How to reduce the margins and spacings in this document

Question

I'm using the res.cls to create a one-page CV (I know, res.cls is old, but I prefer its layout). Since the CV is one-page only, I need to squeeze some more space for its content. This is what I have now:

\documentclass[line, margin]{res}

\usepackage{url}
\oddsidemargin -.5in
\evensidemargin -.5in
\textwidth=6.0in
\itemsep=0in
\parsep=0in
\newcommand{\sbt}{\,\begin{picture}(-1,1)(-1,-3)\circle*{2.6}\end{picture}\ }
% if using pdflatex:
\setlength{\pdfpagewidth}{\paperwidth}
\setlength{\pdfpageheight}{\paperheight} 

\newenvironment{list1}{
  \begin{list}{\ding{113}}{%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{0in}
      \setlength{\parsep}{0in} \setlength{\parskip}{0in}
      \setlength{\topsep}{0in} \setlength{\partopsep}{0in} 
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{0.17in}}}{\end{list}}
\newenvironment{list2}{
  \begin{list}{$\bullet$}{%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{0in}
      \setlength{\parsep}{0in} \setlength{\parskip}{0in}
      \setlength{\topsep}{0in} \setlength{\partopsep}{0in} 
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{0.2in}}}{\end{list}}


\begin{document}

\name{SURNAME, Forename \vspace*{.1in}}

\begin{resume}
\section{\sc {\bf Contact}}
\vspace*{.05in}
\begin{tabular}{@{}p{2.6in}p{4in}}
Address line 1 & Phone:  0123456789\\           
Address line 2 & E-mail:  [email protected]\\
Address line 3\\
Address line 4
\end{tabular}

\section{\sc {\bf Education}}
School Name\\ 
\vspace*{-.1in}
\begin{list1}
\item[] Degree Name
\begin{list2}
\vspace*{.05in}
\item[\sbt] Note 1: blah blah
\item[\sbt] Note 2: blah blah blah
\end{list2}
\vspace*{.05in}
\end{list1}

\end{resume}
\end{document}

I specifically want to change the margins and spacings of the current layout as the following:

1. Reduce the top margin (the space between the top-edge of the page and the name) to roughly 1/2 of what it is now. Correspondingly, reduce the bottom margin to be equal to the top margin, and get rid of the page number.

2. Reduce the right margin (the space between the right-end of the horizontal line and the right-edge of the page) slightly, so that the left and right margins are equal.

I've tried using the geometry package, but it seems to mess up the layout completely and many of the margin settings do not seem to have any effect too. How should I configure my document to achieve both requirements above?

Answer 1

Two often used packages to tweak the margins of a page are anysize and geometry, and since geometry seems to have some conflicts with your document class, I would like to suggest the use of anysize as follows:

\usepackage{anysize}
\marginsize{left}{right}{top}{bottom}

As Wikipedia explains in more detail, you can also use things like \pagewidth, \paperwidth etc instead of \textwidth to make the sizes relative.

To add some (negative) space at random places in your document, you could use \vspace*{-<height>}, play with \addtolength, or look at Change whitespace above and below a section heading.

Finally, to get rid of the page number, try \pagestyle{empty}.

EDIT: You can use the package layout with the command \layout{} (preferably just below the \begin{document}) to check your dimensions - it will add an extra page with a detailed example page.