won't print address on envelopes

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Are you using an InkJet Printer that does not have the colour cartridge
installed? Some InkJet Printers create black for the envelope address by
mixing the coloured inks rather than by using the black ink cartridge.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Is the Hebrew font used in the letter as well and if so, does it print OK?

I have to admit though, it is not something that I have ever had anything to
do with.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Dr. Dave]

Using Vista and word 2007, I'm doing a mail merge. The letters printed okay
but now, the next day when I'm trying to print the envelopes, only the
return address prints but the address for the letter doesn't print. What
should I do?

 

[Dr. Dave]

Thanks for responding! My printer is HP DeskJet 3920 but it has a color
cartridge installed. I'm in Israel and some of the addresses are in English
and some are in Hebrew. I just realized that only the Hebrew addresses
don't print, the English ones print fine. What to do?

 

[Dr. Dave]

There's both Hebrew and English in the return address and they both print
okay there! I may have to address them by hand!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Are you getting any Hebrew text through in any of your merges?

If not, what is your data source?

Do you see the Hebrew text in the Address when you
a. preview the merge
b. and/or use print preview
c. and/or output the envelopes to a new document?

(FWIW it works OK here using Word 2007 SP1, Vista SP1, both set up for UK
English, the default mailmerge envelope layout (which uses the Cambria font
for both address boxes here, and using an Outlook contacts list as the data
source (selected from Word, not starting with the Outlook Tools|Mail Merge
function) with data input in Outlook using the Hebrew keyboard layout.
Printing to an HP inkjet (but not the same model as yours))

 

[Dr. Dave]

Thanks for responding. I didn't see your reply until just now. I finished
the mail merge last week, so all the particulars aren't clear in my mind
right now but if I moved the Address box section on the envelope (either to
the right or to the left, I don't remember) only the first few letters of
each line of the Hebrew address printed! I wound up having to enter the
addresses manually and print each envelope separately. The addresses did
appear in the preview of the merge, the also printed in the letters
themselves. Besides being somewhat old and not having such a good memory, I
am close to being computer-illiterate, so I don't really understand what you
mean when you say, "using an Outlook contacts list as the data source
(selected from Word, not starting with the Outlook Tools|Mail Merge
function) with data input in Outlook using the Hebrew keyboard layout." I
used the Mail merge Wizard and clicked on Create A New List.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I used the Mail merge Wizard and clicked on Create A New List.

OK, that's what I needed to know. If you had used the other method there was
a possibility that the method that Word uses to get the data might have got
in the way.

It would be pretty helpful if you could send me some test data (i.e. not
real data) created the way you usually create it (because the chances that
I'll enter the data the same way you do are slim). You can remove "KillMaps"
from my e-mail and e-mail me some if you like.

It might help to know whether your addresses are all either Hebrew
characters or Latin characters, or whether some are mixed. If mixed, is
Hebrew/Latin mixed within single lines or is each line a single type of
text? (Actually, it isn't so much the characters as whether you are having
to alter the direction of typing or not, e.g. to enter digits. If you have
various mixes is there any pattern as to what prints and what does not?

 

[Dr. Dave]

Excuse me again for being "computer illiterate" but when I send you the test
data, do you want it to be how I enter it in the directory or how it prints
in the address block? And what do you mean by the way I usually create it?
I enter each field in the directory as it's labeled on top of each column.
Since that's probably not what you mean, what do you mean?
the Hebrew addresses are four lines, all in Hebrew, the numbers are entered
in Hebrew, without changing to English. My return address is two lines of
English and two lines of Hebrew (although my return address is not entered
in the directory, so that might not have anything to do with the problem.)
I just made a test with two lines in Hebrew and 2 lines in English for one
of the addresses and another address with all lines in Hebrew. Only the
mixed address printed (and correctly) but the all Hebrew address didn't
print at all!
Thanks for pursuing this matter with me.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Excuse me again for being "computer illiterate" but when I send you the

test data, do you want it to be how I enter it in the directory or how it
prints in the address block? And what do you mean by the way I usually
create it?

What I reall mean is "do whatever you usually do to enter Hebrew addresses."

In principle, you might think that it doesn't or shouldn't matter how you
insert a character - you should end up with the same thing. But that's not
necessarily the case because Word (for example) does not rely solely on the
characters entered for its information about text direction. It also records
directional information.

I'm not a regular Hebrew user. So for example, you may have a Hebrew
keyboard. I don't. That means that in order to enter Hebrew text, I either
have to
a. enable a Hebrew keyboard in Windows and know which keys on my QWERTY
keyboard correspond to which Hebrew characters or
b. use a virtual keyboard or
c. emulate what you are doing by picking charcters from (say) Windows
Character map one by one.
d. insert test data programmatically

Whatever I do, it probably isn't the same as what you do. That may mean that
the data I save has differences from the data you save, and that may result
in differences in the way the data is handled when we merge.

FWIW I'm going to be offline for a few days now but will try to pick this up
again after that.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Dr. Dave]

I just did another test: if I add an extra line at the bottom or in the
middle of the address consisting of only one English letter, then all the
other four or five lines of all Hebrew text print okay. However, if the
extra English line is just a period or a dash, then nothing prints. It has
to be a letter! Does that make sense to you?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I think you've given me enough info. to try the same thing myself here
when I next have a chance.

If you want to send something it would actually be the data file that
contains your merge data (you have to save it at some point when you create
a new "address list" in Word, and in Word 2007 it will have a .mdb
extension.

 

[Dr. Dave]

Since my Word 2007 is configured for Hebrew and English, I press Alt-Shift
to change from one language to the other. When I send you the test data, do
you just want the Hebrew addresses printed out as if I were typing an
envelope on a typewriter, or do you want each bit of information (first
name, last name, address line 1, address line 2, etc) under its appropriate
column heading?

 

[Graham Mayor]

The forum does not accept attachments - unscramble Peter's e-mail address
and send it to him (ideally zipped).

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Graham Mayor]

You would need a zip utility like WinZip. This creates a compressed version
of the file

How large is the file? If it is less than a couple of mb, I suspect Peter
will forgive you for sending it as it stands.

From your e-mail software attach the file to your message. Most e-mail
software has a paperclip icon that calls a file dialog allowing you to
select the file.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Dr. Dave]

I made a test data file of three addresses (with an .mdb extension) and
tried to send it to you as a file attachment to a "reply group"-email but I
got the error message: "Windows Mail could not post your message. Subject
'Re: won't print address on envelopes', Account: 'Microsoft Communities',
Server: 'msnews.microsoft.com', Protocol: NNTP, Server Response: '437 (648)
Transfer Failed - Do Not Try Again -- The Article is too large', Port: 119,
Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 437, Error Number: 0x800CCCA9". How am I
supposed to send you the data?
Did you see my other reply that if I add an extra line of one English word
to an all-Hebrew address, it prints the whole thing okay?

 

[Dr. Dave]

I made a test data file of three addresses (with an .mdb extension) and
tried to send it to you as a file attachment to a "reply group"-email but I
got the error message: "Windows Mail could not post your message. Subject
'Re: won't print address on envelopes', Account: 'Microsoft Communities',
Server: 'msnews.microsoft.com', Protocol: NNTP, Server Response: '437 (648)
Transfer Failed - Do Not Try Again -- The Article is too large', Port: 119,
Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 437, Error Number: 0x800CCCA9". How am I
supposed to send you the data?
Did you see my other reply that if I add an extra line of one English word
to an all-Hebrew address, it prints the whole thing okay?

 

[Dr. Dave]

Could you tell me how exactly I would go about making a zipped file and then
how to send it by email. I have never done either one. I know next to
nothing about computers. thanks.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

How large is the file? If it is less than a couple of mb, I suspect Peter
will forgive you for sending it as it stands.

Correct...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I was able to replicate the problem, and probably could have done so
with my own data earlier. The problem only appears when you actually print
(as you say) - merge preview and print preview show all the text.

However, the problems only occur when I use an ADDRESSBLOCK field (which has
other problems which have nothing to do with right-to-left/left-to-right
script issues). In fact, it only occurs when I use an ADDRESSBLOCK field
inside the "Frame" where you are supposed to insert your address.

You might find it useful to click the show/hide button on the Home panel of
the ribbon when looking at what is going on - this displays paragraph marks
etc., and click Alt-F9 to show the field codes

Word frames are the "old" way of locating text at a particular position on
the page. There is another way of doing that, which is to insert a "text
box" (see the Insert panel on the ribbon) and format it so that it does not
have a surround. You would need to delete the frame as well. Frames are
probably used because the field codes used in Mailmerge do not always work
correctly in frames (i.e. some field codes do not work at all). In this
case, the situation is reversed - you can get some idea as to what Word is
doing wrong if you format the frame with a border and print that.

As far as I can see, the problem is related to having left-to-right (RTL)
/paragraphs/ in the frame. Because ADDRESSBLOCK always seems to use LTR
paragraphs when there is even a single word in "Latin" text in the address
(except for the digits, which are handled differently) , mixed text
addresses print OK.

If the ADDRESSBLOCK field does everything you want, that's probably all you
need to do, and you can probably safely ignore the rest of this essage.

However, ADDRESSBLOCK does have other problems, and if you encounter them,
you would need to insert individual field codes (i.e. one for the first
name, one for the last name, etc.). These should work within the original
frame, although you may need to format the text with the left-to-right
format button so that they are actually LTR paragraphs (with the paragraph
marks at the right hand end). As far as I can see, in simple cases they get
the left-right/right-left text direction correct, although you might want to
check that, especially if you end up using more complex field constructs. .
For more info, see the section on Graham Mayor's page at
http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm titled "Insert the
fields"

There may be other ways to solve this - the trouble is that dealing with
both RTL and LTR text introduces so many additional issues that it is
difficult to be sure what actually works and what does not. For example,
whether or not ADDRESSBLOCK excludes the country name that you specify in
the addressblock dialog seems actually to depend on the language number that
Word inserts rather than the country name. What's more, if I actually insert
"Israel" in Hebrew text instead of "Israel" in Latin text in the "country
name" part of the Addressblock field code, the Addressblock field gets
really screwed up when you select it and press F9 - the hebrew text is
re-inserted elsewhere in the field code, etc. etc.

Peter Jamieson