Fancy style, cleaning and improving

Question

I was given the following style:

% Style definitions
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]% 
{\markboth{\MakeUppercase{\chaptername\ \thechapter.\ #1}}{}} 
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]% 
{\markright{\MakeUppercase{\thesection.\ #1}}}
\newcommand{\helv}{% 
\fontfamily{phv}\fontseries{b}\fontsize{9}{11}\selectfont} 

\newcommand{\cp}[0]{\clearpage{\thispagestyle{empty}\cleardoublepage}}
\fancyhf{} 

%\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\helv \thepage} 
\fancyhead[LO]{\helv \rightmark} 
\fancyhead[RE]{\helv \leftmark}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.5pt} 

\fancyfoot[R]{\helv \thepage}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}

\fancypagestyle{plain}{% 
\fancyhf{} % clear all header and footer fields 
\fancyfoot[R]{\helv \thepage} % except the center 
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} 
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}}

When I look at it, it seems to have very redundant commands. However I don't understand this well enough to be certain. Could someone suggest a "cleaning" to this style?

Anyways, this style always marks the page number on the right side. Is there anyway to make the page number always on the outer side of the page.

Answer 1

I did it with:

\fancyfoot[LE,RO]{\helv \thepage}