Letterhead

One of my disappointments with Google Docs is that I haven’t figured out how to make good stationery templates.

My Word templates have over 20 years of refinement, so when I need multiple pages, or one page two column with narrow margin, I’ve got the first sheet, second sheet, margins, headers, footers, and type spacing all available in one document.

LibreOffice also has my templates, but they are not as deep.

Any time I start organizing my thoughts, I put it on electronic letterhead.

What’s the big deal?

Many of the people I work with suffer from a debilitating disease called Smartmouth, sometimes saying things that are not completely beneficial. It gets worse when writing, going in directions that maybe don’t move us toward the goal. I’ve regretted my contributions many times.

I find that writing on stationery reminds me that everything I write is eventually for distribution, keeping me from using the contraction for firetruck, or unleashing a rant.

Last week I was trying to pull in a high value member to a meeting of a chowder and marching society that night. I had been working this guy for two weeks, when he slipped up and let on he might be available. Actually, he said, How was the meeting last night?

Bingo! I had just received a final “day of” invitation/exhortation from the president of the society. I scrabbled back through my email and found the document. It had the information, but was written as, “I’ll be glad when this is over,” which I guess he thought was appropriate communication to his board.

Whatever. I couldn’t send it and I didn’t take the time to rewrite it.

I believe success is about the number of swings, and I pulled my punch. We had a good meeting, one short.

I use a template to remind myself that everything I build is for public consumption, some time, at the very least allowing someone else to repurpose my work.

What is your philosophy of writing?

GooglePlus – How good can it be?