I’ve asked about this before, and thought I had it sorted, but it’s still not working as expected, and I wonder if there’s something I’m missing on my end. This time, I simply copied the “Manuscript (Times)” Scrivener Compile Format and adjusted the “Separators” settings, as my scenes are set to follow each other directly.
However, I’m unable to get only the first paragraph of each chapter to appear without indentation. No matter what I try, either all paragraphs are indented or none are, with no effect on just the first paragraph as intended.
I’ve attached a small sample project file to illustrate the issue. It’s strange because I recall having this work fine in the past.
Set up a No-Indent paragraph style (“Save Paragraph Style”, untick “Include font family” and “Include font size” so it matches the “No Style” font assignments) and give every paragraph where you don’t want the indent that style.
Solution 2 may seem a lot of faff, but I do it as I export to my Word processor, where using Solution 1 has both indented and non-indented paragraphs assigned “Normal”, so if I make any changes to “Normal” (which I do!) all those first paragraphs etc. immediately get the indent. Using a “No Indent” style prevents that.
Solution 1 unfortunately doesn’t work in my case. I created a new test file (attached) to verify, but the issue persists.
Solution 2, which requires manual modification, would take too much work since I have several “books” to export. I might use the “Do not change” option, export to Word, and fix the first paragraph there.
However, I’m certain I’ve successfully used the “remove indent from the first paragraph” option in the past, so I’m wondering what might have changed since then.
However, the paragraphs starting with Sed / Neque – ie the start of scenes 2 and 3 are continuing on too quickly from the last paragraph of the preceding scene. I think that’s because you have ‘Single Return’ rather than ‘Empty line’ set in Separators. If you have ‘Empty Line’, then this give you a better result:
Now you can really see the effect of the ‘first paragraph’ setting.
Obviously, we’ve only got the test project to go on, but the above is what’s causing your problem in that test project.
[Second thought!]
In the above, I’m assuming you want every scene and every chapter to begin with a non-indented paragraph, because that’s the convention (at least in English publications).
If you don’t want that (i.e. you want each scene to begin with an indented paragraph) then the simplest method may be to choose a Section Layout which combines the Chapter and scenes all in one go.
I.e. if I select the layout Chapter with Title for the chapter section type, and select ‘Remove from first paragraph’ as before I get this:
In my view this topic is over-complicated.
Switch on the Ruler.
Set the default Left Indent, and a snap distance for the sake of accuracy.
When starting a new document, drag the marker to zero.
At the second paragraph drag it to the desired indent.
It’ll keep indenting each subsequent paragraph.
Every time this matter is raised, I wonder how users fair if they decide paragraph 7 fits better as the first paragraph.
Not doing things as I do, surely sends them into a tizz.
While getting compile to do it is the preferred way, basically I treat RTF from Scrivener as mark-up. Every project I compile to RTF is done with the same standard compile format.
It opens automatically in NWP, where the first thing I do is run a macro which asks which style collection I want to apply and then proceeds to apply it as well as language marking, etc. if needed. NWP styles are cascading, in the sense that e.g. all paragraph styles applied within the body are based on “Normal”.
For my own use, my base font for most of my stuff is either Adobe Garamond Pro or Libertinus Serif. If I’m going to send a document to a colleague or friend, all I have to do is change the font of “Normal” to TNR and all the related styles change automatically. But, if “first paragraphs”, etc. merely have the indent removed on compiling, they are still marked “Normal” and so the indent is re-instated at the same time as the change of font.
By having a “No-indent” paragraph style (with a shortcut), it is there whenever I want it; it’s no more onerous than “Block Quote” and can be easily applied or removed as necessary. The “No Indent” style in NWP is based on “Normal” so responds to the font change but doesn’t get indented.
But then, I’m probably an outlier in treating RTF from Scrivener as a form of mark-up rather than formatting.
This method of yours is quite interesting! May I ask about the macro that you use?
I am new to NWP, I have read that it works quite well with Scrivener.
Thanks.
Thank you for taking the time to look over the test file.
What I’m aiming for is to have only the first paragraph of each chapter start flush left, without indentation, while all other paragraphs are indented.
My structure is as follows:
Folder = Chapter title
Text file 1 = text or scene
Text file 2 = text or scene
Text file 3 = text or scene
Given this structure, I expected that only the first paragraph in Text file 1 would be non-indented, but it seems to affect other files as well.
Somewhere, I’ve got a basic version of the macro, I’ll look it out, test it and send it to you (I don’t think you’ll need the bits of mine that identify and language mark all Chinese!).
NWP has several really stand-out features, the macro language being one. Very powerful Find and Replace (including the ability to macroize RegEx F&R routines), and the ability to create custom multi-letter shortcuts are two others.
To me, being able to apply a style collection to an existing document, rather than trying to shoehorn that document into a different template, is crucial to my way of working.
I won’t forget, and will send it to you with basic instructions.
A somewhat kludgy solution to that would be to assign all Text File 1s to a different Section Type with the “Remove from first paragraph” set in the associated Section Layout, and other text files assigned to another Section Type with the “Remove from first paragraph” unset in the associated Section Layout.
I’d rather not do it since I sometimes rearrange my text files. I discovered this YouTube video where, at 4:30, it explains exactly what I’m looking for: the indentation will be removed only from the first text file when they are included in a folder. However, it doesn’t work at my end, all my paragraphs are flush left.
The video starts off exactly as @xiamenese explained it in the initial answer to the query, selecting button 3 instead of button 2, which is neither here nor there for your requirement.
Why the videographer went on to explaining why she didn’t setup part 5 like the rest doesn’t help anyone, it encourages confusion.
I set it up in the Editor using the Ruler because it’s part of my setup that gives me a somewhat equilibrium of WYSIWYG in terms of paragraph length, which works out to be a 2- or 3-word difference per line either way between typed content and compiled output required by my editor.
My editor has a thing about paragraph being more than 5 lines long. I self-edit as I write anyway, so it’s something easy to abide by.
