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I'm new to LyX. It seems to be really appropriate for the work I'm doing but I have these questions pertaining to the graphical user interface. Of course I'm aware that the output is radically different from what is shown in the GUI - my questions have to do with the comfort of the interface as i write:

  • Is there a way to make the margins wider in the GUI? I find that screen-wide text blocks aren't easy on the eye. Of course I can resize the window but that gives my a pretty messy work environment with my desktop or other programs in the background - also this wouldn't work when I'm in full-screen mode.
  • Is there a way to have left text alignment (instead of straight margins) in the LyX GUI? I don't like the spacing to be stretched when I'm in the process of editing text.
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I use Lyx a lot and the bad news is that I have never been able to do what your asking. It is what it is. My understanding is that any Gui changes that are possible are driven from "Preferences" in the main menu. –  Stephen Myall Oct 22 '12 at 12:55
@StephenMyall See my answer for possible solutions. –  landroni Mar 25 at 22:09

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Both can be achieved.

  • Perhaps hackishly, you can toggle the Outline pane and then resize it for half of the screen. This allows to have a much less wider text blocks. Otherwise you can go to Tools > Prefs > Editing > Control > Fullscreen > Limit text width and then switch to fullscreen while working.

    This said, the feature that you're describing is something I've been looking forward to for some time now, and it may be worth reporting it on their bugtracker.

  • To have left-text alignment you need to use the beta version of 2.1 (the final will be released shortly). You can install the latest beta release (and soon the RC release) from the LyX PPA (development).

    From the log of new features in 2.1:

    Users can now decide for every document in the menu Document→Settings→Text Layout if LyX justifies the document text or not. (This setting has no effect on the output.)

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