Reader Guy Parrot squawks about TextEdit and its inflexible print margins in this message:
Regardless of how hard I try, I am unable to modify the set margins in TextEdit. To wit: Open any page of text with TextEdit. Using “Wrap to window” is easy enough to eliminate the margins on the screen. Now when you use Command-P to print, choose the option to Preview. The margins are there. And I have no idea how to eliminate them since the use of the Ruler doesn’t allow the left-most tool to slide further left to modify this margin. Ideas?
Sure. If you have a copy of Microsoft Word or the completely free NeoOffice, create a file with the margins you like. Save it as an RTF file and then open it in TextEdit. TextEdit will respect the margins created in the other program. Judiciously use this RTF file as a template for other TextEdit documents.
Back in 2004, Rob Griffiths’ Mac OS X Hints featured this more complicated tip for hacking TextEdit to create less broad margins.