I don’t need to layout pages with Scrivener, just compose. Therefore, I don’t need any margin in the Editor window at all and would prefer not to have to go full screen to be able to write without a huge white space to the left of my text blocks. For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out how to get rid of the margin space and in trying to fix it I somehow ended up creating a -2" margin, making it even worse. How do I get rid of this?
Preferences/Appearance/Main Editor/Options
Sounds like you want to switch off the fixed width editor. However, margin control is also set on that same preferences panel.
Hi Laura,
I’m on Windows Scriv, so I can’t tell you the precise steps to get there on the Mac, but you can tweak the Editor margins in options.
See Appendix B.5.8 in the manual, for a description and nice visual of what you can change. Besides the option Editor Margins, another important option for you is Use Fixed Width Editor – try turning that off.
HTH,
Jim
ETA: auxbuss beat me to it! 
I’m having a similar problem, have been through manual and can’t figure it out. Also, it just seemed to appear several updates ago. As the attached shows, I get a a negative margin on the left which leaves me with large amounts of white space on both left and right. Didn’t used to be this way, and I didn’t make any manual changes (that I’m aware of) to create it. Any help appreciated . It’s seriously impairing my ability to use Scrivener, which is my default environment.
Two possibilities: you either have Page View turned on, or you have Fixed Width Editing turned on. (Difficult to tell from the screen shot).
To toggle Page View, go to View > Text Editing > Page View and tick or untick to taste.
To turn off Fixed Width Editing, go to Preferences > Appearance > Main Editor and tick/untick User Fixed Width Editing.
One of those should work. HTH.
Thank you, fixed width editor was it. Still not sure how it got turned on, but turning it off fixed my problem. Just so I know, what is is primarily useful for?
Personal preference, really. Some people like for the editor to say the same size regardless of the window dimensions, Some people want the editor to expand or contract as the window does.
Katherine
It allows you to set a maximum width for the text (not the minimum as the text will wrap if the screen is smaller that the fixed width area)- anything above a certain line length is harder to read. Normally about two to three alphabets or approx 50 to 80 characters is suggested as the comfortable range (it depends to some extent on font size, line spacing etc), if you’re on a large screen, then the standard width will be much more than that. It’s personal preference, of course, but it’s tied to basic design principles, and I find it really useful.
Thank you!