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Cover letters

Source: vignettes/cover-letter.Rmd
cover-letter.Rmd

Create a complete editable starter, then render it to self-contained HTML or PDF with the cover letter renderer:

liteformats::use_cover_letter("cover-letter.Rmd")
liteformats::cover_letter("cover-letter.Rmd", "cover-letter.html")
liteformats::cover_letter("cover-letter.Rmd", "cover-letter.pdf")

Supply letter metadata

The letterhead and salutation come from top-level YAML fields: title, author, address, phone, email, website, date, and greeting. The letter itself remains plain Markdown.

Use a YAML list for a multiline address:

address: ["123 Example Street", "Example City, EX 00000"]

litedown’s intentionally small YAML parser does not implement block scalars. Inline R is supported in metadata, so the date can be evaluated when the document is rendered:

date: "`{r} format(Sys.Date(), '%B %e, %Y')`"

The starter also demonstrates variables evaluated in the letter body and an embedded signature image.

Preserve the composition

The cover letter template places the letterhead and body in two columns at every viewport width. This fixed page composition also appears in narrow IDE or browser preview panes; it does not switch to a single-column responsive layout.

Put appearance settings under the liteformats YAML key or override them with cover_letter_options(). See vignette("config") for the configuration model and vignette("typography") for font and spacing controls.