[Tex/LaTex] header spacing trouble

fancyhdrgeometryheader-footermargins

I'm using the fancy header package, yet I've also adjusted all of my margins, to allow more text on each page as there is no need for the excessively large margins.

I've run in to some trouble with my header coming much too close the the top of the text though: alt text

How would I go about adjust space downwards?
Also, here is the code I'm using for the headers:

\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\setlength{\headheight}{15pt}
\pagestyle{fancyplain}
%adjust lengths to suit me
\addtolength{\topmargin}{-.5in}
\addtolength{\oddsidemargin}{-.375in}
\addtolength{\textheight}{1.25in}
\addtolength{\textwidth}{.5in}

\lhead{Name}
\chead{}
\rhead{}
\lfoot{Name}
\cfoot{\fancyplain{}{\thepage}}
\rfoot{\fancyplain{}{\today}}

Best Answer

There's a better way than this to set up and adjust page margins. Use the geometry package. (Seriously!)

That said, here's the solution to your problem. (NB, I've added the layout package in addition to geometry's showframe option to help you visualise what is going on.)

\documentclass[twoside]{article}
%\usepackage{fullpage}  % <-- you don't want this

\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{
  top=0.5in,            % <-- you want to adjust this
  inner=0.5in,
  outer=0.5in,
  bottom=0.5in,
  headheight=3ex,       % <-- and this
  headsep=2ex,          % <-- and this
}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancyplain}

\lhead{Eric Rasche}
\chead{}
\rhead{}
\lfoot{Eric Rasche}
\cfoot{\fancyplain{}{\thepage}}
\rfoot{\fancyplain{}{\today}}

\usepackage{lipsum}          % body text

\usepackage{layout}          % display page dimensions
%\AtBeginDocument{\layout*}  % uncomment this line *OR*
\geometry{showframe=true}    % uncomment this line (best if not both)

\begin{document}
  \subsection{Timeline}
  \lipsum[1-30]
\end{document}
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