Forum Discussion
Changing the font for envelope printing
I'm using Office Professional Plus 2019. Word prints envelopes in a tiny light font that's almost impossible to read.
There's an "Options" button on the dialog box for printing an envelope. When I clicked it, Word opened a dialog that had "Font..." buttons for the delivery address and return address. I clicked the "Delivery" button, and Word opened a "Font" dialog. I changed the font, then clicked the "Set as Default" button and "OK." Then I did the same for the return address.
Then I printed an envelope, and Word used the same tiny light font as before. When I opened the "Font" dialogs again, they showed the original settings.
What am I doing wrong... or what is Word doing wrong, and how can I fix it? The procedure seems pretty simply an not prone to misunderstanding, but it isn't dong what I think it should.
3 Replies
I tried this, and it appears to be generally true. However, I have several issues with it.
The first is a simple issue of usability: the feature is invisible to the user, and nothing encourages them to check the documentation when there is a highly visible and intuitive procedure for setting the formats (Mailings>Envelope>Options) which does not work.
Second is inconsistency: Word takes the address formatting directly from the style, rather than from the text formatting, which is inherited from the style. Change the text formatting without changing the style, and it has no effect on the printed output. To my knowledge no other part of Microsoft Word works this way.
Third is that Word appears to reduce the size of each part of the address by about 10%, or one point. Thus I must set a larger point size in the style to get the size I actually want. Again, to my knowledge no other part of Microsoft Word works this way. I thought this might be an effect of having the text in a frame, but I looked at the Format Frame dialog and I don't see any provision for setting scale.
By the way, I observed a further bit of weirdness: the address frame is visible but the return address frame is invisible, even when "show formatting marks" is turned on. This is baffling, and adds further confusion!
Is Microsoft taking any steps to correct these problems?
See Change Envelope Layout by Graham Mayor, MVP.
The methods shown there work in all versions of Word beginning with Word 97 and extending to Word 2024. This includes the desktop application Word from Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Change the Envelope Address and Envelope Return Address paragraph styles.
Word’s envelope addresses use the Envelope Address and Envelope Return styles. The Font dialog’s “Set as Default” choice can be overridden by those styles or fail to persist when the attached template cannot be updated.
Create an envelope, choose Add to Document instead of printing, and open the Styles pane. Display styles, locate Envelope Address and Envelope Return, then choose Modify for each. Set the font, size, and weight, select “New documents based on this template,” and save. Close Word and accept the prompt to save Normal.dotm, then reopen Word and test an envelope.
If the styles revert, verify that Normal.dotm is writable and Word is not controlled by a template or add-in. Back up customizations before renaming Normal.dotm and allowing Word to recreate it. Office 2019 support ended in October 2025, so verify behavior on a supported release. Printer settings affect placement and feed direction, not the font.
