How do I change my margins and spacing to fit the PhD thesis requirements of University XYZ?

Question

Even-odd pages, inner edge 2.5cm, outer edge 1.5cm top and bottom 2cm. 1.5 spacing between the lines, double between paragraphs, no indent.

A general solution for other requirements would be best.

Answer 1

For the margins use the geometry package. For your particular example use

\usepackage[inner=2.5cm,outer=1.5cm,bottom=2cm]{geometry}

Check the documentation of this package for more details and other options!

For the line spacing use setspace. Again for your example

\usepackage{setspace}
\onehalfspacing % or \doublespacing

Answer 2

Have you checked if your university already has a document class (.cls) or style file (.sty) for theses? If there is no university wide one, you might also check with a prof or grad student in Computer Science or Mathematics. Many universities or departments do have such files already. Though, in some cases, the quality and utility of these files leaves a bit to be desired.

Answer 3

You could look at a class such as KOMA-Script, where there are settings for all of these things. On the other hand, you could use the appropriate packages for different items. The geometry package is the way to do margins, something like

\usepackage[
  left-margin=1.5cm,
  right-margin=2.5cm,
  top-margin=2cm,
  bottom-margin=2cm
]{geometry}

For line spacing, use the setspace package, and for not having indents at the start of paragraphs use the parskip package.