Company letterhead is used for almost all correspondence sent out of an office. Letterhead offers a professional appearance and is also informative. Letterhead usually displays the company’s mailing address, phone number and any other contact information in the header or footer of the letter. Other companies and potential clients will receive the letters that are printed on company letterhead, so it is important to know how to set up a business letter on company letterhead properly.

Things You Will Need

  • Word processing software

  • Ruler

Change the margins of your document. More than likely, your workplace has a word processing software such as Microsoft Word installed for typing letters. The preset margins in Word will likely be different than the margins of your company letterhead. Change the margins to match your letterhead by going to the "File" menu and clicking on "Page Setup." Increase or decrease the top and bottom margins to allow for the pre-printed design on the letterhead.

Left-align your letter. Business correspondence should be left-aligned, meaning all parts of your letter should begin at the same margin on the left hand side of the page. You can "justify" the letter, which makes it line up on both sides. But justifying a block of text often leaves large spaces between words and letters in each line.

Leave six spaces between the letterhead and the date. Just press "Enter" six times and type the first line of your letter, which should be the date that you are writing the letter.

Press "Enter" two times between the date and the recipient’s name and mailing address. You should include a title, such as Mr. or Ms., and follow the recipient’s name with their business title, such as CEO. Beneath the name, type out the complete mailing address.

Use a formal name and a colon to greet the recipient. In a casual letter, you would type “Dear Henry,” as a greeting. type “Dear Mr. Adams:” in a formal business letter.

Press "Enter" two times and write the body of your letter. The entire letter should be single-spaced, including the body. Do not indent your paragraphs. Simply put a single space between them. Space two times at the end of the body of the letter as well.

Close and sign the letter. In a business letter, you should use a formal closing, such as "Sincerely" followed by a comma. Press "Enter" four times after the closing and type your name. Once the letter is printed on company letterhead, sign the letter in the space between the closing and your typed name.