Formatting in Print Setup view is impossible ! (?)

I can't imagine even one reason why it should not be possible to format the appearance of a page IN THE PAGE SETUP view ! How is it even possible to get a page to look the way you want WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE IT WHILE YOU'RE DOING IT. It's unbelievable someone should have to ask this question of good old "it just works" Apple.

I'd LOVE to be wrong about this, but I can't find a way. Can anybody help me figure out how to format a page while I'm looking at the Page Setup view? Failing that, how can I format a page in some other view and know how it's going to look without having to change views back and forth until I get it right? Is that too much to ask?