Setting document width in Lyx

Question

When I view my document in a PDF with pdflatex, my stuff is squished into like only 60% of the page, leaving the rest an ugly, unused whitespace. How do I fixed this (preferably in Lyx)?

Answer 1

There are two reasons why Lyx leaves a lot of space:

1. By default uses a Latex class which, like most of the core Latex classes, has very generous margins, and
2. It probably is making a conservative guess about your page size, as the intersection of A4 and letter size.

You can fix this by going to Document > Settings... and configuring the following options:

1. Set your paper size to the actual size you want (under the Page Layout tab); and then either
2. Fix your class to something more cramped, such as a letter or CV class (under Document Class); and maybe also
3. Manually fix your margins (under Page Margins).

Answer 2

You may find useful the geometry package.

Another option is to generate the PDF using whatever class you wish and then crop the white space out. This is what I do when I have to read an already generated PDF on an electronic book, with limited screen "real state". There are many programs that will let you crop white margins out. I use briss and am happy with it.