How do I modify the amount of space between the heading and the chapter's number and/or name?

Question

Currently, the space between the bottom of my header and the top of the chapter number is quite large and I would like to be able to reduce the space between the header and the chapter number. How would I go about doing this?

I am using the report documentclass.

Answer 1

I found the answer over at stackoverflow.com.

To recap, I had to use:

\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{ command }[ shape ]{ format }{ label }{ sep }{ before }[ after ]
\titlespacing{ command }{ left }{ beforesep }{ aftersep }[ right ]

\titleformat must be specified in order for the spacing to take effect.

Answer 2

You could also use the \vspace command. For example, \vspace{-2ex} means "move the stuff immediately following up 2 lines worth of vertical space". (1ex is is the height of a line in the current font).