Placeholders for Stamps

If you are using Word to create envelopes or postcards for your business, you may have a need to include a "placeholder" for stamps. You've seen these before—generally they are in the upper-right corner of business reply envelopes. They are a small rectangle containing words to the effect "Place Stamp Here. The Post Office will not deliver mail without postage". The wording varies, but you get the idea.

To easily create such an object on your envelopes or postcards, follow these general steps:

1. Open or create your envelope or postcard, as you normally would.
2. Make sure the Drawing toolbar is visible.
3. Click on the Text Box tool on the Drawing toolbar. Word changes to Print Layout view or Page Layout view (Word 97) and the mouse pointer changes to a crosshair.
4. Click the mouse pointer where you want the upper-left corner of the placeholder.
5. Drag the mouse to the lower-right corner of the placeholder. When you release the mouse, the text box is inserted.
6. Choose Text Box from the Format menu. Word displays the Format Text Box dialog box.
7. Make sure the Size tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Size tab of the Format Text Box dialog box

8. Set the Height value to .9 inches.
9. Set the Width value to .7 inches.
10. Click on OK.
11. Place the insertion point within the text box.
12. Type the text you want to appear within the placeholder.
13. Format the text as desired. (You will probably need to make the font size smaller so the text is completely visible).

That's it! Your placeholder is on your envelope or postcard, and you are ready to print.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (475) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Placeholders for Stamps.