Printing Labels and Envelopes Overview

You can use Advisors Assistant's integration with MS Word to print labels in most Avery formats, and to print most any type of envelope. Using Word to print the labels and envelopes allows you to format the labels and envelopes any way you'd like.

Advisors Assistant sends important information to Word when you open a document. This information tells Word which data files to use and puts the Mail Merge Toolbar on the document. This information is contained in a template called AA.DOT. This template must also be used for the labels and envelopes, so you'll always want to start with the "AA Master Letter" that came with Advisors Assistant to set up new envelopes and labels.

Printing Labels Using Microsoft Word

There are many steps involved to set up a label document, but you only have to do this process once to set the document up. Then you can select the Label Document each time you wish to print that type of label.

How to Create Labels in Word

1.Click on Selection Reports.  Fill out the selection criteria as needed to select the names to which you want to print labels.  Then click Search.

2.Click on the Word Button at the bottom of the Report Selection Menu Screen.

3.Choose the Address Type, Phone Type and File Order (ignore the Include Investments and Include Insurance boxes) and click on OK.

4.Select the document AA Master Letter.doc from the list and click on Open.

5.Click on File | Save As.  Be sure to leave the field ‘Save In’ alone and change the File Name to the name for this label document so that you don’t overwrite the “AA Master Letter.” Click on Save.

6.Click on the Main Document Setup Icon () and from the Main Document Type Screen select Labels. Click OK.

7.From the Label Options Screen choose the Avery product number of your label format and click OK.

8.The “In order to apply the selected label options…” message will appear.  Click OK and the label grid will appear.  If you do not see the label gridlines, click on Table | Show Gridlines from the menu options at the top of the Word Screen.

9.Now you need to set up the label with the fields you wish to print. Make sure your cursor is in the first box of the label grid.  Click on the Insert Merge Field Icon (), double click on the first Merge Field that you want on your label, then click on Close.  Back in the document, your cursor will be after the Merge Field that was added, so press your Enter Key to move down to the next line for the next Merge Field.  Click on the Insert Merge Field Icon and repeat the above steps until all of the fields are in the first label. (If you choose to put multiple Merge Fields on one line you must put a space between them instead of pressing Enter.) You can also format the font size and type to fit the label you're creating.

10.With your cursor in the first label grid, click on the Propagate Labels Icon () on the Mail Merge Toolbar.  You will notice that all of the merge fields that you added will be copied to all of the other label squares along with a merge field for “Next Record.”  This tells Word to look for the next record in your list of names.

11.With your label format complete you can click on the View Merged Data Button ()located on the Mail Merge Toolbar to see the first sheet of labels with your data on it.

12.To print the entire set of labels you need to click on the Merge To Printer Icon ( )on the Mail Merge Toolbar.

To save yourself from having to go through these steps every time you want to print labels, make sure you've saved your label document for future use.

Printing Envelopes Using Microsoft Word

The envelope process works almost exactly the same as the label process when you’re merging names with Microsoft Word.

How to Create Envelopes in Word

1.Click on Selection Reports and fill out the selection criteria as needed to select the names for which you're  printing envelopes.  Then click Search.

2.Click on the Word Button at the bottom of the Report Selection Menu Screen.

3.Choose the Address Type, Phone Type and File Order (ignore the Include Investments and Include Insurance boxes) and click on OK.

4.Select the document AA Master Letter.doc from the list and click on Open.

5.Click on File | Save As.  Be sure to leave the field ‘Save In’ alone and change the File Name to the name for this envelope document so that you don’t overwrite the “AA Master Letter.” Click on Save.

6.Click on the Main Document Setup Icon () and from the Main Document Type Screen select Envelopes. Click OK.

7.From the Envelope Options Screen choose the envelope size and your printer format and click OK.

8.The “In order to apply the selected envelope options…” message will appear.  Click OK and the envelope  will appear.

9.The cursor will default to the return address position. If your envelopes are pre-printed with your return address skip to Step 12. Type in your return address information if you want it to print on each envelope.

10.Now you need to set up the envelope with the fields you wish to print. Click in the area that the recipient address should be (there may be a couple of fields there already.) If you click in the correct area a highlighted box should appear and your cursor should be blinking inside the box.  Place your cursor where you wish to insert a field and click on the Insert Merge Field Icon (). Double click on the first Merge Field that you want on your envelope and click on Close.  Back in the document, your cursor will be after the Merge Field that was added, so press your Enter Key to move down to the next line for the next Merge Field. Click on the Insert Merge Field Icon and repeat the above steps until all of the fields are in the envelope. (If you choose to put multiple Merge Fields on one line you must put a space between them instead of pressing Enter.) You can also format the font size and type to fit the envelope you're creating.

11.With your envelope format complete you can click on the View Merged Data Icon () located on the Mail Merge Toolbar to see the first envelope with your data on it.

12.To print the entire set of envelopes you need to click on the Merge To Printer Icon (  ) on the Mail Merge Toolbar.

To save yourself from having to go through these steps every time you want to print envelopes, make sure you've saved your envelope document for future use.

See Also

Getting Started with Word Merge

Selection Report Criteria