Changing the Default Font for Envelopes

Word includes an Envelopes feature that makes it pretty easy to create your own professional-looking envelopes. The feature makes certain assumptions about how different parts of the envelope should be printed. This includes the font that Word uses to print the envelope's information.

When creating an envelope, Word depends on predefined styles. The style used for the main address on the envelope is, appropriately enough, Envelope Address. Likewise, the style used for the return address is named Envelope Return. When you instruct Word to create the envelope, these styles are grabbed and used for formatting the addresses on the envelope.

If you want to change the font used by Word in creating envelopes, you need to change the style used for this purpose by Word. To do this, follow these steps if you are using Word 97 or Word 2000:

1. Click on the New tool on the toolbar to open a new document based on the Normal.dot template. (If you want to fix this problem in other templates, you should open the template directly or create a blank document based on that template.)
2. Choose the Style option from the Format menu. Word displays the Style dialog box.
3. In the List drop-down list at the bottom of the dialog box, make sure you select All Styles.
4. In the list of styles, select Envelope Address.
5. Click on Modify. Word displays the Modify Style dialog box.
6. Click on the Format button and choose Font. Word displays the Font dialog box.
7. Change the font information, as desired.
8. Click on OK to close the Font dialog box.
9. Make sure the Add to Template check box is selected, at the bottom of the Modify Style dialog box.
10. Click on OK.
11. Click on Cancel to close the Style dialog box.

When done, you should repeat these steps if you want to change the font used for the return address. The only difference, of course, is that in step 4 you should select the Envelope Return style.

If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003, the steps you follow to make the changes are slightly different. Follow these steps, instead.

1. Create a new, blank document by clicking on the Blank Document link on the New Document task pane. This creates a new document based on the Normal.dot template. (If you want to fix this problem in other templates, you should open the template directly or create a blank document based on that template.)
2. Choose Styles and Formatting from the Format menu. Word displays the Styles and Formatting task pane.
3. In the Show drop-down list at the bottom of the dialog box, make sure you select All Styles.
4. Scroll through the list of styles until you see the Envelope Address style.
5. Hover the mouse pointer over the style name, and then click on the down-arrow that appears at the right side of the style name. A drop-down menu appears.
6. Click on Modify. Word displays the Modify Style dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Modify Style dialog box.

7. Click on the Format button and choose Font. Word displays the Font dialog box. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Font dialog box.

8. Change the font information, as desired.
9. Click on OK to close the Font dialog box.
10. Make sure the Add to Template check box is selected, at the bottom of the Modify Style dialog box.
11. Click on OK.

Repeat these steps if you want to change the font used for the return address, but in step 4 make sure you select the Envelope Return style.

When you save your document or close Word, you are asked if you want to save your changes to the template. Make sure you do this. Your envelopes, when created in a document that uses this template, should now use the font you specified.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3881) 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: Changing the Default Font for Envelopes.