When I add freetext it displays only on the right hand part of the form but I want it to diplsy across the entire form. What do I need to do?

This technique works for inline layout... you may have to do something different for the other layouts. I got this tip with I was using Joomla 1.5 so there may be better ways to do this in the most current version.

After your have finished with the form go into Properties and deselect AutoGenerate
Locate the name of the free text component to be changed. I used "intro" for this example
Delete the caption code
Edit the next line (body) to add td width="25%" (change % to fit your needs)

Before:
<tr class="rsform-block rsform-block-intro">
<td>{Intro:caption}</td>
<td>{Intro:body}<div class="formClr"></div>{Intro:validation}</td>
<td>{Intro:description}</td>

After:
<tr class="rsform-block rsform-block-intro">

<td width="25%">{Intro:body}<div class="formClr"></div>{Intro:validation}</td>
<td>{Intro:description}</td>
Hope this helps. Note if you have to edit the form and regenerate the layout, you'll have to add the edits in again.