The sletter Document Type

This is a DTD for snail mail and perhaps Fax communication(1).

The elements which can appear in the head of a letter are:

<sender>

The `<sender>' element contains an `<address>' element optionally followed by one or more `<contact>' elements. The `<address>' and `<contact>' elements are described below.

<dest>

This element contains one or more `<name>' elements followed optionally followed by an `<address>' element. I doubt whether more than one `<name>' element would ever be needed. The name can be a job title or an organization if necessary, although these would normally be part of the address.

<subject>

A subject line.

<cc>

Additional recipients of the letter (names only, not addresses). Multiple recipients are separated with semicolons.

<date>

An explicit date. If omitted the formatter will use the current date whenever the document is processed.

<docnum>

Some kind of identifier.

The `<address>' element contains one or more lines, separated by semicolons.

The `<contact>' element is used to specify contact details such as telephone, fax, or email. The type of contact must be specified in an attribute of the element, as in:

<contact type=phone/(+064) 04 987 6543/

Standard types are "phone", "fax" and "email", although any other value can be given.

Within the `<address>' element it is possible to identify particular sub-parts of an address, as described in section Addresses.

Most of the lines may contain embedded short quotations or highlighted phrases, which are described in section Short Quotations and section Highlighted Phrases respectively. Exceptions are `<date> and <docnum>'.

The last element of the header will usually be `<opening>', which contains some text ("Dear Dr. Hedgehopper,"). The header is terminated by a blank line.

At the end of the letter several additional elements can be used:

<closing>

"Yours Faithfully," or whatever.

<signed>

A name, which is often printed following a gap for a signature. Several lines can be given, separated with semicolons. Embedded highlighted phases and short quotations can be included.

<ps>

Zero or more postscripts can be added: use a new `<ps>' tag for each. Style hint: don't use too many, it looks ridiculous. Postscripts can also contain highlighted phrases and short quotations.

<enclosure>

Some people add this to the end of their letters, to indicate the presence of additional material.