Let me tell you about a Word Processing technique to apply the mailing address directly to the envelope. It’s called merging. The concept is to merge data (your address list) onto a form (the envelopes). The result will be an address from your address book on each envelope. Once you’ve walked through the procedure, all kinds of bells will ring in your head and you’ll mutter “Why didn’t I know about this before?”

I’m going to use WordPerfect in describing merging a Christmas address list to envelopes and although you can do the same thing with Word; the steps may vary a bit. See Vade Forrester's companion article describing the process in MS Word.

If you use WordPerfect version 8 and later, you can have multiple address books. I named one address book Christmas and that’s where I keep our friends and family whom we send cards.

Now the first thing you will probably have to do is create a new paper size to accommodate the dimensions of the holiday card envelope that you plan to mail — most holiday card envelopes are far larger than the normal #10 business envelope so you create a new paper size by going to Format, Page, Page Setup. If you don’t see the envelope size you need, you can either create a new envelope. I created a new envelope that is 8" wide by 5.75" high and named it Christmas01 or modify an existing envelope size that is somewhat similar in size to the card envelope you plan to send. 

Now that we have the envelope size taken care of, we move to the data or address book we plan to merge on the envelopes. If you are creating a new WordPerfect address book for your holiday card list, it’s as easy as stepping off a curb. Click on Tools, Address Book, File, New, CorelCENTRAL (select the version of WordPerfect that you are using), Personal, and here is where you type in the new address book’s name. WordPerfect will know that Christmas address book name doesn’t yet exist so will ask you if you would like to create it. You click Yes.  You now have a new address book in which you will put the names and addresses of those whom you plan to send cards.

Once you have your holiday address book filled with names, you are ready for the big step, creating the merge of names from your address book to the envelope but there are still a couple of small details to finish but we’ll let WordPerfect lead us the rest of the way. Click on Tools, Merge and a window will pop up.  I will use the new envelope size that I created earlier as my form so I click on Format, Page, Page Setup and select Christmas01 from the list.

Before the next step, I will first put my name and address on the upper left corner of the envelope. I chose a sans serif font in 10 point font size and bolded it. Now I will place the data Fields (name, street, city, state, zip) where I want them on the envelope (the form). Using the window Insert Field Names, I select Display Name and click the Insert button. I then hit my enter Key to move the cursor to the next line and select the Street field and click Insert. Clicking the Enter key takes the cursor to the next line where I click City and Insert, type in the comma key on the keyboard to separate City from State and select the State field and click Insert. I hit my space bar to move the cursor one place to the right and click the Zip field. Next I highlight the addressee fields and choose the font and font size. I chose President as my font as it appears festive but readable by the Post Office. I enlarged the font size to 24 to make the address stand out on the large envelope.

Now I am ready to Merge. I have chosen the Christmas address book as my data file and my form file (the envelope) is currently on the screen. WordPerfect churns for a few seconds and the last name on my address list appears in the envelope. Since WordPerfect treats each envelope as a separate page, I click Control and Home to take me to the first page or the first name in my address list. Clicking on Control and End takes me again to the last page (or the last envelope) and I look at the information shown in the lower right part of the WordPerfect screen and I see that I have 89 pages, or 89 envelopes to print. You can save this merged file as a document until you are ready to print the envelopes.

You will have to do a little experimenting with your printer to decide which way to place your envelopes in the paper feed tray to have the names/addresses print correctly. Since you may not have many envelopes to waste, I recommend cutting some scrap paper the same size as your envelope and experiment with paper direction before starting with your envelopes.