I write words for a living, which means I generally have no problem writing sentences, paragraphs, posts, chapters, and books.
But every once in a while, I have to compose a letter. I usually don’t have a problem with that. But sometimes, I have to write something important and I want to make sure I get it right. When that’s the case, from time to time I’ll turn to LibreOffice’s Letter Wizard to create a custom letter template that he can use over and over again.
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What in the name of Merlin’s beard…
Okay, before you get all Tolkein on me, the Card Wizard is not a wizard in the D&D sense, but rather a tool that guides you through the creation of your card. You will get help with:
- Page design
- letterhead design
- printed articles
- Recipient and sender
- Footer
- Name and location
In the end, the Letter Wizard doesn’t help you write the body of the letter, but it does help you with everything else, so your letter looks as professional (or personal) as possible. In other words, when the usual templates don’t work, this might be the way to go. As for the type of letters you can create with this, consider it a means of crafting personal, formal personal, and business missives without straining the creative side of your brain too much.
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And best of all, just like LibreOffice, Letter Wizard is free to use and integrated directly into the LibreOffice office suite (which is available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows).
For anyone having a hard time finding the right stencil for lettering, this is a great way to do it and I’ll show you how it’s done. One thing to note is that the Letter Wizard doesn’t just create a single letter. Instead, he creates a template that he can use at any time for his personal or professional correspondence.
How to use the LibreOffice Letter Wizard
Requirements
The only thing you will need for this is the LibreOffice office suite installed on your computer. It doesn’t matter which operating system you use, as the feature is the same on each.
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That’s all. Let’s go to wizardry.
From the Launch Center, you can create any type of document you want. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Inside the new document, click File > Wizards > Letter.
Access the Letter Wizard from the File menu in LibreOffice 7.5.1. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
When the Wizard opens, you will first need to configure the page layout. In this step, select the type (Business, Formal Personal, or Personal) and then select the page layout for that type. With the type, there are only three options: Elegant, Modern and Office. Each of those types is not that different (different font, slightly different spacing and layout). Once you have made your selections, click Next.
The Letter Wizard simplifies the act of creating a new letter template. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Most likely, the wizard will skip the letterhead design and take you to the print items section, where you can select what to include in your letter. Make your selections and click Next.
Select the elements that will be printed on your letter template. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
In the next section, you will configure both the sender and the recipient. If you select Use user data for return address, you must have set up your user information in Tools > Options > User data.
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Once you’ve taken care of this, click Next.
Here you can set the sender and recipient information. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
If you would like to add a footer to the letter, you can do so here, as well as a page number. Type the text you want in the footer and click Next.
If your letter needs a footer, this is where you add it. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Finally, you can name your letter template and create a new letter from it. Give the template a name and, if necessary, change the folder that will house the template. Once you’ve taken care of that, click Finish and (when prompted) give the template file a name and click Save.
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A new LibreOffice document will open with your new template, created from the Letter Wizard. You may be prompted to enable macros for the template. If so, click Enable Macros and you’re ready to work with your new letter.
Give your template a name and select where it will be saved. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Congratulations, you’ve just created a new personal or professional template that can be used to create letters for your correspondence. After you have used the letter template for the first time, you can use it again by clicking File > Templates > Manage Templates and selecting the new letter template you just created.
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While this letter wizard won’t write your letters for you, it will certainly make it easy for you to create a custom template for your letters that you can reuse over and over again. Once you learn how to create these templates, you’ll find that it’s a feature that can greatly improve your productivity.
