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I guess this question isn't specific to Writing, more relevant to all Beta SEs, but I don't really know where else to ask. As of today (the redesign kicked in), about half my screen is empty white space on the sides. Then come the side bars (one of them the navigation bar that does nothing but reiterate what's already above the questions), and then, in the middle, there's a teeny-tiny narrow space for the actual questions. Which is rather annoying, considering I have a 28'' screen. Out of 24'' of width, I get only 9'' of content (questions, answers), and the rest of it is sidebars and wasted white space.

Are there some settings somewhere that allow this to be changed? Collapse the left sidebar, at least? Do something about all the white space? It's just weird that the content I'm here for only uses 37% of the screen.

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    What browser/OS are you using?
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 17:27
  • 2
    See this announcement about beta sites and this post about the left sidebar and responsive design in general. The latter has 95 answers currently, many of which are about the sidebars, so be sure to browse (and vote if applicable) before adding new answers there. But to sum up: no, you're not the only person who isn't happy about the allocation of screen real-estate.
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 17:37
  • @NeilFein Windows 10, Mozilla Firefox.
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 17:43
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    @MonicaCellio Thanks. With so many people complaining about the same thing, and hating the change, I guess there's hope for improvement?
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 18:00
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    AFAIK, the width of the content doesn't change. It is (and has always been) 660~px even before the redesign and/or after hiding the left navbar, so I'm not really sure how you get from 9" to 10.5" by hiding the left navbar...
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 18:50
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    An image would probably help, if you could add one. Right now I'm a bit confused.
    – Catija Staff
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 20:52

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Collapse the left sidebar, at least?

This is possible: go to your profile -> "Edit profile & Settings" -> "Preferences" -> "Hide left navigation".

When you check this box, the left navigation will no longer be pinned to the left of the page on Q&A sites.

This setting applies to all Stack Exchange sites with the new design.

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    Thank you. That brought me to 10.5'' of content, 4.5'' right navigation bar, and 9'' of white space. It helps.
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 18:11
  • Two other hints (from other sites) I've found useful when you hide left-nav: (1) the left-hand "hamburger" (the 3 horizontal grey lines) provides the menu from the sidebar - useful to be able to navigate back to "Questions" or Home; and (2) the site heading (e.g. here it's "Writing Meta") is clickable and navigates back to the site Home page.
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Sep 22, 2018 at 1:27

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