Removing Return Addresses

In other issues of WordTips you learned how to insert a graphic in a return address for creating envelopes or for creating labels. It seems that learning how to remove those special return addresses has resulted in the subject for another tip--this tip.

How you go about removing a return address that contains a graphic depends exactly on how it was created in the first place. There are a couple of things to try, each of which may result in the offending graphic being removed. The first thing to try is to simply try to delete the return address. You do this by following these steps:

1. Choose Letters and Mailings from the Tools menu, then choose Envelopes and Labels. (In Word 97 and Word 2000 you can choose Envelopes and Labels directly from the Tools menu.) Word displays the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.
2. Make sure the Envelopes tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Click in the Return Address area and delete everything there. For good measure, replace the contents with a single space.
4. Print your envelopes as normal. The return address should be gone.

If you simply want to remove the return address temporarily, you could click on the Omit check box in step 3. The contents of the return address are retained, but it should not print.

If this doesn't work, take a look in the options area for the return address stored there. You can get to it and get rid of it by following these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the User Information tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Click in the Return Address or Mailing Address area (the name depends on your version of Word) and delete everything there.
4. Click on OK to close the Options dialog box.
5. Try to print your envelopes. The return address should not show up in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

Finally, there is one other place to look if you still cannot get rid of the return address. Word allows you to define a special AutoText entry that prints as part of your return address. This entry normally has the name EnvelopeExtra1. To get rid of it, follow these steps:

1. Depending on your version of Word, choose AutoText from the Edit menu or choose AutoText from the Insert menu and choose AutoText from the resulting submenu. Word displays either the AutoText dialog box or the AutoText tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
2. Scroll through the list of AutoText entries, looking for items such as EnvelopeExtra1 or EnvelopeExtra2. If you find one, select it.
3. Click on the Delete button.
4. Look for any other similarly named AutoText entries, repeating steps 2 and 3 as needed.
5. Click on the Close or OK button.
6. Try to print your envelopes. The return address should not show up in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

For more information on the special EnvelopeExtra1 AutoText entry, use the on-line help, click on the Find tab, and search for EnvelopeExtra1. If you cannot find information there (some versions of Word don't supply the required help), you can search for the same term in the Microsoft Knowledgebase and locate information.