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Basic Letter Layout

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About this lesson

Learn how to format a basic letter layout.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Basic Letter Layout.docx
59.8 KB
Basic Letter Layout - Solution.docx
54 KB

Quick reference

Basic Letter Layout

Learn the base rules for letter layout.

When to use

Anytime you want to type a formal or semi-formal letter.

Instructions

  • Enter the Date at the top of the document
  • Press “enter” four times to put a large space between the data and greeting line.
  • Enter the greeting line
  • Press “enter” two times before typing the letter.
  • Enter text of the letter.
    • Indent each paragraph by ½ inch (by pressing “Tab” on the keyboard)
    • Press “enter” at the end of each paragraph, which places a space between the paragraphs.
  • Enter the closing line
    Press “enter” four times to put a large space between the closing and your signature line.

A faster way is to use the FILE, NEW feature in Word 2013

There are hundreds of pre-typed and formatted letters at your disposal. 

  • Click the File ribbon, choose “New” and then click the “Letters” link OR type "letters" in the search bar
  • Wait just a moment and then sift through all the letters to find the one you would like to use.
  • When you find and open the pre-formatted letter, just fill in the fields and adjust the text as you would like.
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  • 00:04 Hello.
  • 00:05 In this lesson we're just going to kind of review the basic letter layout.
  • 00:09 Anytime you're typing a semi formal or formal letter,
  • 00:12 there is a structure you need to be aware of.
  • 00:15 And so when you open up your blank document,
  • 00:18 the first thing you type at the top is the date.
  • 00:21 Then you press enter four times, one, two, three, four.
  • 00:24 And then we enter the greeting line, which may be dear sirs, or dear whoever.
  • 00:31 And then, I'm gonna hit enter twice.
  • 00:33 And here you're gonna type the text.
  • 00:35 So I'm gonna go ahead and throw in random text again, like we did the last time,
  • 00:40 just to put some text on the screen.
  • 00:42 After you type the text, we're going to give it one more line, hit Enter.
  • 00:47 And, we're going to type the closing, which would be, Sincerely.
  • 00:52 And then, 1-2-3-4, four returns, and down to your signature line.
  • 00:58 So I know this is very basic and
  • 01:00 we sort of did this in the other lessons, but we're gonna take it a little farther.
  • 01:05 And this time when we've got our three paragraphs of three sentences each,
  • 01:09 you need to know about paragraph structure.
  • 01:11 It is very formal in a formal letter to indent the first line.
  • 01:16 So I am going to place my insertion point at the very front of the first paragraph,
  • 01:21 and I'm gonna hit my Tab key, a tab will basically put a half inch space,
  • 01:25 from the margin to the start of the paragraph, and that is very formal.
  • 01:29 Now you're gonna find the end of the paragraph, and
  • 01:31 you can visually see it right down there.
  • 01:33 So I'm gonna find the the end of the paragraph, and I'm going to hit
  • 01:36 Enter just once, and that's gonna put a nice little space between my paragraphs.
  • 01:40 They do that for ease of reading, it's not just to put a random space in there,
  • 01:45 it's to help the person reading the letter,
  • 01:47 break apart the statements you're making in the paragraph.
  • 01:50 Again, place your insertion point in front of the second paragraph, go ahead and
  • 01:53 hit Tab that puts a half inch in front of it.
  • 01:57 Click behind the second paragraph, the very end of it and hit Enter,
  • 02:02 and that will put a space.
  • 02:04 And one last time, click in front of the third paragraph,
  • 02:08 puts your insertion point there, go ahead and hit Tab, that puts a nice indent.
  • 02:12 And in this case, we didn't have to click behind the last one to give it a space
  • 02:17 because we already had a space.
  • 02:19 And we ended with sincerely and your signature line.
  • 02:22 So that's basically how you set up a letter format.
  • 02:26 Now you're gonna have another issue and
  • 02:30 that one I can't help with you with too much is, what do you say in the letter?
  • 02:34 How do you word a letter?
  • 02:35 Well, I can't coach you cuz I don't know what your specific need is, but I can show
  • 02:40 you some hidden magic inside Microsoft Word, and it's on the file ribbon.
  • 02:46 So if you float your mouse way up her on the top left, click on file.
  • 02:50 You have some options in here, and the second one says new.
  • 02:54 When you click on file new, look what happens.
  • 02:59 Here it gives you suggested searches for business letters,
  • 03:03 personal letters, industry letters, print, design sets, events, education.
  • 03:08 Look at all of these.
  • 03:10 So, I want to look at, you might have an option there that says letters.
  • 03:14 I think I may have clicked on it before, so it went right here, but
  • 03:17 I wanna look at personal letters.
  • 03:20 So, I clicked letters before, click Personal.
  • 03:23 And now look at all of this that comes up, look at all this,
  • 03:27 already designed for you.
  • 03:29 And over on the right hand side we have Education letters, Business letters,
  • 03:33 Industry Letters, Events, Family letters, Household, Student letters.
  • 03:38 What could you possibly need?
  • 03:41 Here it all is.
  • 03:41 I'm gonna go ahead and
  • 03:42 click on Business letters to see what other categories will be in here.
  • 03:47 And so you can scroll down.
  • 03:48 We have all kinds of posters.
  • 03:50 Here I have a business letter for sales, stripes design.
  • 03:54 Let's see, a letter to a doctor.
  • 03:57 Letter requesting, assistance with a job search, that sounds wonderful.
  • 04:03 So if I want to view this letter, double click it.
  • 04:07 It will open up on your screen and there you have it.
  • 04:11 Now, what's happening here, I'm not quite sure why my screen adjusted that way.
  • 04:17 I'm not quite sure what happened right there, but it's okay, we can go on.
  • 04:21 These are called fields.
  • 04:23 Any time you click on these fields you just start typing.
  • 04:26 It's basically suggesting, give me your street address,
  • 04:30 your city, state, zip, today's date.
  • 04:33 You just click on these fields and start typing.
  • 04:35 You don't even have to know how to lay it out,
  • 04:38 they've already structured the letters for you.
  • 04:41 And now if you scroll down it's saying it's already worded for you.
  • 04:45 It was a pleasure to see you at the, and it's prompting you for
  • 04:48 the organization name.
  • 04:50 And over here, as you will see I have several years of experience as a,
  • 04:54 and it's prompting you to fill in the job title that you have experience for.
  • 04:59 So you are being helped out so much here in all those documents under file new,
  • 05:04 if we go right back there, all these documents are free for
  • 05:08 you to use because you have an operating copy of Microsoft Word on your screen.
  • 05:12 So please take a few minutes,
  • 05:14 peruse that, you will be amazed at what's already been done for you.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Formatting Fonts
05m:06s
Basic Cut, Copy, Paste
05m:03s
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