I wonder if it's possible to tweak how it displays on my end via some browser coding magic. Sadly I'm a total caveman to such things.
That got me thinking, it has to be possible to write a Greasemonkey script or whatever the equivalent to that nowadays is, to change this.
Alas, I was also a caveman to such things, knowing only that some browsers allow user stylesheets to override default styles.
So far, I've figured out how to change it in Firefox, for both the Edit function and the Reply function that you get when you click "More Options..." when replying (something I often do so I can preview a post before posting it).
First, create a file called userContent.css, which contains the following:
Code:
.xenForm {
max-width: unset !important;
}
By default, the xenForm has a maximum width of 800 pixels, which is why all that real estate is wasted (I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's a shame when this happens! I can always shrink my browser window if I want to only use half of the screen). The code above removes the maximum so it'll use however much space there is, minus a little bit of margin on each side. If you want, you could replace the unset with a value such as 1600px to use more of your screen but maybe not the whoel thing.
Next, you'll have to enable custom themes in Firefox. I followed
this guide from a guy who used to work at Mozilla. Step 6 is not necessary, and in Step 3 you can use the file created above (or just create it then).
As he notes, this will also affect other XenForo sites that use the .xenForm CSS class, which I'm guessing most do. But you might consider that to be an advantage. I haven't found a great way to make it CFC-specific yet.
From what I've read on the web, similar user customization on Chrome and derived browsers require extensions. Opera 12 and Internet Explorer support user stylesheets, but I have not been able to convince them to style the .xenForm. I can get the background color to change, and could probably change font sizes, but the form remains stubbornly the same size. They might not support the same granularity of styling that Firefox does.
So, in summary:
1. Use Firefox
2. Follow the steps above.
3. If you want to use other browsers, it will require more research.
As Firefox isn't my main browser, I'll probably just try to remember to use Firefox if I want extra width when editing a post. Maybe I'll be motivated to find a work-around for other browsers someday, or maybe someone else will, but maybe not.