Delivery Address Won't Print on Envelopes

John has a business letter that includes both a return address and a delivery address. When he displays the Envelope & Labels dialog box to print an envelope, Word correctly picks up both addresses and places them in the proper places in the dialog box. When he prints that envelope, however, the delivery address does not print at all. The return address prints in the expected location on the envelope, but the delivery address is completely missing. John wonders what could be going wrong.

Trying to track down envelope-printing problems can be a challenge. A good first step is to not print your envelopes directly to the printer. Instead, add the envelope to your document. The idea is to see what Word adds to the document, just to see if it looks right. (Adding the envelope to the document is a troubleshooting step only. Once you get the problem ironed out, you can again print directly to the printer.)

Once the envelope is added to the document, check it out to see if it shows the same problems. Is the delivery address missing? Perhaps it is moved someplace that is not printable on your printer. Perhaps it is really there, but the font is in some color (such as white) that your printer cannot print. Check out what is in the document—in the added envelope—and you may be able to get the problem figured out.

Next, check to make sure your printer driver matches your printer. When printing envelopes, Word needs to be concerned with where that relatively small piece of paper (the envelope) is located in the feed tray and what its orientation is. If Word guesses incorrectly, then the envelope may not print correctly, if at all. When you make sure the printer driver on your system matches the make and model of your printer, then you increase the chances that Word will work with the printer correctly.

Finally, you may need to check the styles used by Word to create your envelope. It is the styles that control how your printed envelope appears. You can find out which styles Word is using simply by inspecting what Word adds to the document when you choose to add the envelope. Since the problem is with your delivery address, check the style used for that address first. (Hint: It is probably the Envelope Address style. Check to make sure the font color is set to black and the frame used by the style is printable.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3509) 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: Delivery Address Won't Print on Envelopes.