page formatting/envelope printing

Hi all!

Just last night I attempted to quickly print an addressed #10 envelop
with abiword 2.8.6 (on Fedora 13) via my eeepc.

I found it an exercise in frustration, to be honest.

the main issue (of at least two) is that when I format the envelope the
way I would in OOo (or MS Office, God help me) (landscape) abiword prints
the text off the page, i.e., it doesn't get put on the envelope. by which
I mean: the printer has an envelope/sheet feeder that places the envelope
in the center of the printer's paper path. however, abiword appears to
print it at the "top edge" of the page, as if the envelope had been fed in
at the edge of the print path (the same edge where the "top" edge of the
paper would have been, had I been hand-feeding a full letter-sized sheet).

So, I figured I'd just HACK AT IT by changing the margins. Hah! I saw
a posting in the mailing list (from months ago) by someone who was
reporting similar problems with changing margins. In my case I tried
just pushing the type "down" so it would land on the envelope. but using
the #10 envelope page size, it truncated the stuff at the bottom
and tried to print a 2nd page with the rest of it (which kinda makes
sense).

so I figured I'd use letter-sized paper and just push the type "downard"
by hacking at the margins.

so... I'd change the margins, it would then give me an error about
margins being too big (or too small, or something, I don't have the screen
infront of me right now) and when I'd look at the margins it would show
1.0 inches for one of the margins I hadn't touched, or at least not the
last one I'd touched. so
I'd go fix that one and resubmit, get the same error, and find it had
whacked one of the OTHER margin setting(s) down to 1.0 inches. Fix it,
get the same error,... lather, rinse, repeat.

I sorta got something usable, though not what I wanted, by just putting a
bunch of blank lines at the "top" of the page, to force the type to move
"downward" into the area where the printer feeds the envelope.

I was away from home (where I have OOo), needed a professional-looking
addressed envelope (not handwritten in my horrid handwriting, which is
why I learned to type all those years ago), and really couldn't figure
out how to get one with the tools I had.

I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining (though I suppose I am, to a
certain extent). I'm hoping (1) someone can suggest the PROPER way to
address an envelope in abiword, and (2) perhaps this is a bug that someone
can address in the future. (do I need to enter it as a bug somewhere?)

Thanks a lot, gang, for the (imperfect but nevertheless useful) tool!

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
                        The Lord is like a strong tower. 
             Those who do what is right can run to him for safety.
--------------------------- Proverbs 18:10 (niv) -----------------------------
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