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Use Microsoft Word Templates to In-Source Your Envelope Printing

by Joshua Feinberg

The second in a two-part series
June 4, 2001
Morganville, NJ

In last issue's Money-Saving Techniques, we saw how to use Microsoft Word templates to easily create highly professional, custom small business letterhead. We looked at paper selection, logo creation, and customizing an existing template. In this article, we'll focus on the other half of the equation: how to build a matching custom small business envelope template in Microsoft Word.

By now, you should've already selected the paper brand and type, and its matching No. 10 business envelope, as well as created your small business logo in a Windows Bitmap (.BMP) or TIFF (.TIF) file format.

As I mentioned last time, a huge part of delivering a professional image centers around your consistent use of fonts and a logo. So it's crucial that you use the same exact logo file on both the letterhead and envelope.

Laying the Framework for a Microsoft Word Envelope Template

1. In its simplest form, a No. 10 envelope is just a Microsoft Word template document with a 9.5" by 4.13" paper size. To create a blank document, sized for a No. 10 envelope, open Microsoft Word. If you don't already have a blank document in front of you, point to the File pull-down menu, choose the New command, and select Blank Document from the General tab.

2. Then from the File pull-down menu, choose the Page Setup command and click on the Paper Size tab. Toward the top of this tab, you'll see the drop-down list for Paper size, which is likely defaulted in the U.S. to Letter (8.5" by 11" paper size, Portrait orientation). Change this selection to Envelope #10, which should automatically adjust to 9.5" width, 4.13" height, and Landscape orientation. In many cases, you'll need to toggle the Orientation radio button to Landscape manually. Then click the OK button.

Tip: You may want to adjust your page view so that you can see the whole envelope on the page. From the View pull-down menu, choose the Zoom command and then the Whole Page setting.

Setting up the Text Boxes for a Microsoft Word Envelope Template

3. Now we'll create three text boxes to be used as placeholders for your content in your for a Microsoft Word envelope template. The first and second text boxes will hold your company logo and return address information. And don't forget to add your main e-mail address and company web site URL to your return address information. The third text box will be for the recipient's address information.

4. To add a text box, go to your Insert pull-down menu again, and choose the Text Box command. This will change your mouse pointer into a + (plus sign). Move the + mouse pointer to the upper left-hand corner of the document, leaving about ¼" to a ½" margin on both the top and left sides. Then hold down your left mouse button to draw a rectangle that's about 3" wide by 1.5" tall. When you're satisfied with the size of the box, release the mouse button. This first text box will be for your logo.

5. Then, create a second text box for your return address block, using the same procedure as above. This second text box, should be placed immediately below the first text box and should be approximately the same dimensions.

6. Next add a third text box for your recipient's address. Simply repeat the above procedure, except this time we'll place the recipient box more toward the center of the document template. For most scenarios, anchor the text box so that the upper left hand corner is at the horizontal ruler marking for 3" and the vertical ruler marking for 2". Then size the box so that it's about 4" wide by 1.5" tall.

Adding Your Logo and Return Address Block to the Microsoft Word Envelope Template

7. Then, we're going to place and size our logo on the Microsoft Word envelope template. This is basically the same procedure we used to place our logo on the letterhead template in the first part of this article. Anchor your mouse pointer in the first text box you created for your logo. From the Insert pull-down menu, choose the Picture command, followed by the From File subcommand.

8. From the Insert Picture dialog box, navigate to the folder location where you saved your logo file. Select that file with your mouse and click the Insert button. The text box and logo should automatically resize to maximum width and minimum height, or vice versa.

9. After you've inserted your company logo into the for a Microsoft Word envelope template, fill in your return address information in the second text box, immediately below your company logo. Take care to match the font to the same font utilized in your letterhead template. You'll also want to move text box number two containing your return address information, so that it's immediately underneath text box one with your company logo.

10. By default, text boxes include a borderline, which in most cases we do not want. To get rid of each border, select and right-click on the text box to access its context sensitive pop-up menu. From there, we want the Format Text Box command and specifically the Colors and Lines tab. Toward the center of this tab, you'll see a section called Line and a pull-down menu called Color. From this Color selector drop-down list, choose No Line.

Preserving and Reusing Your Microsoft Word Envelope Template Masterpiece

11. Finally, just as we did with the Microsoft Word custom letterhead template, we need to save the Microsoft Word envelope document as a template. Choose the Save As… command from your File pull-down menu. Then in the Save As dialog box, click the drop-down arrow for Save as type and choose Document Template (*.dot). Then give your template a name (I used envelope.dot) and click the Save button

12. To use your newly created Microsoft Word envelope template, choose the Envelope template from the File pull-down menu, New command, General tab.

Note: If for some reason your newly created envelope.dot template is not on the General Tab when you choose the File, New command, check your default template folder path(s) and make sure you have the template file saved to the correct folder. You can view or change your default template paths from the Tools pull-down menu, Options command, File Locations tab.

The Bottom Line

In last issue's Money-Saving Techniques, we saw how to create an economical, yet highly professional, consistent brand image for your company by creating your own small business letterhead with a Microsoft Word template.

This week, we drilled down into the second half of the equation: how to create a matching small business envelope template in Microsoft Word.

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About the Author: Joshua Feinberg is an internationally recognized small business technology expert, consultant, columnist, author, keynote speaker, and trainer. He is a published Microsoft Press author, as well as the creator of and two-year veteran writer of the Microsoft Direct Access "VAPVoice: Notes From the Field" column. Learn what your highly paid computer consultant doesn't want you to know! Subscribe to Joshua Feinberg's FREE bi-weekly Smallbiztechtalk.com "Tips" e-zine and receive two FREE mini-reports by e-mail.

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