Envelope Window is a DA-type utility designed to keep under your Apple Menu. Its purpose is to print envelopes quickly without making you open a word processor or database application.
The first time you use Envelope Window there are a few things you'll need to configure. Choose 'Envelope Settings' from the Edit menu and enter your return address, as well as make any changes you'd like to the Font settings there. Then you'll need to set up your printer to print envelopes. Choose Page Setup from the File menu. If there are no settings for envelope page sizes, you'll need to make one. Your printer should allow you to define a custom page size and orientation (this varies from printer to printer... consult your printer's documentation.) You may need to experiment with different settings to get this exactly right. If your printer has a Print Preview setting, it may come in handy while you're setting things up. Once everything is set, Envelope Window will remember your configuration and you'll never have to do it again.
To print an envelope, type an address in the To field and click the Print! button, or hit the Enter key (on the numeric keypad) or choose Print One Copy from the File menu. The envelope will instantly be sent to your printer. If you need to make changes to your printer settings, hold down the option key when you click the Print! button, or type Command-P, or choose Print... from the File menu. You will be presented with your printer’s standard dialogs.
Upon startup EW will insert any text on the clipboard short enough to be an address (under 200 characters) into the To field of its window. It will automatically clean it up as well, removing leading & trailing tabs and spaces that may have crept in (particularly useful when copying addresses from the web.) If your address is too long, or you don't want the cleaned up version, just paste manually; EW doesn't change the text on the clipboard, only what is put into the window. If you have particularly large font settings, or long lines, there may not be enough room in the box, and text may wrap onto another line; not to fear, it will still print out correctly. If it still bothers you, you can resize the window so it fits.
This version adds the ablity to save an address list, as well as to save multiple files with their own address list and font & printer settings.
To create an address list, choose Address List from the Edit menu, then click the New Address button and type the address in the bottom edit field. Repeat for each address you want to enter. Your addresses will be shown in the popup menu over the To: field in EW's main window. Choosing Add Current Address To List from this menu will add the text entered in the To: field of the main window to the Address List.
To print envelopes for multiple addresses in the list, command-click each address you want to print, then choose the print command, or click the print button.
To save out a separate address list (this is a bit confusing and may be changed in a future version), choose Save Settings As... from the File menu. A standard file dialog box will appear, letting you choose a name & location for the file. The current font and printer settings will be saved to this file, as well as any addresses you have entered in the list. To edit this file and give it it's own settings, double click on it in the Finder, and change the settings normally. When you quit EW, the settings will be saved to the new file.
To sum up: Double-clicking on the Envelope Window application's icon will open the default settings file, stored in the Preferences folder. When Envelope Window is quit, the Address List window is closed, or the Save Settings button in the Envelope Settings window is clicked, the changes will be written to the settings file in the Preferences folder. Double-clicking a settings file will open Envelope Window with those settings active, and any of the above actions will save to the external settings file instead of the preferences folder file.
Version History:
Final --
1.0 redesigned window to use less screen space and made it resizable (within reasonable limits - the text still has to fit on an envelope, anyway!) Added “Clean Up Text” option to Edit menu to remove tabs & spaces from the ends of address lines. Mapped Enter key (on the numeric keypad) to the Print button. Added ability to print multiple addresses from the address list window. There is now a 30-day trial period before EW prints “Printed with Envelope Window” on each envelope. Beta versions printed it 75% of the time, from the time EW was first run.
Beta --
1.0b1 fixes a problem with saving Envelope Settings, and replaces 1.0b
1.0b2 fixes a bug where Envelope Window would crash when its About window was opened.
1.0b3 further about window fixes...
1.0b4 fixed possible crash on startup when importing the clipboard.
1.0b5 added address list, and multiple settings files (including multiple address lists.) Sped up opening of Envelope Settings window a bit. Fixed Page Setup dialog to show the settings when opened. They *were* being saved, as long as you didn't open the Page Setup dialog. This might also fix a problem with Epson printer drivers not saving settings unless you clicked on Options first. I don't currently have an Epson printer to test with. Also fixed potential problem with Envelope Window's icon (there were 2 icl8 #128s, in case you're interested.)
1.0b6 fixed a problem with creating the preferences file.
1.0b7 was never released. It fixed a problem where Page Setup settings made any way other than choosing Page Setup from the File menu weren’t getting saved to preferences. It also had most of the new stuff in 1.0, but since it was never released, that is really neither here nor there.
Known Issues:
Envelope Window ignores anything you type into the # of copies field in the printer dialog - it only prints 1 copy at a time. I'm looking into this, but I don't see it as a major problem for now.
There have been reported incompatibilities with the PowerPrint software.
This documentation is lousy. Now that 1.0 is out, hopefully I’ll have more time to work on it.
