Q: How do you change page margins in Text Edit?

The box appears if you choose Format > Wrap to Window. I don't believe TextEdit provides a simple way to adjust the margins. If you need more control, try the tip here.

Sorry to be so late, I just discovered this post right now.

In 2012 I wrote a program to do that easily with drag and drop: TexttEditMargins.

You will find the most recent version here.

worked like a charm once I discovered what the numbers meant: 1440 meaning a 2 inch margin on all sides as a TextEdit default. I reduced the margins down to 260 on all sides because my documents are mostly for screen view after conversion to PDF's so I'm not worried so much about printing. you can save the document as a template after that. Saving a word document with small margins as an RTF file and adding a single image to it temporarily along with type formatting also makes for a great template if you have Word. but using Mssr. Morat's app is much faster than that.

p.s., my heartfelt condolences on the horrific Parisian terrorist attacks, Mssr. Morat. I hope that none of your family or friends were hurt or worse if that is your home.. and merci beaucoup for this!

Changing the margins in TXT documents

The suggested solution works for RTF documents. It IS ALSO POSSIBLE to change the margins in pure text documents.

To do so it is necessary to scale the content of the page (you will need to adjust your text size accordingly):

- in the print dialog box, go to "Manage Custom Sizes..." in the Paper Size pulldown menu

- create a new custom size that is larger but proportionally the same as your real paper (8.5x11" or 21x29.7 cm)

In the SECOND pulldown, "TextEdit"

- choose "Paper Handling"

- check "Scale to fit paper size"

- choose your real paper size

When you print, your margins will be smaller.

Nice Job!