Indenting issues in compile

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Hi!

I am having two small problems with indents when I compile a file I originally created in Scrivener 2 now in Scrivener 3 (both in epub/mobi compiles).

First: I’m trying to get the first paragraph in a section text to have no indent. When the section is the first section in a chapter, the first paragraph shows up with no indent, but when I have several sections in the same chapter, the sections other than the first one are compiling with an indent in their first paragraphs.

When I check the Section Text formatting (via Text Layout), I have checked off the “Remove first line indents: from all paragraphs following other elements,” but this doesn’t seem to be helping. Is this command overridden by some other formatting command? Any advice on how to get all section first paragraphs to have no indents would be welcome!

Second: I cut and pasted some review text from different documents/web sites. In the editor, I see only paragraph returns when I turn on “show invisible” between each review, but when I compile, some of the reviews are indented, and some are not. Are some formatting instructions carrying over from where I cut the text from? Should I trash this particular page and retype it from scratch, to get rid of this problem?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have to offer!

– Jackie

2

Hi Jackie,

  1. If the sections that are getting the first line indents are separate documents then the cause of the issue may be the Separator that is being used between the sections. If you edit the compile format and go to Separators, click on the section layout you are using and change ‘Separator between sections’ to Empty Line and then go back to the first line options in Section Layouts and change that to Remove from first paragraph and after empty lines - does that help?

It’s difficult to comment on this type of issue without seeing the structure of the manuscript. Your best bet may be to email support and include screenshots of your main compile window, and the section layout and separators panes of the compile format edit.

  1. Yes, I would think some formatting has come with it. Try selecting the text and going to Edit>Text Tidying>Zap Gremlins, and if that doesn’t work copy the text and create a new document and then Edit>Past and Match Style. This should paste without any formatting.

Rob