Hey!
I would like to generate a blank line between paragraphs. When I type my text in scrivener and separate the paragraphs with blank lines, it compiles in the LaTeX generated pdf as a line break, but there is no space (blank line) between the paragraphs. (I don’t want to put every paragraph into an extra file)
What is the mmu-syntax for a blank line between paragraphs? or is there an ohter way?
cheers, mike
Are you attempting to go for a style that uses paragraph spacing rather than indentation (or maybe both) between paragraphs, or are you looking for a way to insert what is commonly used as a “scene break” in novels? If it is the former, then there are ways to adjust how paragraphs are presented in LaTeX with something like the following in the preamble:
\setlength{\parskip}{12pt}I’m writing a paper (science) in Scrivener. I use a file for every chapter or supchapter. Within this files I have several paragraphs. I’m going to compile it with mmu -> LaTeX.
The paragraphs should be separated by a blank line. Is there a mmu-syntax which makes this possible?
it should look like this:
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
with a blank line between every paragraph
Got it, okay the code that I gave you above should work to add padding between paragraphs, then. You would need another code to reduce the first-line indent to 0. I’m not sure what settings you are using to compile out of Scrivener, so it is difficult to advise you on where best to customise your preamble, but you’ll need something like:
\setlength{\parskip}{8pt}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
The first command will add eight points of space between each paragraph, and the second will reduce first-line indent to zero points. You just do all of this using LaTeX, not MultiMarkdown. The latter is for the production of semantically clean source files and that’s about it.
Now if you’ve never used Scrivener+MMD before to produce .tex documents, there are a few tricks to be aware of when it comes to customisation. Firstly, you’ll probably notice that when you compile you get around a half dozen .tex files as well as your main document. These are the boilerplate files that control the appearance. You could insert the code above into the one that ends in “-begin-doc.tex”, but you’d have to do that every time because Scrivener just regenerates these. So you need to know where these files come from, and that is the LaTeX Options compile pane. Those basic options are just pre-fabs for making quick documents during the proofing phase, or if someone has no need to customise the default look I suppose. Custom is one route you can take. I used that for the Scapple user manual to good effect. Another route is to just set up all of the meta-data and boilerplates yourself. Custom is slightly easier because Scrivener will continue to set up the meta-data for you, but naturally handling it all yourself will provide the most power.
You can read about all of this in §22.5.3 (pg. 328) of the user manual PDF, and you might want to read portions of the documentation for MultiMarkdown itself.
There seems to be a little mistake in Ioa’s code - using it would literally set the parskip to 8 pt - which is probably not what you want.
Since the standard LaTeX classes have a parskip=baselineskip, you would instead have to use
\addtolength{\parskip}{\baselineskip}That should add a “standard empty line” between your paragraphs and would work with every font size you use.
Ah thanks, I was just copying the method I found on the Web, but that is a good point that using a fixed point setting will not be flexible in a wide range of layouts.