LaTeX: How to reduce text width while keeping margins unchanged?

Question

I would like to reduce text width while keeping the right and left margins at their current size. The header should span over all available space (delimited by margins), but the main text should be narrower. My main goal is to have different widths for the header/footer and for the body.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

Is it related to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1670463/latex-change-margins-of-only-a-few-pages?

Answer 2

Use the geometry package.

Answer 3

Is this what you want:?

\documentclass{article}

\def\lorem{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet }
\def\blind{\lorem\lorem\lorem\lorem\lorem}
\def\bblind{\blind\blind\blind\blind\blind}

\begin{document}

\bblind

% Hand-made manipulation of the proper margins
{
  \addtolength{\leftskip}{1in}
  \addtolength{\rightskip}{1in}
  \bblind

}

\bblind

% There is also a standard LaTeX way to do this:
\begin{quote}
\bblind
\end{quote}

\bblind

\end{document}

Be sure to include a paragraph ending in the curly braces, or the margin will not change at all.

Answer 4

use a minipage and declare the width

Answer 5

It seems that simply adding to the preamble of the document:

\textwidth=5.5in

Does what I was looking for.