How to prevent minipage from creating a blank page and enable multiple pages?

Question

I have a template of a letter. I would like to display the sender's information on the left while the receiver and the contents of the letter are on the right:

\documentclass{letter}
\usepackage{lipsum} % for dummy text, you can remove this in your actual letter
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Receiver's Name \
Receiver's Address \
Receiver's City, State, Zip Code}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.25\textwidth}
\raggedright
\textbf{Sender's Name} \
Sender's Address \
Sender's City, State, Zip Code \
Sender's Email \
Sender's Phone Number
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.75\textwidth}
\raggedright
\opening{Dear Receiver,}
\lipsum[1-15] % Your letter text goes here
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{minipage}
\end{letter}

The problem is twofold:

It creates a blank first page;
The contents of the letter do not span multiple pages when necessary.

the only reason to use minipage is to make a mini page ie an unbreakable box that appears on a single page. — David Carlisle, Feb 14 '24 at 19:30

gernot · Answer 1 · 2024-02-14T19:36:19.270

The problems you see result from minipage forming an unbreakable box. Since this box is too large to fit on one page, the first page is left blank and the box is put on the second one.

You might do the following:

Increase the left margin.
Put the sender into the left margin
Typeset the letter \raggedright, without minipage.

\usepackage[margin=1in,left=2in]{geometry}
...
\llap{\raisebox{-5ex}[0pt][0pt]{%
\begin{tabular}[t]{l}
  \textbf{Sender's Name} \\
  Sender's Address \\
  Sender's City\\
  State, Zip Code \\
  Sender's Email \\
  Sender's Phone Number
\end{tabular}%
\hspace{1em}}}
\raggedright
\opening{Dear Receiver,}

\documentclass{letter}
\usepackage{lipsum} % for dummy text, you can remove this in your actual letter
\usepackage[margin=1in,left=2in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Receiver's Name \
Receiver's Address \
Receiver's City, State, Zip Code}
\llap{\raisebox{-5ex}[0pt][0pt]{%
\begin{tabular}[t]{l}
  \textbf{Sender's Name} \
  Sender's Address \
  Sender's City\
  State, Zip Code \
  Sender's Email \
  Sender's Phone Number
\end{tabular}%
\hspace{1em}}}
\raggedright
\opening{Dear Receiver,}
\lipsum[1-15] % Your letter text goes here
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

John Kormylo · Accepted Answer · 2024-02-14T20:30:04.410

Here is a paracol solution. It doesn't matter whether the letter environamet is inside or outside paracol, so long as the opening is inside.

Note that \raggedright will not be turned off by \sloppy or \fussy. You can put it inside a group or use the flushleft environment instead. See also this question.

\documentclass{letter}
\usepackage{lipsum} % for dummy text, you can remove this in your actual letter
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{paracol}
\globalcounter*
\begin{document}
\setcolumnwidth{0.2\textwidth}% second column gets rest of page
\begin{paracol}{2}
\raggedright
\textbf{Sender's Name} \
Sender's Address \
Sender's City, State, Zip Code \
Sender's Email \
Sender's Phone Number
\switchcolumn
\begin{letter}{Receiver's Name \
Receiver's Address \
Receiver's City, State, Zip Code}
\opening{Dear Receiver,}
\lipsum[1-15] % Your letter text goes here
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{letter}
\end{paracol}
\end{document}

How to prevent minipage from creating a blank page and enable multiple pages?

2 Answers2