The third option in the mail merge wizard is envelopes. Once we choose that document type and click Next, Step 2 will appear.

You can see in the sample on the right that we only have two choices for Step 2: to change the document layout or to start from an existing document. You should choose to change the document layout unless your existing document is a previously completed envelope mail merge.

You also must click the Envelope Options link to set your envelope’s parameters. (If you don’t click this link, Word will prompt you for those options when you click Next.)

Here’s what the Envelope Options dialog looks like:

You can see that you can choose the size of the envelope that you are using. You can also set font and margin distances for both the delivery and the return address. You can also click the Printing Options tab to set those options; as these vary depending on your printer we’ll skip that tab.

Once we’ve set our envelope options, we can click Next to change our document layout and proceed to step 3. This step is the same as it was for e-mail messages and letters: you must select the recipient source (existing list, new list, or Outlook contacts) and then choose where the list is located or create a new one.

Step 4 allows you to arrange your envelope using the same tools we looked at before: address block, greeting line, electronic postage, postal bar code, and custom fields. (Remember to click in the proper location in your document before you place these items.) You will probably also want to type your return address in at this stage.

Once again, Step 5 allows us to preview our envelopes. If we need to make any changes, now is the time!

If everything looks correct, click Next to proceed to Step 6 and complete the merge.

This final step has options similar to the ones we saw when creating letters. You can click Print if your envelopes are complete, or you can click Edit individual envelopes to see them in a new document.  (If you choose this latter option, you will see the Merge to New Document dialog that we saw earlier. You just have to click OK to complete the merge!)

Regardless of which option you choose, the merged document will stay open so you can make changes if need be.

Let’s look at a sample of completed envelopes.

You can see that the layout is quite different from a normal document. You can also see that each envelope has the same style and layout, but each is personalized with a different address.