# Cover letters for a job

> Start a cover letter from a resume or a version, what it takes from it, how letters are kept in the library, and the ways a letter differs from a resume.

A cover letter is a document like a resume, in the same library and the same
editor. The format of its file is described in
[Cover letters](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/format/cover-letters.md). This page is about making one for a
job and keeping it with the rest.

## Two ways to start one

- From a resume. Open its menu in the library with **More** and choose **Create
  cover letter**. It is not offered on a letter.
- From the new resume dialog. Under **Kind of document**, choose **Cover letter**.
  The choices under **Start from** become **Example letter**, a finished letter to
  write over with a greeting, three paragraphs and a sign-off, and **Blank
  letter**, with your name and contacts and one empty page.

See [Make a new resume](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/library/new-resume.md).

## What a letter takes from a resume

A letter made from a resume has the same sender, and almost nothing else:

- The header is copied, so your name and contacts are already there. Retyping
  them is the part nobody wants to do.
- It uses the same template and is filed in the same group.
- It is named after the resume with cover letter added, such as `Staff Engineer
cover letter`, and it opens in the editor straight away.

The rest is the frame of a letter and none of its substance. There is a greeting,
a closing, and your name again to sign with. If the resume is a version written for
a company, the letter also starts with a line to that company, such as Hiring Team,
Acme, and carries the same company and role, so it is found by that company in the
library. Nothing is invented: the recipient is a team and never a person's name,
because a name the app made up would be wrong.

These lines are the letter's own words from the moment it exists, so they are in
the language of the resume and not of the menus. A resume set to Indonesian gets
a greeting and a closing in Indonesian, where an English one gets Dear Hiring Team
and Yours sincerely. The language is a setting of the resume. See
[Design tokens](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/design/design-tokens.md#language).

## Not a version

A letter is not a version, and is not linked to the resume. The two are not
comparable, because a letter has none of a resume's sections, so there is no
chip and no **Compare**. Editing the resume afterwards does not change the letter.

## Finding letters

**Cover letters** in the sidebar shows only the letters, and a letter's card says
**Cover letter**. In **All resumes** they sit with everything else.

## How a letter differs

- It starts from a larger body, a one inch margin and more space between
  paragraphs. See [Templates](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/design/templates.md#letters).
- The ATS check asks it different questions, and wants it on one page. See
  [The ATS check](https://shopsalone.com/en/docs/checks/ats-check.md#letters).
- The **JSON Resume** export is not offered, because a letter has none of the
  sections that format holds. The other formats work as they do for a resume.