🚀 go-pugleaf

[As the original request was to comp.text, but TeX related stuff is now
to go to comp.text.tex, I am posting this to both groups.  HAS.]

Some weeks ago, in comp.text, I asked:
> Trying to create a new letter style (actually, a style option) for
> LaTeX, I ran into some minor problems.
> 
> The style is to be used with our firm's preprinted letter sheets,
> i.e., the dimensions for the first page are to fit into this format. I
> succeeded to position the stuff for the heading and the first page's
> footer as desired; however, since this preprinted footer is rather
> large -- it extends to some 5cm (about 2in) from the bottom of the
> page -- I would like to change the \textheight for the first page. I
> tried the following:
> 
> 	\def\ps@firstpage{
> 	 \setlength{\textheight}{19cm}
> 	 \setlength{\footskip}{6cm}
> 	 \def\@oddhead{}
> 	...}
> and \thispagestyle{firstpage} in the definition of \opening.
> 
> Though \footskip is obeyed, \textheight is not.
> 
> Furthermore, I would like to set \textwidth (and, if necessary,
> \oddsidemargin) differently for the footer (of the first page) to
> avoid "Overfull \hbox" messages. Guess -- \textwidth is ignored (I did
> not try with \oddsidemargin).

Thanks to Bernd Raichle <raichle@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> who
pointed me to the problem: ``\thispagestyle{firstpage}'' sets some
flag but does not expand the \ps@firstpage macro---this expansion is
done by \output, and that is too late. His quick&dirty solution (which
works fine if you do not want to have more than one letter per document)
is to set
	\textheight=19cm		% the height of the first page
in the style file, and to use
	\global\textheight=24cm		% the height of the other pages
in the definition of \ps@firstpage .

For the footer width, he suggested to use \rlap{} ot \llap{}. I copied
its definition from ``The TeX book'', and my first footer now looks like
this:
 \setlength{\unitlength}{0.1cm}
 \def\@oddfoot{\raisebox{0pt}[5cm]{\hbox to 0pt{\tenrm
	\begin{picture}(170,60)
	\put(86,37){\makebox(0,0)[tl]{\fromname}}
		%% and so on
	\end{picture}\hss}}}

Thanks also to Ralf Treinen <yxoc@cs.uni-sb.de> who sent me the
essential parts of his letter style (sorry, Ralf, I did not yet find the
time to read it carefully---I just had a first glance).

Finally, thanks to everybody who tried to answer but did not get through :-).

	Hans-Albert
-- 
Hans-Albert Schneider			ARPA: has@ztivax.siemens.com
Siemens AG, ZFE IS INF 21		or:   has%ztivax@siemens.siemens.com
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, Munich, W.Germany	EUnet & UUCP:
phone: (+49) 89 636 45 890			has@ztivax.UUCP