Compile Paragraph Indent Setting

[pseingalt]

I’m trying to indent all paragraphs other than the first paragraph in a chapter.

If I try to indent at the red circle by hitting “tab,” nothing happens. Nothing happens when hitting the space bar. Moving the left margin affects the text, but does not indent it.

The control isn’t here:

Format=>Paragraph formats paragraphs in the editor, but not in Compile. Page 403 et seq. of the manual addresses this, but not indents in Compile.

Search of the Manual using ‘Compile’ and ‘Indent’ as Keywords

These two search terms yield many results:

185, 405, 433, 435, 486, 495, 496, 550, 553 (indenting ToC), 555, 566, 573, 592, 599 do not address the issue. Page 620 comes close–it discusses preserving indents, but not changing them upon Compile. 637 does not address the issue. 641 again is close, but refers you to subsection 24.2.9.

Clicking on the link to 24.2.9 takes you to 24.6 for some reason. 24.6 does not address global indenting.

24.2.9 discusses only removing indents, not adding them.

A search of the manual produced no useful results, hence this post.

[pseingalt]

I can add indents in the editor of course, but there has to way a do this using Compile.

[pseingalt]

Here is an older Scrivener for Windows post on this same issue:

Remove First Line Indent on First Line of Text File Only

Scrivenr for Windows v1.0.3 Hi, is there a way to remove the first line indent of the first paragraph for each text file, leaving the subsquent indents in place? At the moment, I am manually moving the marker on the ruler to delete the first line indent, after I have completed the text file. This is fine, but when I compile it to Word 2007, the first line indent is back. I’ve been looking for a way to format the Word doc with first line indent removed on first paragraph only, but have not found…

. Does Scriv for Windows have this functionality now? I could always Compile in Windows, assuming Scriv 3 for Windows can read Sciv 3 for MacOS files.

[pseingalt]

This control allows you to preserve indents, but not add them during Compile.

Still no joy.

[November_Sierra]

@pseingalt

If I try to indent at the red circle by hitting “tab,” nothing happens.

Notice the ruler above “1Section Title”? (Your first screenshot). That’s where you set indentation.

[xiamenese]

Hi, in one sense this is not a problem, in another sense it may be.

The “not-a-problem” sense is in your various compile section layouts to set your paragraph to have the indent. You don’t hit tab, you move the first-line-margin marker on the ruler, shaped like a T, to the right by the amount you want. Then click the “Settings” tab in the format editor, where you can set where the first line indent should be removed,

The “might-be-a-problem” issue is what style is assigned to those paragraphs. For instance, if you compile to RTF, the non-indented paragraphs are assigned the same “Normal” style as the indented ones, even though they don’t have the indent. So if I want to change the font for all the body text — in my case from my normal Adobe Garamond Pro to TNR — the non-indented paragraphs also become indented. For that reason, I have a separate style named “No Indent” which I assign to all paragraphs following headings etc. In my style sheet, it is based on Normal but with the indent removed, so changing the font for Normal also changes the font for No Indent and other styles as required. If you don’t need to change anything about your Normal style, the issue doesn’t matter.

I don’t know about DOCX and Word; it might be the same though “Body” rather than “Normal”.

Mark

[pseingalt]

Thanks. The first line after a chapter heading should not be indented. Here’s an example of what I’m trying to reach, but with no footnotes (fixed that) or running headers (fixed that) with a block quote (not fixed) and properly indented paragraphs:

[pseingalt]

This is Rick and Morty Lorem Ipsum, btw.

[pseingalt]

Thank you. A bit unintuitive. You would think that you could modify the text by, say, modifying the text.

[November_Sierra]

How would you control different kinds of indentation (paragraph, first line, etc.) with one kind of direct text modification (say a tab)?

[pseingalt]

Same as you would with a standard word processor. Or

\noindent Here’s a front matter line I don’t want indented.

But after this would have an indented paragraph.

Another indented paragraph. So, tabs in word processing programs, commands in LaTeX, I suppose there’s a way to do it in CSS as well, but since text was displayed, I thought that you could modify it as displayed rather than use the ruler.

[November_Sierra]

@pseingalt

\noindent Here’s a front matter line I don’t want indented.

How is this more intuitive? It’s just a different kind of not so obvious. In CSS you’d use a “p + p” construct, defining the first line indentation of a paragraph that follows a paragraph. Easy. But definitely not intuitive. I’d say Scrivener does a good job visually representing those settings for an average audience. Like in a standard word processor.

[pseingalt]

It’s not. You asked how to do it, so I assumed you were asking about ways other than modifying the text directly, e.g, changing the font. But tabs don’t work. Nor do spaces. I haven’t experimented with anything else.I looked in the manual but didn’t find anything.

[AmberV]

In word processors you want to use indent settings, which have all been described above already. My preference is the Format ▸ Paragraph ▸ Tabs and Indents... tool, if I need to mess with those, as I find the ruler to be difficult to manage.

I’m not aware of much of anything that prefers the use of literal whitespace characters like tab stops and spaces to emulate formatting, outside of typewriters. I don’t understand why we would want to facilitate that, even if it may to some be “intuitive”.

[pseingalt]

I am utterly confused now by items such as overrides that don’t override and fruitless efforts to modify text. Where is the magic of compile?

Also see: A Chapter Heading Textblock is Not - #31 by pseingalt

[drmajorbob]

@pseingalt

I am utterly confused

Stop arguing with facts, and you can stop being confused.

[pseingalt]

An older friend from Mississippi used to say, “don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.”

I am looking for what works. If a procedure doesn’t work, I’ll abandon it and go to another. What is confusing is overrides that don’t override; facing pages that don’t face each other, etc.It seems that every time I try to implement a routine typographic requirement (running headers (undefined term), block quotes (the override that doesn’t override) etc. it’s another trip down the rabbit hole. There must be a Scrivener way of thinking (like Airbus with its “normal, alternate and direct laws”) that makes sense when you have the key to the puzzle. I don’t have that key.

[drmajorbob]

@pseingalt

What is confusing is overrides that don’t override

But they do. They just don’t override everything.

@pseingalt

facing pages that don’t face each other

But they do, full stop.

@pseingalt

block quotes

You have to understand what a style is and how it works.

@pseingalt

There must be a Scrivener way of thinking

Every technology has its own nomenclature to some degree.

• Section is an English word, but you started with a too-limited concept of what it means.
• Section type is English too, but it’s tied to a specific Scrivener feature.
• Override is English, but there’s a simple hierarchy of overrides to learn.
• Styles are the same in Word and Scrivener, but there’s an optional redefinition in Compile.

You need to learn the but in each of those sentences.