Lately, a lot of people that are just starting to do their own direct mail advertising, are trying to do it using the free USPS online tools and then printing to high-end printers. Printers like a Rena 1.5 or Neopost AS-930. Sure it’s a cost-effective way to start mailing but it is limited. If you want to print to a laser printer, no problem, they can create a limited PDF that will print with no options. But as most of us already know, doing a lot of envelopes through a laser printer quickly destroys it and feeding can be a nightmare. So people resort to getting the presorted data file and try formatting and printing through MS Word. Sure Word gives you a lot more flexibility than the pre-formatted PDF, but it doesn’t understand high-end envelope printers at all. So you end up jumping through hoops to get a properly formatted envelope to print correctly (see video below). Even then, you are limited on how to pause or stop between trays, adjusting the barcode, or controlling the printer. The 2 videos below should help you get a better feel for some of the differences between using MS Word and Quadrant Bulk Mailer. If you are considering getting into direct mail advertising using the USPS online tools, please understand that it is geared to small mailings and printing to standard office printers. Watch both videos below and consider making life easier by at least purchasing Quadrant Bulk Mail Designer. It will save you time, money and aggravation! Or take Quadrant Bulk Mailer for a free test drive and get to see 1st hand how much faster and easier it is compared to the fee USPS online tools. You can request a free demo at the bottom of our Bulk Mailer Software page. Plus, when you are stuck or have a question, you can turn to other Quadrant users to get 1st hand experience from direct mailers. Or just give their technical support a call. Thankfully Bulk Mailer prevents you from making most of the most common errors. Because getting a mailing rejected can be a costly mistake and support at Microsoft Word is not going to help you with it.