If you print the entire document, you will get a blank page after the envelope.

Your other option, of course, is to not use the Envelopes tool (step 5), but to instead create a brand-new document that has the same page dimensions of an envelope. You can then position your return address as you would like and add a delivery address as desired. In this way you have just the envelope (without the letter page) and can save and reuse the document as desired.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10309) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Saving an Envelope for Future Use.