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.
How/what do I modify in order to do this?
Thanks.
Anyone? This is driving me nuts. Thanks.
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.
But of course, it’s your work, your choice.
Good luck,
M
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.
That being said, how do you format a drop cap?
Many thanks!
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.
I’m able to get v1.9 to print with correct first paragraph indents, so the problem might be with your Formatting settings.
Confirm that all of your levels where the Text box is checked have a properly set First-Line indent marker (circled in the image below).
I thought this controls the indent for all paragraphs, and not only for the first paragraph, no?
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.
Best,
Jim
