First line indent from second paragraph onwards?

T

Tom Smith

Hi,

As is standard in many texts, the first line of a new paragraph of a new
section has no indent, whereas following paragraphs have a first-line
indent.

How is this best re-created using Word XP? The only thing I can think of
would be to follow all headings with a style adjusted to cancel the first
line indent, and then to have this sytle be followed by the Normal style
(assuming the Normal style includes a first-line indent).

I like keeping the number of styles down to a minimum - is there an easier
way than the one I've described?

Thanks in advance!
 
J

Jay Freedman

Hi, Tom,

Your "Normal+no indent" proposal is indeed *the* way to handle this
task in any version of Word. Anything else (and I can think of a few,
but won't encourage anyone by explaining them <g>) would be clumsier
to apply, and/or harder to change later. For example, some book
designs call for the first paragraph in a chapter to start flush left
*and* be in a larger font than the rest. If you adopt the
multiple-style scheme, you can handle that by simply modifying one
style definition.

I'd encourage you to drop the preference for minimizing the number of
styles. As long as you stick to a reasonable naming convention that
makes the purpose of each style obvious, there are very few drawbacks
to having many styles. Conversely, I have serious objections to
byzantine schemes for applying special formatting on the fly -- only
to find later that they're impossible to maintain and modify.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I'll second Jay's recommendations, with one addition. I don't use Normal for
anything. I use Body Text for the unindented paragraphs (the ones following
the headings) and Body Text First Indent for the rest. I make Body Text the
"next style" for headings and Body Text First Indent the following style for
Body Text. Both these styles are built-in (in Normal.dot and templates based
on it) and can be modified to suit.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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