Dear --, writing letters in Word

We often see questions, sometimes frantic, asking for the letter wizard or for information on how to write a letter. And I understand the anxiety, because these questions always take me back (way back), to typing class.

In the 1970s, this was a strategy to prepare youth for the future, and letter typing came with a lot of rules: x number of spaces down before the date, x number of spaces down further before the address, and so forth. The format was rigid, and we were graded on it. But how many spaces? I don't remember.

What do I do now, with a word processor?

I have one answer, and you probably know what that answer is: Templates.

And Office.com has templates for letter writers.

While it's a little late this year to be sending your letter to the North Pole, we have letter templates for personal and home-finance matters, business letters--including sales and marketing, a large selection of cover letters, and the always-important thank you letters.

I did not find a template for manuscript-submission cover letters. Is anyone else looking for those?

In the meantime, leave the letter formatting to the templates on Office.com.

Happy writing!

-- Joannie Stangeland