Created attachment 180082 [details]
Scheenshots comparing the space available for comments in Writer and Word

In Writer the width of comment boxes is too narrow. This is a problem when documents have many comments, which is common in the academic context. For example, when we are reviewing manuscripts and dissertations, it is common to have 30-40 comments in a single page.

This causes the rendering of comments in Writer a problem, since they look too compressed in a narrow space available for comments.

To overcome this issue, MS Word provides a wider area for comments. See the attached ODG file comparing the width in Writer and Word. Notice that comment area is twice as wide, which makes the comments look nicer.

Additionally, MS Word uses another "trick" to make comments look nicer: they apply some zoom factor to reduce the size of the rendered text. For instance, the comments in the screenshots are using Times New Roman with 10pt size... However, notice that in MS Word the rendered text in the comment is significantly smaller than 10pt, whereas in Writer we do actually use 10p and the comment ends up even bigger, which causes comments to not fit in the available space.

Therefore, I would like to propose:
1) Make the spacing available for comments wider (or at least configurable)
2) Apply a zoom factor to text in comments so that they look smaller and better fit the available space

I would also recommend that bug 145648 be considered while improving the comment box, since the kerning of text inside comments seem to be different than the kerning in the main text.