Make a Letterhead
Why spend hundreds of dollars on expensive letterhead paper and envelopes, when you can make it yourself using word processing software? It's easy to quickly and expertly make a letterhead using Microsoft Word 2007. After creating a template, you can print it out on stationery. See Step 1 to get started.
Contents
Steps
Using Microsoft Word
- Sketch your letterhead layout. Before you design your letterhead in Word, it's a good idea to sketch it out so you now how everything will fit together. Draw the layout of your letterhead stationary design on a piece of plain white paper.
- Make sure to include a spot for your company's logo, name, address and any other contact information.
- You may also want to include the tag line for your company, if you have one. Tag lines are recommended for company names that do not indicate the company's main product or service.
- Launch Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word has all the tools you'll need to make a great template. You'll find it easy to recreate your sketched design.
- Open a new document and save it as a template. Name it "letterhead template 1" or something else that will enable you to locate it easily, and save it to your templates folder. You'll be able to pull up the document and print your letterhead whenever you have call to use it.
- Insert a header. If you're working with Word 2007, click "Insert" and "Header." Create a blank header that will serve as the canvas for your letterhead.
- If you're working with Word 2003, you should be able to view the header by clicking the arrow below the Header command on the Insert tab. Click "Edit header" at the bottom of the dropdown list.
- Enter your letterhead text. Type the company's name, address, phone number, fax number, website and general inquiry email address in the text box.
- Make a hard return by pressing the Enter key after each section to make the elements of your letterhead stack.
- You can leave out the website address if it is incorporated into your logo.
- Adjust the fonts, colors and sizes of the text for each element. Your company name should be approximately 2 points larger than the address and may be in a different font and color to coordinate with the logo for the letterhead. The phone, fax and email address entries should be 2 points smaller than the address, but keep the same font.
- Add your logo to the header. Click "Picture" on the insert tab. Browse to the digital copy of your logo, select the .jpg, .bmp or .png file and click the Insert button.
- Adjust the size and position of your logo. It should be clearly visible and in balance with the text of your letterhead.
- Hover you cursor over one corner of the logo. Your pointer will change to a Diagonal Resize cursor. Click and drag the corner of the image to make it smaller or larger.
- Your logo should be sized to balance the text of your contact information in the upper left corner of the header.
- Reposition your logo by clicking the logo to select the image and then clicking and dragging it into place.
- Consider adding other visual elements. For example, you could separate your company information from the rest of the page by inserting a solid line from the left margin to the right across the bottom of the header.
- Click the Shapes dropdown arrow in the Insert tab and choose the first line option in the Lines section. Click and drag to draw the line.
- Right-click on the line and adjust the color and weight of the line to coordinate with your logo using the Format Autoshapes option. Select the Center radio button on the Layout tab.
- Right-click on the line again and create a copy of it. Paste the copy anywhere into the document.
- Consider inserting your tag line in the footer. If you'd like, you can balance the header by including information - your tag line, phone number, or logo - in the footer.
- Click the dropdown box under the Footer option in the Insert tab.
- Click the centered text option in the paragraph section of the Home tab.
- Type the tagline. Adjust the font and size. Taglines are often in italic type and may be in title case, where the first letter of every major word is capitalized.
- Review your letterhead. Press the Esc key to close the Header and Footer sections. View your letterhead stationary in full screen mode or print a copy for review.
- Save your letterhead to your hard drive. When creating a new document on this letterhead, open the letterhead file and click "Save as" under the Office Windows logo button.
Using a Word Template
- Open Word. When you open word, a selection of different types of new documents will appear.
- Select the Letterheads category. This will open a list of letterhead templates.
- You can also download customizable templates from the official site of Microsoft Word. Go to the site, type "letterhead templates" in the search box, and download the template you want.
- You can also download customizable templates from the official site of Microsoft Word. Go to the site, type "letterhead templates" in the search box, and download the template you want.
- Customize your Letterhead. Open your template in Microsoft Word and start customization. Update your company's title, contact information and logo.
- Review your letterhead. Press the Esc key to close the Header and Footer sections. View your letterhead stationary in full screen mode or print a copy for review.
- Save your letterhead to your hard drive. When creating a new document on this letterhead, open the letterhead file and click "Save as" under the Office Windows logo button.
Tips
- You can easily create a matching envelope. Click to highlight your company name and address text and select Copy. Choose the Envelopes button on the Mailings tab and insert your copied text into the return address section. Edit your fonts, sizes and colors to match the letterhead.
Warnings
- Do not resize your logo by clicking and dragging on either the vertical or horizontal edges. This will skew the look of your logo instead of simply resizing it.
Things You'll Need
- Microsoft Word
- Graphic image of company logo
