I was recently looking for a memorandum template when I came across a neat memo class, texMemo, written by Rob Oakes. It is based on the article documentclass and provides the following five commands:
- To:
\memoto{}, - From:
\memofrom{}, - Subject:
\memosubject{}, - Date:
\memodate{}, and - Logo:
\logo{}.
The usage is very simple, here is an example:
\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{texMemo}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{graphicx, blindtext}
\memoto{Mr. Unknown}
\memofrom{Tom}
\memosubject{Some fancy subject}
\memodate{\today}
\logo{\includegraphics[width=0.3\textwidth]{wp}}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\blindtext
\end{document}
Sample output of texMemo class.
The WordPress logo was the first thing that came to my mind, I downloaded it from here (see the trademark policy for details on usage).
Changing the looks
Since everyone has different requirements in terms of looks, I will show how to make simple changes to the class file. Let’s assume we want to get rid of the logo and have a centered title (Memorandum) instead.
To Remove the logo simply delete the logo command. In fact, this works with all texMemo-specific commands. To add a title, however, we need to make a slight modification in the texMemo.cls file. First, open the class file with any text editor, ideally with your preferred LaTeX editor. Scroll all the way down to the last block (“% To, From, Subject Block”) and add the following code just before that:
{\begin{center}
\Large\bf
M\textsc{emorandum}
\end{center}}
It adds the word “Memorandum” as a centered title in bold small capitals. Save the class file. To see the result, use the sample code from the beginning and remove the \logo{} command.
Sample output of modified texMemo class.
The texMemo files can be downloaded as a compressed file from Rob’s website. The main file is the document-class: texMemo.cls. For illustration purposes, Rob provides some example tex-files with output.
thanks. It’s what I’m looking for.
Thanks for your comment. Glad you found my post useful! Best, Tom.
I find this extremely useful and quite pretty. I am having trouble understanding how I can use the template though. Do I need to move the file to my Tex directory?
Hi Joshua,
The easiest solution is to move the class-file (texMemo.cls) to your document directory. Another possibility is to install it globally. See here for more details on how to install extra packages (including class-files).
This class is almost exactly what I need, but I notice that quotes don’t work in the normal way. They look like they do in your example. Can you help me?
Brad
Hi Brad,
The class uses the Palatino font, which has somewhat different quotes. If you prefer the standard font, Computer Modern, open the class file and comment out line 10, which says:
\RequirePackage{palatino}Hope this helps,
Tom
Thanks Tom. I’ll do it when I get to work.
And thank you for putting the class together.
Brad
How can I add a Cc field into this memo?
Hi Louie,
Open the file
texMemo.clsand add this code:% Around line 35 \def\@memocc{\relax} \newcommand{\memocc}[1]{\gdef\@memocc{\protect #1}} % Inside description, roughly line 69 \ifthenelse{\equal{\@memocc}{\relax}}{}{\item [{Cc:}] \@memocc}With this, you can add a cc using
\memocc{Somebody}.Let me know if you run into problems.
Best, Tom