W3cubDocs

Letters

Synopsis:

\documentclass{letter}
\address{senders address}   % return address
\signature{sender name}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{recipient address}
\opening{salutation}
  letter body
\closing{closing text}
\end{letter}
   ...
\end{document}

Produce one or more letters.

Each letter is in a separate letter environment, whose argument recipient address often contains multiple lines separated with a double backslash, (\\). For example, you might have:

 \begin{letter}{Ninon de l'Enclos \\
                l'h\^otel Sagonne}
   ...
 \end{letter}

The start of the letter environment resets the page number to 1, and the footnote number to 1 also.

The sender address and sender name are common to all of the letters, whether there is one or more, so these are best put in the preamble. As with the recipient address, often sender address contains multiple lines separated by a double backslash (\\). LaTeX will put the sender name under the closing, after a vertical space for the traditional hand-written signature.

Each letter environment body begins with a required \opening command such as \opening{Dear Madam or Sir:}. The letter body text is ordinary LaTeX so it can contain everything from enumerated lists to displayed math, except that commands such as \chapter that make no sense in a letter are turned off. Each letter environment body typically ends with a \closing command such as \closing{Yours,}.

Additional material may come after the \closing. You can say who is receiving a copy of the letter with a command like \cc{the Boss \\ the Boss's Boss}. There’s a similar \encl command for a list of enclosures. And, you can add a postscript with \ps.

LaTeX’s default is to indent the sender name and the closing above it by a length of \longindentation. By default this is 0.5\textwidth. To make them flush left, put \setlength{\longindentation}{0em} in your preamble.

To set a fixed date use something like \renewcommand{\today}{1958-Oct-12}. If put in your preamble then it will apply to all the letters.

This example shows only one letter environment. The three lines marked as optional are typically omitted.

\documentclass{letter}
\address{Sender's street \\ Sender's town}
\signature{Sender's name \\ Sender's title}
% optional: \location{Mailbox 13}
% optional: \telephone{(102) 555-0101}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Recipient's name \\ Recipient's address}
\opening{Sir:}
% optional: \thispagestyle{firstpage}
I am not interested in entering a business arrangement with you.
\closing{Your most humble, etc.,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

These commands are used with the letter class.

• \address		Sender’s return address.
• \cc		Carbon copy list.
• \closing		Saying goodbye.
• \encl		List of enclosed material.
• \location		Sender’s organizational location.
• \makelabels		Make address labels.
• \name		Sender’s name, for the return address.
• \opening		Saying hello.
• \ps		Adding a postscript.
• \signature		Sender’s signature.
• \telephone		Sender’s phone number.