Preview: How to Use Full Size of Screen When Opening Files

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Level 1

8 points

Preview: How to Use Full Size of Screen When Opening Files

Hi, when I download and open a PDF with Preview, I would like the window to be displayed as big as possible. In other words, how can I setup Preview so that I can use the full height of my screen so that there are no margins above and underneath the opened file?

What I do now is to manually move up the window until in touches the left-hand side corner of my screen and pull down the bottom right-hand side corner of the window with the mouse in order to expand it. Very tedious.

Thank you for the help!

Message was edited by: Creaton

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Jan 22, 2009 12:22 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 22, 2009 3:48 PM in response to sig

Limnos I think what the OP wants is to set preview's preferences to open a document to fit the screen.

Oops, I wonder if I got this one confused with another post I was just reading about somebody who has pictures that are opening beyond the margins of their screen. Too much multitasking.

Message was edited by: Limnos

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Answer 2

Jan 23, 2009 9:12 AM in response to Creaton

A similar question was asked a while back, about Preview using the full screen to view images e.g. jpegs.

Preview has ALWAYS used my full screen (1440 x 900) to display things, and my prefs are set as follows :

Images : Scale large images to fit window
PDF : Use scale of 100%, Greeking threshold 3, Anti-alias text and line art

But if you mean PAGE margins (not window size), then you would need to use Adobe Reader to change the behaviour as Preview isn't that sophisticated when it comes to PDFs. There's zoom in / zoom out, and that's about it.

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Answer 3

Creaton Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 24, 2009 12:03 AM in response to christopher rigby1

christopher rigby1: Actually, when I open any file, it is always zoomed to fit the window, automatically. My problem is that I want to have the window bigger so that it uses my whole screen. When you pull the bottom right-hand side corner of the window down and to the right, the portrayed size of the file is increased. I always do this manually.

But perhaps, the preferences that you have mentioned are the solution. Where do you set up the things that you have mentioned (PDF : Use scale of 100%, Greeking threshold 3, Anti-alias text and line art)?

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it.

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Answer 4

Jan 24, 2009 4:45 AM in response to Creaton

Where do you set up the things that you have mentioned (PDF : Use scale of 100%, Greeking threshold 3, Anti-alias text and line art)

These things are in Preview > Preferences. At least that's where they are in 10.4.11 - but I see you are using 10.4.3? I wonder if Preview changed slightly in an upgrade?

Looking at your image, I don't get that - on my screen the window nestles up against the menu bar (as with yours) but just above the Dock. I don't need to resize it. However, I see that you do not display the Dock - I wonder if Preview sizes the window just above where the Dock would be?

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Answer 5

Creaton Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 24, 2009 5:24 PM in response to christopher rigby1

The "Use Scale of" function did the trick for me. Stupid that I did not play around with this function before. Problem solved except for the size of the drawer. Is there any way to decrease its wideness on all files, permanently, without removing it?

Thanks!

Message was edited by: Creaton

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

250,783 points

Jan 24, 2009 6:00 PM in response to Creaton

Not certain where the Default is stored, but it's stored in these 2 files for previously opened ones...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist

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Answer 7

Creaton Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 24, 2009 6:12 PM in response to BDAqua

The "bookmarking" of the drawer width works for previously opened ones. In other words, a drawer that I made narrower will stay this way. And according to the info in the first file you mentioned there are 50 bookmarks.

So, does anybody know where the default information is stored, which determines the drawer width of an unopened new file?

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Answer 8

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Jan 22, 2009 1:21 PM in response to Creaton

I believe you are at the mercy of the scale that the document was created with.

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Answer 9

Jan 22, 2009 1:26 PM in response to Creaton

This is probably not how you want to do it all the time but you could possibly set your display scale to a size sufficiently large to see the edges.

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Answer 10

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Jan 22, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Limnos

Limnos I think what the OP wants is to set preview's preferences to open a document to fit the screen.

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Answer 11

Creaton Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 24, 2009 12:23 AM in response to christopher rigby1

Here is a screen shot. See the browser in the background on the lower part? That is what I am talking about.

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3076/picture1ef0.png

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