In compiling my novel manuscript, my chapters are “sections.” When I compile as a Manuscript in pdf, the text of the first line in the first paragraph of each Chapter is not indented, while the first line of subsequent paragraphs are indented.
I would like to indent the first line of the first paragraph of each Chapter.
The Chicago Manual of Style indicates no indent is common, but a regular indent is allowed. In the books I read, the first paragraph is never indented. And although some publishers opt for dropped caps or half-line indents those are more stylistic choices than typographic choices.
In the world of ebooks, to me, an indented first paragraph is an immediate signal of a self-published book by an author without any knowledge of the publishing world.
I agree with all you said. I’m nowhere near a final product, and am just interested in compiling it in (partial/incomplete) manuscript form. As such, I just find the non-indented first line to be distracting. Once it’s a finished manuscript, I’ll be doing a more refined compile.
I don’t think it’s possible to remove the first paragraph indent in Scrivener 1.9 unless you use the “Compile As-Is” option and format the document the way you want it inside the Editor. In Scrivener beta you can find the option in Compile → Section Layouts → Settings
In 1.9, I think it’s impossible. In Beta, you can use styles to achieve it. If it were me, though, I would compile to a basic .docx and finish the formating in some other–more suitable for the job–application.
Yes, Krastev, you’re definitely correct. But I was thinking/hoping the OP might be keeping the first paragraph by itself in a separate document type that has wrong setting in compile.
Probably a long shot, but seemed worth it to check.
What the OP wants to achieve is surely possible, as I created a new project from Novel template and indents generated correctly to PDF.