I just compiled 4 docs together and exported them into Word. While scrolling through to see how it all came out, I realized there were three different sections throughout the manuscript where every line of text was indented. I have no idea why it’s like this, and when I scroll back through those same sections in the Scrivener versions of the docs, they don’t look like that, so I don’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it. Ideas?
Check the override settings in the Formatting pane of Compile Draft. By default, the text has an indent. You may want to change that.
All the best,
Keith
Mommy brain makes me dense, forgive me.
Okay, I checked the formatting pane and I’m not sure what you mean when you say indenting is there by default. More importantly, I don’t see what I’m supposed to do to change that.
And why would it only be indenting in some sections and not in the entire document?
Thanks for your help. Usually I’m better at this sort of thing. 
In the Compile dialogue, third tab, at the top is a sample paragraph David Mitchell quote. Is this paragraph first-line indented? If it is, use the ruler to fix the format settings. These paragraph formatting rules get applied to everything in the project unless it has “Preserve Formatting” active in the Inspector.
Check the Preserve Formatting flag. You might have some documents set to ignore the override settings we just examined.
Another possibility, if you mean “indent” in the margin sense of the word where the entire paragraph is indented: Were the two malfunctioning sections imported from Word? If so, use Documents/Convert/Formatting to Text Default Style.
I’m having the opposite problem–when I export to word every line is not indented, even though with the default formatting in Scrivener the layout looks very clearly indented throughout. Override formatting is checked “on”, but that appears to have an indent in the example pane. The settings appears to as well…is there any way to salvage all these paragraphs?
Thank you
Wow… That is just… Rubbish. I just checked on this. Earlier iterations of Scrivener created .doc files by creating disguised .rtf files. The current version creates real .doc files (which some users wanted given that certain mobile platforms didn’t recognise the RTF-style .doc files, even though they are valid for Word). To create real, binary .doc files I have no other option but to rely on the OS X .doc exporter - and I just discovered that this is dreadful. It does, as you have noted, lose indents when opened in Word. It also loses line spacing. I tested this out by creating a document in TextEdit with indents and spacing and saving from there as .doc - and it opens in Word without these features.
The solution is to export to RTF. Word will open RTF fine, and it is actually the best format to use when going from Scrivener to another program.
All the best,
Keith
KB,
Understanding that you are not writing a word processor, might it be possible to option a better export lib from a 3rd party which you can off as a drop in option? I am thinking of the way core audio and other plugin architectures work. the biggest difference is that you only have hooks for this one “upgrade”. Since it is an “upgrade” only those who need it would have to pay for it which would allow you to keep your scriv price where you want it.
Just an idea. I will go back under my rick now.
I don’t know of one I could use or how I would use it, unfortunately. On Windows there are all sorts of options for this sort of thing; on OS X, to the best of my knowledge, not so much so.
All the best,
Keith