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MM Macro Adjusting Header and Footer Size

The mm macros that are used throughout the ECN for text processing come with predetermined defaults. Defaults are usually set to reasonable standards and the most common ones are easy to adjust.

One set of defaults that have been causing grief to people trying to get format approval from the Graduate School have been the size of page header and footers. Unfortunately the developers of mm failed to consult with our Graduate School when creating their standards.

            mm           Graduate School
         Defaults         Requirements
         ---------------------------------
        |
header  | 1.25 inches         1 inch
footer  |    1 inch        1.25 inches

So, how can the changes be accomplished?

Increase Headers and Footers

Increasing either of the margins is easy. It is done with the vertical margin control.

.VM 0 0

This command is placed in your header after you read-in the macro package. It allows you to increase either margin by the instructed number of vertical space units. For example, .VM 3 5, will cause 3 vertical space units to be added to the header and 5 vertical space units to be added to the footer.

Vertical space units are determined by the current vertical spacing. If .vs 24 is in effect each additional unit would be 24/72 of an inch. The vertical margin command will accept only vertical space units, not inches or centimeters; however, partial units may be requested to achieve fine tuning, such as, .VM 3.33 0. Remember printers vary a bit in their spacing, so check your measurements carefully when changing printers. [DON'T ASSUME!!]

Decrease Header

Now decreasing a header from what is given as a default is not so simple. What is needed is replacement code for the segment of the mm macros that controls the creation of the margin. The code at the end of this article, if added to your mm header file after you call the macro package, will cause the top margins to be reset with the adjustments you dictate. Make your spacing adjustments to the two lines of code in the example that are followed with identifying comment lines. You are permitted to place your measurement in vertical space units ('sp 2) or inches ('sp .4i) or centimeters ('sp .3c).

I suggest you copy this code segment from the ecnnews file mm.sample.header rather than trying to type it yourself. Let the computer do the duplication work and avoid making typos.

 .deTP
 'sp
 .)K
 .af;P \\gP
 .afP 1
 .nr;P \\nP
 .afP \\g(;P
 .af;P 1
 'sp 2      \"adjust space from cutmark to page number
 .if!\\n(;P-1 .if \\nN 'sp
 .if!\\n(;P-1 .if \\n(:S .tl \\*(}t
 .if!\\n(;P-1 .if !\\nN .tl \\*(}t
 .if\\n(;P-1 .ie \w'\\*(]n' .tl '\\*(]n - \\nP'''
 .el.tl \\*(}t
 'if!\\n(;P%2 'tl \\*(}e
 'if\\n(;P%2 'tl \\*(}o
 'sp 2      \"adjust space from page number to text line
 ..

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