If you want your letter to look more professional, you can use your printer to print out the address on the envelope. You should write the recipient’s address on the front of the envelope in the center (e. g. if you are in the US: name, address, city, state, and zip code), as well as the return address (your name, address, city, state, and zip code) in the top left hand corner.

The text should be facing up towards you as though you were reading it.

If you aren’t sure how much this is, take your envelope and place it underneath the middle of your letter to use as a guide.

If the edges aren’t lined up properly, your fold will be crooked and your letter may not fit into the envelope. Once you are sure they are lined up, use your finger to crease the fold carefully.

Again, use your envelope as a guide if you aren’t sure. When your envelope is lying underneath the letter you can check to make sure that it will fit inside by lining up the top and bottom creases of the letter with the top and bottom of the envelope.

You can hold a ruler sideways between your fingers and slide the thin edge of the ruler along the paper to create a flat and crisp crease if you want to.

The recipient should be able to remove the letter and open it without having to turn it right-side up to read it.

To format a business letter, you should first ensure that your margins are set at 1 inch (2. 5 cm) on all sides in your word processor. Make sure that you have the text aligned to the left hand side of the page while you are typing the date and the recipient’s address. The letter should be single spaced except for in-between paragraphs. Between paragraphs there should be two spaces. The entire letter should be left aligned. There should be approximately 2 inches (5. 1 cm) of blank space from the top of the page to the place where you type the first line of text (the date). Type the date out in full (e. g. April 1, 2016 instead of 4/1/16). Hit enter two times so that you have a blank space between the date and where you will type the recipient’s information. Type the full name of the recipient (e. g. Mr. John Doe), hit enter and type the address of the recipient, hit enter again and type the city, state, and zip code of the recipient. Be sure to include a space between the recipient’s contact information and the salutation.

This version of folding doesn’t afford the same privacy as folding the letter inwards, but it must be folded this way if you want the name and address to show through the window. If the letter contains sensitive information, it may be best to use a standard envelope with no window.

If you have done this right, you will not be able to read the text of the letter.

If you have done this right, when you peek underneath the paper, the name and address of the recipient will be the closest thing to you.

If you aren’t sure how far that is, you can also align the envelope under the center of the paper to use as a guide. [6] X Research source

The name and address of the recipient should now be visible to you.

If you can’t see the recipient’s information, you might have inserted the letter upside down. Remove the letter and turn it around (the recipient’s information should still face the window).

This will help avoid any mixups. Don’t forget to check that you’ve signed the letter.

For example, have you dated the letter? Are there any spelling or grammar mistakes?

You can place the envelope underneath the letter to use as a guide. Make sure that when you have folded the letter up, it is small enough to fit inside the envelope.

Use a ruler to make the crease nice and sharp. You can do this by holding a ruler sideways and using the thin edge. Slide the edge of the ruler along the letter on the creases so they are nice and flat.

Line up the top and bottom edges of the letter and then crease the fold.

Line up the top and bottom of the edges so they are perfectly straight before creasing.

This will make it easy for your recipient to find where to begin unfolding the letter.