[OS X TeX] Just went to Leopard and ...

[win at ucla.edu]

Dear Colleagues, I have been following this users group for many, many  
months and hope to obtain your advice having just switched to Leopard.  
  I have been using plain TeX for nearly 20 years, developing  
manuscripts in TeX, and then adapting the material to whatever LaTeX  
macro sets that were relevant to the particular journal or book  
publisher that I had in mind.  In 2001, I switched systems to Mac OS X  
but was disappointed with some of the vagaries of TeXshop and OzTeX.   
I continued to use, in classic mode, Textures until I discovered that  
Classic mode was no longer available under system 10.5.  (Happily, I  
have only switched my laptop, and want to resolve any remaining system  
conversion problems before proceeding further.)  I still want/need to  
use plain TeX but in the context of TeXshop, possibly returning to the  
new OS X compatible Textures once the development bugs have been  
removed.  However,  whenever I typeset an existing TeX (i.e.,  
Textures) document---and my installation of TeXshop may have  
inadvertently imposed A4 page standards, my margins are horribly  
messed up.  (They are messed up even in the context of using A4  
paper.)  Is there a simple way to accomplish this?  As a workaround, I  
have found that the following 4 lines introduced near the beginning  
(i.e., in the preamble region) of a TeX document will do the job (to  
the nearest millimeter or so):

\hsize=6.5truein
\vsize=9.0truein
\hoffset=0.68truein
\voffset=0.9truein

(Note that I use "truein" in place of "in" as a dimension to  
accommodate the use of "\magnification=" statements.)  Is there a  
simpler or more elegant way to adjust the margins appropriately to  
conform with US letter paper?  I appreciate any advice that you might  
have to offer.  Best wishes to all!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor William I. Newman                  Phone (310) 825-3912  Office
Departments of Earth and Space Sciences,           (310) 825-3880  ESS
Physics and Astronomy, and Mathematics       FAX   (310) 825-2779
4640 Geology Building, P. O. Box 951567      Email win at ucla.edu
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567

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