I’m trying to do the final PDF formatting for my novel, but I’m having some difficulties with line indents.
I want to keep the first line of a new chapter without any indent, while makeing sure paragraphs within the chapter (that begin after a blank space) have an indent. For context, there are some journal entries within the body of my book that are visually separated from the main text by an extra line and different margins. I can’t seem to get Scrivener to indent the beginning of the journal entries properly. It seems to think it’s the start of a new chapter.
Hope that makes sense, any help would be greatly appreciated!
The Settings tab in the Section Layout for your body text determines the placement of indents in your compilation. When you included indents in a Style, or used Tabs, they will show up double.
It sounds like you are using default indent settings for a particular compile Format:
Open File ▸ Compile... and double-click on the Format you are using, in the left sidebar, to edit it.
In the Section Layouts list, scroll down to any bold-face layout (which indicate the project is using it) that have the Text checkbox ticked. In the Settings tab, set first line indenting to Remove from first paragraph.
Do bear in mind some compile formats will mark empty lines in the Separators pane as well, with the Blank line separator file. Or to put it another way, it isn’t confusing your lines with being the beginning of the chapter, it is confused over the use of empty lines for something other than a scene/narrative break, or minor topical break in non-fiction.
Thank you for your thorough response! I’m relatively new to Scrivener so I seem to have been looking in the wrong spot - the info you shared was exactly what I needed!