I am trying to accomplish a rather mundane task. I have at my disposal Microsoft Office 2003 Professional and Open Office 2.0. You would think that this mundane task would be fairly straightforward. I need to print something that is going to go in an envelope, and this is a window envelope so I want addresses to show through the envelope as intended by the manufacturer. The envelope in question is a Columbian CO158 3.625"x8.625" check envelope.
Now, I can just go hunt down a ruler, measure out the envelope, and carefully position some text on the top of the page. Of course, if I go that route I’m doing this entirely in Photoshop or Acrobat instead because word processors like to move things around for no reason and that makes me smash things. What I want is for this to happen automatically. Like I can with labels, like I can with regular envelopes, like I can with a damn T-Shirt with a proper template.
Are window envelopes so obscure that one must create a template by hand for each single one? A document template, none-the-less, since there does not seem to be a way to actually save “Custom” envelopes after you have used them once. And even if you could getting them to print on letter paper is another adventure in of itself - if you do “Fit to letter” it gets mangled.
So, can somebody show me that I’m being an idiot and this is actually simple, please, before I get frustrated to the point of borrowing a mechanical typewriter and some candles…
Dude, no way! You’re meddling with things man was never meant to touch. Just stick with plain envelopes and Avery sticky labels - that’s painful enough already, there’s no need to get sucked into that whole into extreme addressing subculture.
My Og, are you suicidal? I took a look online to see what such an envelope looks like and – geez – a DOUBLE window envelope! I thought one was bad enough!
In my past life, when I stuffed letters into single-window envelopes, here’s what I did:
Sacrifice an envelope for your template: cut-out (as in remove) the transparent coverings of the envelope (both of them in your case).
Insert a piece of paper the size of your check into the envelope.
Using the cut-out portions of your envelope as a template, mark off the areas that the windows cover on your fake-check. Draw the window-outlines on your paper, shade in the white space with a pencil, spray paint the darn things, whatever. The point is to mark off the areas on your check where it shows through the envelope.
Remove the check/paper from the envelope. Use a ruler and measure the corners of the two marked off window portions. Using these measurements, create a sample check with your return address and a sample destination address in your wordprocess (MS Word or Open Office). Match the Horizontal and Vertical positions of your text to the measures you derived from your template. When I used Word, I paid attention to the “At <so many inches<” reading at the bottom status bar. It might be helpful to set your margins to even numbers (half an inch all around instead of Word’s cryptic 1.25" for the left and 1" for the right margins).
Using trial-by-error, feed a hundred throwaway blank checks (or pieces of paper) into your printer. Print out a sample, then insert it into your envelope. Do the addresses show through? If so, then congratulations! If you’re like me, the first try never works, which means making an adjustment to your Word document, reprinting, then re-fitting it into your envelope. Repeat until successful or your sanity snaps.
What puzzles me (and previous posters alluded to this) is why are you burdened with this task? Agencies like the IRS (who use such envelopes) stick with software and templates created since the beginning of time, or hire contractors (for lotsa $$$) to come up these solutions. If your boss allows it, I’m all for Avery labels. If you’re sending checks, chances are the recipients are more concerned with the contents rather than the envelope.
As if my previous post wasn’t wordy enough, here’s an addendum:
From MS Word, if you choose the Tools-Letters and Mailings-Envelopes and Labels option, after customizing an envelope, you can click the “Add to Document” button and your envelope template will be merged into the current document. You can save that as a template. Just remember to print the first page only – I can’t find a way to remove the regular 8.5x11 portion from the document.
Alternatively, you can create a new document, then go under File-Page Setup and customize your document: change the margins, page layout, and paper size (to fit the size of your envelope). Find the sweet spots to put your return and destination address. Experiment, then save your template.
Good luck! If all else fails, seriously consider biting the bullet and ordering brand new window-less envelopes. It’ll make life significantly less stressful.
Now that everyone’s had a fair crack at this, I’ll submit my admittedly untried suggestion: Would a text box work? Can they be anchored to a specific position on the page? I would think so.
That’s what I wound up doing in the end… Text boxes can be mostly positioned independentantly. Since I couldn’t find a ruler in this entire office I settled for eyeballing it and making a lot of test prints before finding the right dimensions and saving them as a template.
But something is terribly wrong when a piece of software makes a software engineer long for a typewriter!