Letter in Word, Envelope has a REF field to a bookmark, stuff goes haywire

Question

Hello Lords of Word.

This problem takes some describing. I have a word template for a standard letter for my work. There is one of those built in envelopes that you get when you go MAILINGS ribbon > Envelopes > "Add to Document". So the template starts with the built-in envelope, with its preset characteristics. There's a little invisible sort of table or cell for the Delivery address built-in. In that table/cell, I've put in two REF fields that refer to bookmarks for the name and address in the letter, which I'll describe next.

After the envelope page, follows the letter, and in the Letter I put a bookmark called Name and another called Address. Nested inside each bookmark is a formfield. So I hit F11, it jumps to the field inside the "name" bookmark, I fill it in. I hit F11 again, it jumps to the next field, inside the "address" bookmark, and type 2, 3 or 4 lines for the address, hitting enter for a new paragraph between lines.

Final step: Ctrl, A selects the entire doc, I hit F9 to update the REF fields in the envelope, the info in the bookmarks flows into them and my envelope is automatically filled in. This has worked pretty well for years.

Something has started to go wrong, though I've made no changes to my templates. If my Address book mark has a two-line address it all works fine as below:

But if I have a 3-line address (quite common), the 2nd line relocates like this:

I can just move the 2nd line back into place, but this is extra steps, trips me up if I don't notice it,  complicates me training my staff, and I think this might cause big problems with a mail-merge down the road. So I really need to fix it. Any way I can make the REF fields in the Envelope behave themselves?

Thanks in advance. 

ddc

Answer 1

When you enter the address, are you pressing Enter for the second line? If so, does it work if you use Shift+Enter instead?

The box containing the address is a frame, and it is defined as part of the Envelope Address style, which has a large left indent (the only reason for this that I have been able to come up with is that it allows you to remove the indent to add a notation such as PERSONAL, CONFIDENTIAL, or FIRST CLASS to the left above the address). You can, as Graham suggested, modify the Envelope Address style in this template to have no indent; you'll also have to modify the horizontal location setting of the frame to be farther right.

Answer 2

A lot of the problem has to do with the way Word formats envelopes. You can overcome this issue relatively easily by reformatting the EnvelopeAddress paragraph style in the template from which the letter document was created. See http://www.gmayor.com/changing_envelope_layout.htm for instructions.

Answer 3

Thank you Graham and Suzanne.

I mean, THANK YOU. I finally understand how to deal with envelope weirdness and complications that have caused me problems for years. I read Graham's webpage, took Suzanne's suggestion about getting rid of the indent. Along the way, I figured out that you have to update the envelope address style anytime you make a change to the frame format, or else the paragraphs all bunch up on top of each other--as though the frame change altered only one of them and the others didn't get the memo. But if you update, they all straighten out and fly right.

I could have used this understanding a decade ago, so I'm glad to have it now. At least I won't die wondering "Why? Why won't the address lines OBEY?". Thanks again.

ddc

Answer 4

Can you send me a copy of your template so that I can investigate the issue.

Answer 5

Try using the Tab key on keyboard to move the line into its proper place. You can remove and add the Ref again to see if that takes care of it.