[Tex/LaTex] Left Justifying the Date with Scrlttr2

koma-scriptletterspositioning

I would like to left justify the date in the KOMA-Script scrlttr2
class so that it aligns with the left margin of the body. I have no other data in the refline. This question helped me to get my present workaround, which is as follows:

Shrink the width of the refline field:

\@setplength{refwidth}{2.5cm}

Manually position the refline field:

\@setplength{refhpos}{2.27cm}

While this can produce the output I want, when the width of the date
changes, such as at the start of the month (think July->August), I
have to manually edit the variables to get the proper alignment.

Is there a more elegant way within KOMA-Script to left justify the date? If there is not a built-in method: Is there a way to automate the calculation of the widths or lengths when I compile so that justification remains constant regardless of the length of date?

Best Answer

This is kind of a hack, and may be somewhat stupid, but it seemed to work fine with my simple test:

\setkomavar{date}{\flushleft\vspace{-\baselineskip}\today\par}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to position the reference fields line in scrlttr2

Vertical position: Obviously locvpos has a value of 0 pt with your style, which is common for many letter styles. You could set it yourself or use toaddrvpos instead.
Horizontal position: refhpos means a distance from the left paper edge, but lochpos from the right paper edge. So you would have to calculate, substracting lochpos and locwidth from \paperwidth to get your new refwidth.
Width: You can simply use locwidth as you did, perhaps the option refline=narrow could be useful for you in addition.

Since you design the template yourself, you don't have to use predefined values, you could set your own.

Example:

\documentclass[refline=narrow]{scrlttr2}
\setkomavar{yourref}{Z7H88}
\setkomavar{yourmail}{10/28/2011}
\setkomavar{myref}{A124}
\setkomavar{customer}{42}
\setkomavar{invoice}{I-2011-22}
\setkomavar{date}{11/01/2011}
\usepackage{calc}
\makeatletter
\@setplength{refvpos}{\useplength{toaddrvpos}}
\@setplength{refhpos}{\paperwidth-7cm}
\@setplength{refwidth}{3cm}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Reader}
\opening{Dear reader,}
\closing{Yours Sincerely}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Another approach

You could use

\setkomavar{location}{...}

to use the location field while designing your own reference fields block therein, not using the predefined reference fields. So you don't have to change position and width.

[Tex/LaTex] Modifying a letter with scrlttr2

Since the letter style seems fairly elementary and you're merely concerned with the layout, I would suggest going with a standard article document class, and set the document according to your requirements as-is. This avoid fiddling with length and alignment settings that may be obscure for a non-user of the particular document class in question: