Re: Printing envelopes

Greetings "Henry G Belot"; < hbelot%40ix.netcom.com">hbelotix.netcom.com>
On 28/02/2008 at 02:52 you wrote concerning
Re: [PageStreamSupport] Re: Printing envelopes

Hi Henry,

HB> Don:

HB>> ...Do:
HB>>
HB>&gt; + Open PageStream
HB>&gt;
HB>&gt; + When the PageStream Navigator window opens, click 'New...
HB>>
HB>&gt; ...
HB&gt;>
HB>&gt; + Set the number of columns to 1 and click OK....
HB>>

HB&gt; Before clicking "OK,&quot; he should replace "untitled" in the "Name"
HB> dialogue with an appropriate name and select "Remember" at the bottom of
HB> the dialog. That way he can call it up in the future and reuse the settings.

Quite true! But the Bart claims that he is a "one envelope per month"; kind of
guy, hence perhaps the "Remember" device is overkill.

HB&gt;> PageStream now reveals a 6.5"x3.7" page in portrait view, although it looks
HB>> more like a landscape page because of its dimensions....
HB&gt;>

HB&gt; It's the "Landscape" versus "Portrait" dichotomy that confuses so many
HB> of us, and not just in PageStream. Here in the New Document dialog it
HB> refers to the way the printer feeds the paper or envelope into the
HB> printer (usually portrait).

Well, I've not experimented with "off size" sheets much. Normally, I do "US
letter&quot; with the occasional "US legal"; but I've never done envelopes. Years
ago, I used to do labels for a club on my A1200 with a delightful little
program called PenPal. It worked splendidly and was forgivingly simple.

HB&gt; If my memory banks are still working, during
HB> normal editing it refers to how the page will look to the reader. If I'm
HB> using tabloid paper I might want a poster that reads with the short side
HB> at the top whereas, if I'm creating a newsletter-like document I might
HB> want two 8-1/2 "pages" side by side and therefore want the long side at
HB> the top. Either way, it will feed the printer in portrait mode. I
HB> vaguely remember altering the master page specification for one or the
HB> other in some situations and then setting it back before printing, but
HB> it's been a long time. Maybe I was mixing orientations within the same
HB> document. Don't know.

I've done both portrait and landscape within the same document, but one does not
have to do anything special other than tell PageStream which master page to
use: the portrait one or the landscape one, for a particular page. When it
comes to printing, PageStream takes care of the details although one must be
careful about "leading edge" if you want the result to be double-sided.

HB>> ...Now to create the textual material for the addresses!!! I've never done
HB&gt;> this so I'm guessing, and there probably is a more efficient way of
HB>;> proceeding which one of the gurus will immediately explain. However, ....
HB&gt;>

HB&gt; Well, yes, you would frequently be doing mail merge here.

That's what I could not come up with -- mail merge. But the Release 3 manual has
no "mail merge"; entry in its index.

HB> PageStream can do this,

I don't doubt that, but where are the instructions?

HB> but I have always just printed the blank envelopes from
HB> PageStream and done the mail merge from a program I'm more familiar
HB> with.

I'm not with you above!? You print blank envelopes from PageStream!?

HB&gt; In my case that would be Word or even Excel because I'm on
HB> Windows. On the Amiga, Final Writer should be able to do the job just
HB> fine. It may take a little tweaking to get the right settings in the
HB> Word Processor so the addresses are placed where wanted.

Yes Final Writer, even the earliest version, will do the merge although the
manual uses the "form letter&quot; terminology. Dare say the tweaking might require
a bit of experimentation.

HB> I used to do
HB> this with my newsletter because I could have Word make alterations based
HB> on information in the data file. During renewal campaigns, if a member
HB> owed us dues, it would add a line of oversized red text to the effect
HB> that it was time to renew. If the member had recently renewed they'd see
HB> a line of green text thanking them.

Nice idea.

HB> The difficulty with envelopes is they're often a problem to handle in
HB> many printers.

I never tried that!

HB> With my Epson I have to feed just a few at a time and
HB> stand over the printer in case there's a misfeed. If you have enough of
HB> them to print, it might be better to look up the instructions for mail
HB> merge with PageStream. At least that way you only have to baby-sit the
HB> process once.

With respect to PageStream, where does one find this "mail merge"; information?

Cheers Don (Green Dragon)
--

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Don:

> ...HB> Before clicking "OK,&quot; he should replace "untitled" in the "Name"
> HB> dialogue with an appropriate name and select "Remember" at the bottom of
> HB> the dialog. That way he can call it up in the future and reuse the settings.
>
&gt; Quite true! But the Bart claims that he is a "one envelope per month"; kind of
> guy, hence perhaps the "Remember" device is overkill.
>

Yup. Didn't know that yet. I've no idea sometimes whether messages get
through on this forum. I think the answer's almost always "yes," but not
always in the order I send them.

As far as "remembering&quot; new document formats, you do need to be careful
that you start from the "Custom" option. In the original thread of
instructions, he had already been sent to that option, so I didn't think
to reinforce the point. You certainly don't want to be changing "US
Letter&quot; to 5" x 8" and then clicking "Remember."

> ...I
> HB> vaguely remember altering the master page specification for one or the
> HB> other in some situations and then setting it back before printing, but
> HB> it's been a long time. Maybe I was mixing orientations within the same
> HB> document. Don't know.
&gt;
> I've done both portrait and landscape within the same document, but one does not
> have to do anything special other than tell PageStream which master page to
> use: the portrait one or the landscape one, for a particular page.

Thanks for the reminder. I recall having problems with it, but I _think_
it may have been a tabloid document with the regular pages defined as
letter-size and consolidated with signature printing and the oddball
page being a single tabloid sheet in landscape. I also have a vague
memory of such a document where PDF X-Change handled that situation
correctly and PageStream itself did not. But all this is hazy and
shouldn't be taken as fact.

> ...HB> Well, yes, you would frequently be doing mail merge here.
>
> That's what I could not come up with -- mail merge. But the Release 3 manual has
> no "mail merge"; entry in its index.
&gt;

Don't know if Release 3 could do it, and I'm not going to go hunting for
it just now. I know that either the instructions were unclear (because
it's come up often on this list) or the instructions are buried in an
unexpected place (because they still are)....

> HB> PageStream can do this,
>
> I don't doubt that, but where are the instructions?
>

Here: http://pagestream.org/showdocs.php?id=826. Twarn't easy to find
but, on quick perusal, they _are_ clear. I even suppose that you could
use the scripting capabilities to create a decision tree and do the sort
of thing I was doing with my newsletter.

I remember that when mail merge capabilities were first incorporated, I
wondered, "Why? This is a /publishing/ program.&quot; But now with so many
printed mailings arriving in our homes with customized addresses and
messages and address labels going the way of the dodo, it all seems very
logical. But I'll still be setting them up in other programs. Simple
tab-delimited files for long lists can get pretty cumbersome, so you're
likely to do that much with another program anyway. And if that program
supports mail lists, why not?

I also don't see options for such things as skipping blank lines. If,
for example, you have two lines for the street address and the company
name is optional, you don't want that open space. I suspect you can get
around it with "variable 1{Shift-Enter}variable 2" in some cases, but
it's nicer to use a program that simply skips the lines for you or
allows you to have one "Address" field with multiple lines of text in
it. Nevertheless, PageStream's implementation appears adequate for many
uses.

> ...I'm not with you above!? You print blank envelopes from PageStream!?
>

Well, sort of. The envelopes have an organization's logo as the return
address, so they're "blank" with respect to the data you'd need to make
them helpful to the US Postal Service!

> Yes Final Writer, even the earliest version, will do the merge although the
> manual uses the "form letter&quot; terminology. Dare say the tweaking might require
> a bit of experimentation.
&gt;

Actually, it's usually just a matter of taking a few measurements from
the PageStream document and using the same ones in the "Form Letter.&quot;
Normally, you need just the upper-left corner. Then you add extra space
to the width to allow for differences in fonts.

> ...If the member had recently renewed they'd see
> HB> a line of green text thanking them.
&gt;
> Nice idea.
&gt;

You can do some very useful things with mail merge technology. Last year
I was keeping an address list in Excel for a mailing where we were
sending different letters at different times and sometimes customizing
paragraphs within some of the letters. The Excel file had a lot more
information than the recipients' addresses. It was keeping track of
which recipients got which letters, who was responsible for signing the
letters and following up, the pledges they were getting (or not). With
the mail merge facility in Word I could automatically print not only the
address data, I could change the content of particular paragraphs within
the letter, use nicknames in the salutation, and include the correct
signature block.

Of course, the Excel file was one of those spreadsheets that runs on
forever and wouldn't fit on a page in anything larger than 3-point type,
so with mail merge I would print a version that organized the Excel file
on letter-size paper with address information, phone numbers, and email
on one side, and the other information on the other---who made the
contact, which letter(s) were sent, and so on. Anything that was
irrelevant was omitted on that printout. Kind of fun.

HB

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