jeburke@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (John Burke) (01/29/91)
In article <1991Jan29.101135.13993@agate.berkeley.edu> dwallach@soda.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Wallach) writes: >...I've got everything pretty much how I'd like it, except I can't figure >out how to use more area on the page. I'm using >\documentstyle[11pt,twoside]{article} > >and I've tried >\setlength{\textwidth}{7in} >\setlength{\textheight}{8.5in} > >which works great when using the letter style, but doesn't seem to work >here. Instead, everything just hangs out lower and to the right. I've >grepped around through the sty files but I can't seem to find anything >appropriate. >... >Dan Wallach You've been stymied by the unwieldy margin-setting commands of Latex. The solution to your problem is not difficult, but is cumbersome. To begin with, Latex hides the fact that there are one inch margins built into the top and the left margins of your pages. These are manipulable, but it seems to be considered unsporting to do so, so I will discuss them no further. There are simple work arounds. Lets consider the left margin. In one-sided printing, it is controlled through the length command \oddsidemargin, which has a largish default value (I don't recall what, off hand). So, to move the left margin you can change the value of \oddsidemargin: \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0in} puts the left margin at one inch from the edge of the paper (remember the hidden inch!). To get margins of less than an inch, you have to use negative distance values, e.g. \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-0.5in} to get a 0.5in margin on the left. However, in two-sided printing, such as you are doing, the problem is slightly more complex because the left margins of the even-numbered and the odd-numbered pages are controlled separately. (Even-numbered pages should be on the left, odd-numbered pages on the right, if you don't do anything strange to force them to be otherwise.) The left margin of even-numbered pages is controlled by (you guessed it) the command \evensidemargin. (And remember, if the left and right margins of a page are not to be equal, then \evensidemargin should not be equal to \oddsidemargin---\evensidemargin is at the outside edge of a page, while \oddsidemargin is at the inside.) So, by setting \evensidemargin, \oddsidemargin, and \textwidth, you should be able to come up with the horizontal alignment that you want. (If you use marginal paragraphs via \marginpar, you have to allow for that too, of course.) As for the top and bottom of the page, realize that the space at the top of your page is divided up into the hidden inch, plus the \topmargin, plus \headheight, plus \headsep. You should leave the \headheight and \headsep lengths be, usually---they control the space for and spacing under your page headers---and just work through the \topmargin. To get a 1 inch margin at the top, set \topmargin to 0in; to get less than an inch, use negative distances. Then, using \textheight, you should be able to get the page length you desire. But be chary of setting the \textheight too large, for fear of pushing information in the foot---usually the page number, and footnotes if you have them---off the page. Hope this helps. John Burke ---------- Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of... "Where Your Eyes Don't Go," They Might Be Giants, _Lincoln_