Two things you could try with the tools available at the moment:
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Ctrl-T and Ctrl-Q will do first-line and overhang indents, .5" to the right each time you type it; add Shift to the combo and it will move back left.
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Set up script settings for this. Script elements are just blocks of formatting with a convenient way to jump from one to the next, and can actually be used to great effect for this kind of thing. Here are the general steps to setting it up:
a. In a sample document, set up a few paragraphs the way you want them to look in your final output. (You’ll need to compile without overwriting formatting in oder to preserve your special indents, so set up the appropriate font, line spacing, etc. as well.)
b. Format one paragraph per “type” you want: a simple version would be one paragraph for your “default” setting, one paragraph for your block quote settings, and one paragraph for the continuation of the block quote (that is, if you have first-line indenting, if you’re continuing a paragraph following a block quote you’ll want to format it without that first-line indent). If your style needs it, you may want two types of block quote settings, one for single paragraph quotes and one for multi-paragraph quotes.
b. Open Format>Scriptwriting>Script Settings and create a new script mode by giving it a title and then creating the elements. Clear the ones that are in there using the “-” sign and then add a new one for each of your paragraph types. Give each one a name and then assign the formatting by selecting in that paragraph in the editor and then clicking the “Manage” button in the script settings panel to select “use current paragraph formatting”. All your settings will get plugged in automatically.
c. In the “Tab/Return” pane, you can assign how to move from element to element. E.g. you’ll probably want hitting the “Return” key while in the main body paragraph to keep you in that same element, since you’ll be using it most often. Hitting “Tab” while in that element should move you to your block quote element. Hitting “Return” while in the block quote can take you back out to the paragraph style for continuing main text after a block quote, and hitting “Return” from there should take you to the regular main body paragraph style.
d. Save your script settings via the “Manage” box. You can update and resave them as you need to, and you can save them so that you’re able to access them in other projects, so you’ll only need to set all this up once.
When you type your document, then, you’ll want to work in script mode with this setting. You can turn on script mode with Ctrl-4 while in the editor or use Format>Scriptwriting>Script Mode, and make sure it’s set to use your custom script settings (it should give the name there in the menu). In the footer you’ll see what the different Tab and Return characters will do and, in the right, you’ll see what element (style) you’re currently in. As you type and use Tab and Return to move from element to element, the paragraphs will be formatted automatically according to your settings. You can use the pop-up menu fron the footer (where it lists your current element) or via the Format>Scriptwriting menu to switch a paragraph to another element.
The main thing to note here is that the styles aren’t dynamic–if you decide to change the formatting for a particular element, it will be adjusted for new paragraphs you type but not for existing ones. This will be improved in the future with a method to update existing elements to your new settings, but for now they’ll just stay as they are and will be listed as “General Text” instead of whatever element they originally were. You can select them and reassign the proper element to them and their formatting will get updated.
As an example, I’ve attached an MLA-style script that you can import and check out. Download the file and unzip it, then import it by going into Format>Scriptwriting>Script Settings and clicking “Manage” and then “Load from file”. You can see how it’s set up in that panel and play around with it in a sample document to get a feel for how it works.
mlaformat.xml.zip (704 Bytes)