Apple Bytes

So I had what I thought was a simple task tonight. I wanted to address several envelopes using by HP PSC 2355v all-in-one printer from my Mac Address Book. Sounds easy right?

Nope!

If you look at the Web site, it says you can do this. The help window says you can, too, but guess what. I can't. Maybe it's just me.

I checked all of my preference settings and even tried printing something else. So far, so good. I even addressed an envelope using the Apple Works wizard. This would have done fine except I had a lot of envelopes to print.

After I gave up on making this work, I decided to see if I could use my Windows PC here to make it work. I exported all of the vCards that I wanted to print from the address book, moved them to the PC and imported them into Outlook Express.

Big Mistake!

First, the vCards were blank, and after another half hour playing with everything I figured out that the problem was with the Mac Address Book. Apparently, if you have contacts in a group, you can't export the vCards. At least not to a PC.

So, I sent the addresses one at a time, imported them into Outlook Express and went to print thinking myself a genius and patting myself on the back. Oops.

Here's a good tip: Before exporting a bunch of vCards one at a time to another computer and application check and make sure that the destination application will do the task you are importing the vCards there to do.

Turns out Outlook Express doesn't print envelopes. Business Cars? OK, Memos? Ok But envelopes? Hell No!

I guess Microsoft figures we've got e-mail so why would we need envelopes. It appears Microsoft also has now decided for me when I need Windows Messenger, because every time I start Outlook Express it launches Windows Messenger. Funny, I thought I was grown!

So, here I sit at midnight. Still haven't printed my envelopes - I guess I'll have to enter each address into Apple Works one at a time. Arrgh!!