Indent on second paragraph

[Edward Goodwin]

Hi. I suspect I'm being a bit dim. But could someone direct me to a help file for setting up a paragraph format for the following: I would like the first line of a chapter/block of text not to be indented (i.e. flush left) but then for subsequent paragraphs to be indented... Any suggestions?

Also, whilst I'm here, I've been trying to find how to display paragraph symbols and page breaks etc. so I can see what's what re: formatting. However, I can't seem to find the information on the Affinity help files. All pointers welcome!

Edward

 

 

 

[Lee_T]

Hi Edward, 

For this type of formatting I would suggest using a separate paragraph style for the initial paragraph as shown here:

Lee

[pbasdf]

1 hour ago, Edward Goodwin said:

how to display paragraph symbols and page breaks etc. so I can see what's what re: formatting

In the Text menu, "Show Special Characters":

[Lee_T]

Thanks @pbasdf, missed that part of the question

[GarryP]

As mentioned by LeeThorpe above, setting up two paragraph styles is probably the best way to go.

Create one paragraph style for the First Paragraph and another paragraph style for Subsequent Paragraphs.
Then edit the First Paragraph style and set the “Next style” to the Subsequent Paragraphs style as shown in my attached image (but use better names).

Note, however, that you cannot then select all of your text and then apply the First Paragraph style to all the paragraphs and expect the Subsequent Paragraph style to be applied in the way you might expect. Instead you should apply the Subsequent Paragraphs style to the all of the text and then apply the First Paragraph style to the first paragraph.

[Edward Goodwin]

Thanks everyone! That's great - really useful.

I'm surprised that there's not a more embedded method for the paragraph formatting as this is often how books/newspapers etc. are formatted; flush first paragraph, indented subsequent. Anyway, I'll go with the proposal.

All the best, Edward 

[GarryP]

Can you explain what you mean by “a more embedded method for the paragraph formatting”?

[Edward Goodwin]

Possibly I didn't explain it very well. What I meant was, if the formatting that I'm after is common (which I think it is but I could be wrong) then having an automatic way of formatting that way would be useful. It's similar to having 'indent' or 'first line indent'. This acknowledges that sometimes people might want a different indent for the first line. I had assumed (incorrectly) that there might have been an additional question of 'first line of first paragraph indent' or similar... Hence a 'built-in' system rather than having to create multiple rules to achieve it. I do appreciate that it's not a simple ask as it'd require a delineating format to create the 'break' (in the same way as a line-break creates the break for 'first line indent'). I guess that could have been a different character format (heading/chapter) or even simply a double line space. Anyway, just a thought! I hope that explains what I rather muddily described as 'more embedded'...

[GarryP]

I’m not sure what you mean by “automatic way of formatting” or “create multiple rules”.

To get the same formatting on multiple paragraphs it’s best to create a paragraph style and apply that style to the paragraphs which you need to be formatted that way.
Any changes to that style will be automatically applied to all of the paragraphs which that style has been applied to.

To get the first line of the paragraph indented all you need to do is change the “First Line Indent” setting of the paragraph style.

If you want to have the same styles in different documents you can export the styles from one document and import them into whichever document you need them in, or you can use a template which contains the styles you need.

If you always (or most times) use the same styles then you can save those styles as the application defaults for use in all new documents.

Note: I’ve looked at various books and some only indent the first line of the first paragraph, others indent the first line of all paragraphs, and some don’t indent the first line of any paragraphs, so there’s no real “common” way of doing that but there may be publisher (the companies not the software) in-house styles.

[Fixx]

On 7/11/2022 at 4:20 PM, GarryP said:

I’m not sure what you mean by “automatic way of formatting” or “create multiple rules”.

It would be wonderful if devs would develop this kind of style automation but so far no one has implemented such. It would be a great time saver to apply rule based styles to whole publication.

[lacerto]

I think that that problem is that it is often nearly as tedious a task to prepare a document to adhere any strictly hierarchic structure as it is to have it tagged with some kind of styles (either real ones or tags). Hotkeys and scripts utilized already in text editor (or in the layout app when available) are often used to facilitate this job.

On the other hand, if the text is truly formal, regularly hierarchical, then "Apply <Style> then next styles" is an effective way to have complex formatting (styles forming a loop) applied in one go.