Abiword - paper in the middle

[aykoola]

Hi. Didn't find a proper google solution, so i'm posting. I'm wondering is it possible to put abiword paper in the middle of the screen when typing, when size is set to 100%? So it has the same layout as Libreoffice?

Thank you in advance!

[aykoola]

bump

[strungoutfan78]

I would *REALLY* like to know how to do this as well. It is extremely distracting to have it on the far left side of a widescreen monitor.

[cwsnyder]

Okay, one or both of you are pulling on something which isn't attached.

First, to which version of Abiword are you referring? Are you both using Ubuntu 12.04, or 12.10?

On my monitor, which I admit is not wide screen, the 'paper' is centered between the 'margins' of the Abiword screen. There is no 100% setting for viewing the print.

The only difference that I see is where the Abiword window is set, which is normally at the upper left corner of your screen, but can be moved to wherever you prefer!?! WTF!

[strungoutfan78]

Okay, one or both of you are pulling on something which isn't attached.

First, to which version of Abiword are you referring? Are you both using Ubuntu 12.04, or 12.10?

On my monitor, which I admit is not wide screen, the 'paper' is centered between the 'margins' of the Abiword screen. There is no 100% setting for viewing the print.

The only difference that I see is where the Abiword window is set, which is normally at the upper left corner of your screen, but can be moved to wherever you prefer!?! WTF!

Well, I'm not certain I'm sensing your tone properly, but you seem to sound a little condescending in your reply. To answer the first part of your question, I'm not using Ubuntu, rather Debian stable. I'm not certain which version of abiword as I'm away from my laptop at this moment. I've attached a screenshot of the issue that I found on Google image search. Again, this is not my desktop, but you can see in the photo that the "paper" area is located to the far left of the actual workspace. It's not the window we're talking about here. I'm certain we could have figured that out all by ourselves.

[cwsnyder]

I am not trying to be condescending, rather incredulous. I am running Linux Mint Debian Xfce and on my Abiword, the response was as I reported. I couldn't duplicate your error, as I leave that box at page width and never attempted to 'zoom' on the page, as I mostly just work with text.

Looking at your thumbnail, I can see where the control that I didn't notice had been set. This seems to have been a 'feature' of Abiword when zoomed in to look at the page layout with graphical components. This seems to have been a decision of the Abiword coders.

For a work-around, while working with straight text, I would recommend the pagewidth setting, which centers the paper within the window, until you are working with tables or other graphical components where the layout is critical, then switching back to the zoom setting as needed.

[strungoutfan78]

I am not trying to be condescending, rather incredulous. I am running Linux Mint Debian Xfce and on my Abiword, the response was as I reported. I couldn't duplicate your error, as I leave that box at page width and never attempted to 'zoom' on the page, as I mostly just work with text.

Looking at your thumbnail, I can see where the control that I didn't notice had been set. This seems to have been a 'feature' of Abiword when zoomed in to look at the page layout with graphical components. This seems to have been a decision of the Abiword coders.

For a work-around, while working with straight text, I would recommend the pagewidth setting, which centers the paper within the window, until you are working with tables or other graphical components where the layout is critical, then switching back to the zoom setting as needed.

I apologize for misinterpreting your original response. It's so hard sometimes on these boards to infer the actual intent of the post. With that said, could you clarify what you mean by "the control you didn't notice?" The only way that I see to do fix this is to choose view -> normal layout, but that just sets the page to maximize itself within the confines of the window. To be more clear, I've attached a pic of my abiword, and what I want my abiword layout to look like. I'm not certain where to find the "pagewidth" setting you're referring to. Thanks.

**EDIT**
My abiword is V2.8.2

I'm curious to hear back from the OP regarding this as well.

[cwsnyder]

See my attached, modified screenshot to show the control I was referring to, which will show 100%, 50% or pagewidth.

[strungoutfan78]

See my attached, modified screenshot to show the control I was referring to, which will show 100%, 50% or pagewidth.

I see. That does look a little better, but still not quite what I want. I want to keep the page the same size but slide it over to the right, leaving a large buffer of blank space on either side. It's semantic, really, but I just work much better when things look exactly the way I want. OCD maybe? Lol. I think I may be looking for it to do something it is incapable of at this point.

If I like the way OpenOffice looks why not just use it instead, you may ask? Well, I just find abiword to be much lighter with a cleaner interface. Oowriter is just littered with unsightly menus and icons. *sigh*

Thanks for your assistance with this. You've been very helpful.

[cwsnyder]

From your description, were you programmed to write using an IBM Selectric typewriter?
I learned to type on manual typewriters, but spent 3 years word processing on a 32 character display, then switched to an 80 character display with WordStar 3 for another 6 years before 'graduating' to a GUI with WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS for another 6+ years, then to various Windows and Linux word processors. I even typed a few documents on Wang word processors, and of course various programming editors.

I am fairly tolerant whether the display is WYSIWYG or not, so I may not be very tolerant, and I try to keep that in mind.