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Writing lettersIntroductionMom’s simple but effective letter-writing macros are a subset of the document processing macros, designed to ease the creation of correspondence. Because the letter macros are a subset of the document processing macros, you can use control macros to design correspondence to your own specifications. However, mom makes no pretence of providing complete design flexibility in the matter of letters, which are, after all, simple communicative documents whose only real style requirements are that they be neat and professional-looking. Tutorial – writing letters
Mom letters begin, like all mom-processed documents, with
reference macros
(in this case,
AUTHOR),
a
DOCTYPE
(LETTER, obviously), the essential
PRINTSTYLE
macro, and
START,
like this:
Please note that if you choose PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE, there's no need to give the SINGLESPACE option, as this is the unalterable default for letters. After the START macro, you enter headers pertinent to your letter: the date, the addressee (in business correspondence, typically both name and address), the addresser (that’s you; in business correspondence, typically both name and address), and a greeting (in full, e.g., “Dear Mr. Smith,” or “Dear Mr. Smith:”).
The macros for entering the headers are simple (they’re not even
toggles):
Once you’ve filled in what you need to get a letter started, simply type the letter, introducing each and every paragraph, including the first, with the PP macro. At the end of the letter, should you wish a closing (“Yours truly,” “Sincerely,” “Hugs and kisses”), invoke the macro .CLOSING on a line by itself, and follow it with the text of the closing. N.B. Don’t put your name here; mom supplies it automatically from AUTHOR), with enough space to leave room for your signature. If you omit the closing, mom simply adds your name (from AUTHOR), again with enough space for your signature.
Assuming our tutorial letter is for business correspondence,
here’s what the complete letter looks like.
Default letter styleIn letters, if the order of header macros is
mom sets
which is the standard for North American business correspondence. If you switch the order of .DATE, .TO and/or .FROM, mom sets all the headers flush left, with a gap of one linespace underneath each. (The default left quad of any header can be changed by invoking the .RIGHT macro, on a line by itself, immediately before inputting the text of the header.) Following the headers, mom sets
Other important style defaults are listed below, and may be changed via the typesetting macros or the document processing control macros prior to START. Assume that any style parameter not listed below is the same as for any document processed with PRINTSTYLE TYPESET or PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE.
PARAMETER PRINTSTYLE TYPESET PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE
Paper size 8.5 x 11 inches 8.5 x 11 inches
Left/right margins 1.125 inches 1.125 inches
Header margin 3.5 picas 3.5 picas
(for page numbers)
Header gap 3 picas 3 picas
(for page numbers)
Family Times Roman Courier
Font roman roman
Point size 12 12
Line space 13.5 12 (ie singlespaced)
Paragraph indent 3 ems 3 picas
Spaced paragraphs yes no
Footers* yes yes
Footer margin 3 picas 3 picas
Footer gap 3 picas 3 picas
Page numbers top, centred top, centred
*Footers contain a "next page" number of the form .../#
The letter macrosAll letter macros must come after START, except NO_SUITE, which must come after PRINTSTYLE and before START.
Macro: DATE
Invoke .DATE on a line by itself, with the date
underneath, like this:
If you wish to insert additional space between the date and any
letter header that comes after it, do so after inputting the date,
not at the top of the next header macro, like this:
Macro: TO
Invoke .TO on a line by itself, with the name and address
of the addressee underneath, like this:
If you wish to insert additional space between the address and
any letter header that comes after it, do so after inputting the
address, not at the top of the next header macro, like this:
Macro: FROM
Invoke .FROM on a line by itself, with the name and
address of the addresser underneath, like this:
If you wish to insert additional space between the address and
any letter header that comes after it, do so after inputting the
address, not at the top of the next header macro, like this:
Macro: GREETING
Invoke .GREETING on a line by itself, with the full
salutation you want for the letter underneath, like this:
Macro: CLOSING
Invoke .CLOSING on a line by itself after the body of
the letter, with the closing you’d like (e.g., “Yours
truly,”) underneath, like this:
CLOSING control macros and defaults
The first, CLOSING_INDENT, indicates the distance from the left
margin you’d like to have your closing indented. It takes a
single
numeric argument
and must have a
unit of measure
appended to it, unless you want an indent of 0 (zero). Mom’s
default is one half the width of the letter’s line length
(ie halfway across the page). If you wanted, instead, an indent of
6
picas,
you’d do it like this:
The second, SIGNATURE_SPACE, controls how much room to leave for the
signature. It takes a single
numeric argument
and must have a
unit of measure
appended to it. Mom’s default is 3 line spaces, but if you
wanted to change that to, say, 2 line spaces, you’d do:
Macro: NO_SUITE
If you don’t want mom to print a “next page” number at the bottom of multi-page letters, invoke .NO_SUITE, on a line by itself, prior to START.
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