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In comp.text.tex Glen Barnett <barnett@agsm.unsw.edu.au> wrote:
: Sorry about crossposting, but I need to find an answer to this ASAP...

: How do I change margins in LaTeX? 

: I need to make a document with a 40mm left margin and a 30 mm right
: margin. My document is currently a report in 11 pt. I thought mucking
: about with a copy of the stuff that talks about margins in rep11.sty
: would fix it (I copied part of it to a new file, changed some numbers
: - specifically \oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin - and input that just 
: after the \documentstyle line).

The easiest is (IMHO) to use the geometry package:

\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{letterpaper,left=40mm,right=30mm}

If the geometry package is not installed on your computer,
it can be found on CTAN in  macros/latex/contrib/supported/geometry,
where your nearest CTAN mirror definitely is
ftp://ctan.unsw.edu.au/tex-archive .

Jeroen Nijhof

Glen Barnett wrote:
> 
> Sorry about crossposting, but I need to find an answer to this ASAP...
> 
> How do I change margins in LaTeX?

You can use the vmargin package :

\usepackage{vmargin}
\setpapersize{A4}
\setmarginsrb{40mm}{20mm}{30mm}{20mm}{20pt}{15mm}{15pt}{15mm}

It works fine. However, it seems you're using the latex 2.09. I don't 
know if it will work with it.

It can be found on CTAN in macros/latex/contrib/other/misc/

Regards,
Laurent

In article <6c9aql$1j5$1@mirv.unsw.edu.au>, barnett@agsm.unsw.edu.au (Glen Barnett) writes...
>I need to make a document with a 40mm left margin and a 30 mm right
>margin. My document is currently a report in 11 pt. I thought mucking
>about with a copy of the stuff that talks about margins in rep11.sty
>would fix it (I copied part of it to a new file, changed some numbers
>- specifically \oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin - and input that just 
>after the \documentstyle line).

A) as a beginner to LaTeX, you have no reason to use "compatibility mode"
for old documents.  You should start with \documentclass.

B) You don't say what size paper you are printing on, so there is 
no way for someone else to specify the right margin.

C) \oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin are the LEFT side margins on 
odd-numbered and even-numbered pages respectively.  This is what the
manual says, but very many people have preconceptions and unconsciously
interpret them as left and right margin.

D) The confusing bit... They are actually the Left margins MINUS 1 INCH.
The left side margin is \oddsidemargin + 1in on odd numbered pages and 
\evensidemargin + 1in on even.  To get margins smaller than 1 inch, the 
parameters should be negative.  (You don't want to know, but the page
"origin" (0,0) is 1 inch from the top and 1 in from the left edge of
the paper.

right_margin = width_of_paper - \textwidth - \oddsidemargin - 1in
(or \evensidemargin)

Donald Arseneau                         asnd@triumf.ca

Glen Barnett <barnett@agsm.unsw.edu.au> wrote:

> Sorry about crossposting, but I need to find an answer to this ASAP...
> 
> How do I change margins in LaTeX? 
> 
> I need to make a document with a 40mm left margin and a 30 mm right
> margin. My document is currently a report in 11 pt. I thought mucking
> about with a copy of the stuff that talks about margins in rep11.sty
> would fix it (I copied part of it to a new file, changed some numbers
> - specifically \oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin - and input that just
> after the \documentstyle line).

First thing: use \documentclass not \documentstyle.  If you're writing
new documents, you shouldn't be using 2.09 compatibility mode (for
speed's sake even if you don't care about anything else).

> It didn't seem to make any difference.
> 
> Am I totally barking up the wrong tree, or did I just miss something
> minor?

Hmm...  I'm not sure why you didn't see any change, but don't worry
about that now.  If you want to change margins, you should change
\oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin *and* \textwidth - \oddsidemargin and
\evensidemargin set the *left* margin (they are actually the size of the
left margin - 1 inch) - you need to change \textwidth to set the
right-hand margin to the value you want.  Ideally, this will be based on
the \paperwidth so you get the right result even if you change paper
size (although 40mm and 30mm margins are pretty silly on A5 paper).

> The LaTeX manual was particularly unhelpful on this point - yet 
> people must have to have different margins fairly often. Any pointers
> would be greatly appreciated. Presumably this is covered in a FAQ
> or something, so please point me toward anything that covers it.

Changing page layout parameters in LaTeX is quite involved - Lamport's
book tells you what the various paramters *are*; getting a decent
balance between them all calls for either: very baroque code (my rmpage
package); elegant code (geometry package) and a typographical designer;
or a typographical designer, a calculator, several hours, and a
headache.

For what you want to do, I suspect the geometry package is what you need
- it's available from your nearest CTAN mirror (mine's at
ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive; more than a short walk from where you
are).

(geometry's very nice if you have particular measured dimensions you
need to use - much better for this than any other package I've seen to
set page layout parameters, including my own effort which is something I
wrote for what *I* want to do.)

Rowland.

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In article <6c9aql$1j5$1@mirv.unsw.edu.au>,
Glen Barnett <barnett@agsm.unsw.edu.au> wrote:
>Sorry about crossposting, but I need to find an answer to this ASAP...
>
>How do I change margins in LaTeX? 
>
>I need to make a document with a 40mm left margin and a 30 mm right
>margin. My document is currently a report in 11 pt. I thought mucking
>about with a copy of the stuff that talks about margins in rep11.sty
>would fix it (I copied part of it to a new file, changed some numbers
>- specifically \oddsidemargin and \evensidemargin - and input that just 
>after the \documentstyle line).
>
>It didn't seem to make any difference.
>
>Am I totally barking up the wrong tree, or did I just miss something
>minor?

Okay, I'm all sorted out now. Once I knew I was fiddling with the
right things (yeah, I was changing \textwidth as well, didn't mention
that - and yeah, I knew the margin parameters above dealt with the left 
margin only), it was easy to figure out why what I was doing was having 
no effect. I had a file with some definitions in it I'd been given by my
supervisor. I didn't notice (and he obviously didn't know) that it
also changed the margins&textwidth parameters. So it was undoing all
my nice new margins before processing the text of my thesis.

(Oh, by the way, the version of latex on this machine isn't a recent
version, sorry to bother so many people by mentioning an ancient 
incantation like \documentstyle.)

Anyway, I got a number of useful suggestions very rapidly, but the
most immediately useful ones basically told me I was changing the 
right kinds of things. Thanks for all the help everyone.

thanks,
Glen

\usepackage{layout} defines the \layout command which generates output
showing current values of all margins and offsets.
Layout is part of the standard latex tools.

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