Word Processing document to fit screen size.

Question

Hello.
I have opened Appleworks and then opened a new WP document to start work on. The problem is it is only filling a third of the available screen. It appears to be a real waste. I want to work on the document while it is displayed using every available inch of the screen. So it is in what I call 'real-time size' on a 12 inch notebook. I am fairly used to using Microsoft Office, but as you can tell from this post have had very little time with Appleworks or Mac's. I'm sure there is a very simple solution, and if somebody could help me using very simple language I would most grateful.
Thank you in advance.
iBook G4 12 inch   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

Answer 1

Appleworks does not have an automatic zoom feature that will enlarge the text so that it spans the width of the window. However, you can manually increase the zoom level so that the text appears larger in order to fill up more of your screen. Changing the zoom level only changes how large things appear on screen, not how large the text is on the page (like in Word).
To increase the zoom level, you use the buttons found at the bottom left corner of the window. You'll see a small rectangle that displays the zoom level. At first, it will read '100'. If you click on this, it will give you a pop up menu with percentages ranging from 25% ro 800% and a choice for other. When you first click you may only see numbers smaller than 100%, but if you point the mouse at the triangle at the end of the list, it will scroll down the list so you can see the rest of the choices.
Directly to the right of this '100' you will see two small buttons with what looks like a filled line chart. The first has small "peaks" and the second shows higher "peaks". As you might expect, the first is to decrease zoom level, the other to increase zoom level.
You can use these controls to change the zoom level so that you fill the whole screen to your liking.
BTW, the next button after the zoom controls is the on which hides and shows the tools (same as "Show Tools" under the Window menu). You can also double click on the 'Page 1' to bring up a dialog that lets you enter a number to jump to another page.