Space between address, etc., and the beginning of the text: lettre class
Merciadri Luca
Hash: SHA1
Hi,
I'm here speaking about the lettre documentclass. This documentclass
helps writing letters with the french tyographic rules.
The problem is that the space between the address and the beginning of
the text is enormous. Consider e.g.
==
\documentclass[10pt,twoside]{lettre}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[frenchb]{babel}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{~}%
\name{Your friend}
\address{My Address\\
A Place\\
}
\lieu{A Place}
\notelephone
\nofax
\vspace{-5cm}
\opening{Dear Mr. Stuff,}
What do you think about this? Don't you think the space is too big? I think so. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem. I found no way to solve this problem.
\closing{Hoping everything is fine with Mrs. Stuff,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}
==
and the related result.
Any idea on how to tweak this? I tried modifying various things in the
.cls file, to no avail.
Thanks.
- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --
Nobody leaves us, we only leave others.
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Gonzalo Medina Arellano
wrote:
> - --
>
> Nobody leaves us, we only leave others.
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Redefine \openingspace in the preamble of your document; something
like this:
\setlength\openingspace{-1cm}
Merciadri Luca
Hash: SHA1
Gonzalo Medina Arellano <gmed...@unal.edu.co> writes:
> Redefine \openingspace in the preamble of your document; something
> like this:
>
> \setlength\openingspace{-1cm}
Nice. I had not thought about defining a negative value!
- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --
Now we have doors so we can hide.
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Merciadri Luca
Hash: SHA1
Gonzalo Medina Arellano <gmed...@unal.edu.co> writes:
> Since this is not the first time that you experience the
> "inflexibility" of the standard letter class:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.text.tex/browse_thread/thread/89bb013724f22ea7/8b0fecf6774e9a34?lnk=gst&q=letter+class#8b0fecf6774e9a34
>
> why don't you consider using another class such as newlfm or
> scrlttr2?
This is what I will do if I encounter any other frustration with this
class. But, apart from these two problems, it suits my needs. But I'm
considering changing of class, though. Thanks for your pointers.
- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --
One man's meat is another man's poison.
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Robin Fairbairns
> On Sep 26, 2:48 pm, Merciadri Luca <Luca.Mercia...@student.ulg.ac.be>
> wrote:
>> I'm here speaking about the lettre documentclass. This documentclass
>> helps writing letters with the french tyographic rules.
>>
>> The problem is that the space between the address and the beginning of
>> the text is enormous. Consider e.g.
>> [sample omitted...]
>
> Since this is not the first time that you experience the
> "inflexibility" of the standard letter class:
since this query isn't about letter (english), but rather lettre
(french), this doesn't seem a reasonable complaint.
lettre is indeed rather old (afaict, it's not changed substantially
since latex 2.09), but it's not letter (which is similarly long-term
"stable"),
it would be nice to have a configuration module (or an entire package)
of similar power to things like newlfm, but using french conventions.
(there are such for german and dutch, i think. i wonder if there's a
different standard layout in belgium, regardless of language, or whether
they use french or dutch according to their side of the linguistic
divide.)
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge
Merciadri Luca
Hash: SHA1
Robin Fairbairns <rf...@sxp10.cl.cam.ac.uk> writes:
> Gonzalo Medina Arellano <gmed...@unal.edu.co> writes:
>
>> On Sep 26, 2:48 pm, Merciadri Luca <Luca.Mercia...@student.ulg.ac.be>
>> wrote:
>>> I'm here speaking about the lettre documentclass. This documentclass
>>> helps writing letters with the french tyographic rules.
>>>
>>> The problem is that the space between the address and the beginning of
>>> the text is enormous. Consider e.g.
>>> [sample omitted...]
>>
>> Since this is not the first time that you experience the
>> "inflexibility" of the standard letter class:
>
> since this query isn't about letter (english), but rather lettre
> (french), this doesn't seem a reasonable complaint.
>
> lettre is indeed rather old (afaict, it's not changed substantially
> since latex 2.09), but it's not letter (which is similarly long-term
> "stable"),
>
> it would be nice to have a configuration module (or an entire package)
> of similar power to things like newlfm, but using french
> conventions.
Yes. That should not be difficult to adapt newlfm or another package
to French typographic rules. The biggest part of the implementation is
already done, like this.
> (there are such for german and dutch, i think. i wonder if there's a
> different standard layout in belgium, regardless of language, or whether
> they use french or dutch according to their side of the linguistic
> divide.)
I can't find such rules for Belgium, be it for Wallonia or
Flanders. Thanks to the fact that news bombard everybody with information
about the Belgium's North-South cleavage, you even think about this
relationship. Normally, Flanders should use Dutch rules, but I'm not
sure that Wallonia should use French rules, because we generally
dislike french peoples, and that we have another way to speak French:
some words differ (but *we* are the good ones, don't worry).
- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --
The exception proves the rule.
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Gonzalo Medina Arellano
> Gonzalo Medina Arellano <gmedin...@unal.edu.co> writes:
>
> > On Sep 26, 2:48 pm, Merciadri Luca <Luca.Mercia...@student.ulg.ac.be>
> > wrote:
> >> I'm here speaking about the lettre documentclass. This documentclass
> >> helps writing letters with the french tyographic rules.
>
> >> The problem is that the space between the address and the beginning of
> >> the text is enormous. Consider e.g.
> >> [sample omitted...]
>
> > Since this is not the first time that you experience the
> > "inflexibility" of the standard letter class:
>
> since this query isn't about letter (english), but rather lettre
> (french), this doesn't seem a reasonable complaint.
Yes, you're right. Initially I thought that Merciadri Luca was
referring to "letter", and later, when I noticed my mistake, I removed
my initial response (the one that you quoted) and posted a new reply
suggesting the redefinition of \openingspace.
Paul Thompson
wrote:
I am the author of newlfm, and je parle pas le Francaise. Therefore,
if someone were willing to work with me, perhaps I could design a
French-compliant version. Same with German, Dutch, whatever. Rules
within some languages are specific.
Gonzalo Medina Arellano
> if someone were willing to work with me, perhaps I could design a
> French-compliant version. Same with German, Dutch, whatever. Rules
> within some languages are specific.
I'd like to help you with the rules for a Spanish-compliant version;
although I would have to review how these rules change from one
(Spanish-writing) country to another.
Merciadri Luca
Hash: SHA1
Paul Thompson <thom...@sanfordhealth.org> writes:
> I am the author of newlfm, and je parle pas le Francaise. Therefore,
> if someone were willing to work with me, perhaps I could design a
> French-compliant version. Same with German, Dutch, whatever. Rules
> within some languages are specific.
I am not aware of French typographic rules, but I think that you could
infer correct statements from the lettre cls file.
Apart from that, I checked [1], which gives
==
In formal letters if you are writing on a plain sheet of paper, it is
normal to write your name, without title, above your address at the
top of the page, on the left-hand side of the sheet. When writing your
own address at the top of the letter, it is of course quite correct to
place commas at the ends of lines, if you wish. However, when writing
the address of your French addressee in a formal letter or on the
envelope, it is worth remembering that end-of-line punctuation is not
the norm in France and may even be regarded as a mistake or something
which may cause a letter to be misdirected.
The addressee's name and address should be inserted below your address
on the right-hand side of the sheet. In a letter to someone with a
title, in a business for instance, the title is placed after the
addressee's full name.
[...]
The date comes after the addressee’s name and is usually also on the
right-hand side of the sheet.
When writing an informal letter it is customary not to include either
your own or the addressee’s address. In this type of letter, people
often write the name of the place they are in, followed by the date at
the top of the page. The place is the town, city, village or other
recognizable location.
Bordeaux, le 12 juillet 2002
In writing the date, the day number is preceded by le. Note also that
in French, unlike in English, names of the month are not
capitalized. The convention is to write dates: day-month-year. More
informally you can write this information in numerals: 12-07-02.
==
At [2], I read
==
The format and content of letters in France are somewhat different
than in English countries. It is important to be aware of these
differences in order to avoid appearing not only ignorant, but also
(inadvertently) rude. Following are the basic conventions.
For other information on the French language and conventions, click on
French Language.
Address
- -------
The position of the sender's address and recipient's address is
different from the English norm (in fact, the exact reverse of the
positions used in most English speaking countries). Your name and
address should be in the top-left corner and the recipient's name and
address should be underneath on the right hand side. In the case of
pre-printed stationary or business stationary this rule is not always
followed, but these positions are the norm for letters on a plain
sheet of paper. Normally the addresses will not have commas at the
ends of lines. See Sample letter 1.
[...]
Date
- ----
The date comes after the recipient's address, also on the right-hand
side of the page. The day is preceded by "Le" and the names of months
are not capitalized (see Sample letter 2). In less formal letters the
date can be written as numerals; in this case it is in the format
day-month-year rather than month-day-year (see Sample letter 1).
[...]
In all cases, the greeting is followed by a comma. See Sample letter 1 and Sample letter 2.
Closings
- --------
The letter closing is perhaps the most (or even only) complex part of
a French letter. As this is a fairly substantial topic on it's own, a
dedicated page is provided at Letter closings. [...]
==
[1]: <http://www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com/Public/PublicResources.html?direction=b-fr-en&sp=S/oldo/resources/fr/Writing_letters_in_French.html>
[2]: <http://www.france-property-and-information.com/writing_letters.htm>
- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --
- From those to whom much is given, much is expected. (Bib. quote,
Luke 12:48)
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