This is just something that I’ve learned to expect in Word, but when I’m typing and I hit return for a new paragraph, I want it to indent automatically. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. How can I make this happen every time in the current document. Compile doesn’t have this option, and when I created a new preset by highlighting a section with correct paragraph indents, it didn’t work when I highlighted a section and hit that preset. I just don’t want to continue to go back and hit the “tab” on all the paragraphs I’ve written to get them, individually, to indent. Thanks in advance!
You don’t need to do that. In fact, it may generate problems along the way when you try to compile.
On Scrivener, the indents and tab stops are defined using the ruler. Section 15.4.1 The Ruler of the manual will give you all the details.
If you want your setting to prevail and apply to all new documents you create, you can adjust the ruler under Preferences| Formatting as well. You can see a first line indent of 2 picas defined on the following screen:
Hope this helps!
Hi, Lorena,
I am thinking that the seeming irregularity is likely due to the fact that some of your existing paragraphs are indented and some are not. When you are typing in an existing paragraph and hit Return, the next paragraph will simply inherit the format of the now-previous paragraph. (This is also the default behavior in Word.)
If the indenting on the paragraphs that looked right was achieved by using tab characters, this would explain why your attempt to create a preset from that did not have the effect you expected. Tab is a character, not a format property of paragraphs. (You would have got the same unhappy result if you had tried this same thing in Word.) What you want is to set the paragraph format using the ruler, as r6da said, and then make your preset from that.
Best,
Greg