[Solved] Simple text document no longer possible

[cynthia marshall]

My problem is that I cannot open a simple new text document without the document being abnormal. When I click on new-text document- I don't get the simple blank text document with a normal margin at the top and left side. Instead I get a gigantic page with a gigantic left margin and print size that is probably a 40 if there is a number that high. I tried going to an existing document and opening a new one from there and tried closing the program & turning off the computer and starting from scratch to open the program and the same dysfunctional text document shows up again. I've been struggling with this for days. What do I do to get back a normal text document please? My email address is »deleted» if anyone wants to write me directly because I'm not a natural computer person and I have no idea how to fix this other than to download a open open office program again which i don't want to do. A second problem that has been happening of late is that every time I am working on a document, something wrong apparently happens and I get asked if I want the program to recover the document. Of course I say yes and if I have 4 documents I am working on sometimes all 4 need to be recovered and sometimes it seem to be repeating the process all over again after the document was recovered. It appears to be in some kind of loop and repeating itself.
I've never been on a forum before and by this point I am so frustrated and annoyed at the thoughts of having no viable word processing program that I'm very upset. Does anyone have some simple advice please?

Edit: Removed email address to prevent harvesting by spammers. No one will respond via email. All replies will be here in this post. You can quickly find this post using View your posts in the blue area at the top of each forum page. — MrProgrammer, moderator, 2020-08-18 1:10 UTC

[keme]

The large paper with large writing is most likely a normal document, zoomed in.

If you have the status bar visible (show/hide toggled by menu selection View - Status bar) there is a zoom slider with scaling factor (percentage) in the bottom right corner. Adjust with the slider or doubleclick the percent figure to edit by dialog.

You can also go to that dialog by menu selection View - Zoom...

All selections for zoom factor except the last one (Variable) should render your document in a way you can work with. With "Variable zoom" (using the zoom slider or the dialog percentage) there are wider possibilities but you must keep control of the zoom level yourself.

The most common trigger for document recovery is if you shut down the computer too quickly after closing a document (or not closing at all before shutdown). If you have a laptop, make sure all activity has stopped (watch the indicator lamps) before you close the lid.

[RoryOF]

There are three little icons at bottom right of Writer window, on the Status Bar. Click on the leftmost (a single page), and adjust the scaling factor with the slider beside these, or enter a value in the % box at the very right bottom corner. 100% is a good starting point. Or use /View /Zoom, select Single Page and again adjust scaling factor in that dialog.

You may find it helpful to read some instructions: many have found
Writer for students (several languages)
helpful

[cynthia marshall]

To the two individuals who took the time to reply to my post with the right answer about what to do to fix the problem, thank you. your advice fixed the problem. thank you for making the time and effort to respond in simple language right away because I was so frustrated and upset and I learned something. Best regards - Cynthia

[RoryOF]

Please read the document to which I pointed you. You will find it gives much useful advice, and will be helpful for your further use of OpenOffice.