Indenting paragraphs-how many spaces?

Carol

Carol

So, is there a standard rule for this? Or does everyone do their own thing?
I indent four spaces.

Jay Mandal

Er ... five spaces? This is on another thread, too.

Sylvia

I indent four spaces, too, Carol

Tilly

I look at the particular magazine that I'm targetting, and take it from there. Sometimes it's three, sometimes it's five.

Carol

Jay, I thought it needed to be on a seperate thread as it had only got your response on the other thread. Thanks for responding again.

Jay Mandal

I think search & replace works for spacebar, too, so it may not be a major problem to change.

Joanne

When I had typing lessons some centuries ago I was taught that it should be 5, so that's what I continue to do.

Jay Mandal

Isn't it supposed to be whatever makes up one inch? I've just had a look at some books, and they vary.

Butterfly

I use the tab key to set the indentation of my paragraphs. This way you don't have to count how many times you hit the space bar and your computer will automatically default to this after a short while. Therefore you don't have to hit anything except enter and you'll be ready to type from your next indent. I'm not sure how many spaces the fixed indents are, but hold on...okay this looks like it gives 7/8 characters set at 12 point font. You can also set a tab by double clicking in the word package, which will give you the right amount of spaces for you. However, as long as you show where new speech/paragraphs are I don't think the size of the indent is necessarily that important. Unless the indent is absurdly large! Of course remember to start against the margin to indicate a time lapse.
If the publisher likes the work enough their in house people will sort out the layout as long as they can see where the indents are. Don’t worry about  the extra one or two spaces.

Carol

Thanks Butterfly, I hadn't yet got around to fiddling with the tab key.
But it is useful to know that there doesn't seem to be a set number of spaces for indenting.

Jenn

i hit tab once. always have done, and im guessing probably always will. we were taught to indent paragraphs to the width of our index finger. one tab more or less covers this.

Carol

Butterfly mentioned about the computer (eventually) defaulting to the usual indenting. Will it then do that when anyone else uses the computer to write something, or only for that individuals programmes?

Butterfly

Carol.
This happens in every piece of work written in word, if and when you use the tab option. If you don't use it, it won't happen. To stop it and go back to the original setting (against the margin) just hit the enter key as you would to make a new paragraph and then use the back arrow key at the top right of the keyboard to take you back to the margin. If you've used the tab it will probably jump back again when you hit enter for the next paragraph. I hope this helps.

Carol

Thanks Butterfly, that helps. We all use Word at some point, there are six of us using this computer. It will be annoying to all the others if I did that, so I'll just continue as I do now. Actually counting four spaces becomes automatic, so it's not a problem.

Carol

Tessa, it isn't a problem with the kids stuff, but my husband and older son it would.
Hubby has all the family history formatted exactly, and there are numerous files. They fill a large A4 ring binder- so that would be a real pain to have to alter back.
It doesn't bother me too much, as I do it automatically, so don't need to count the spaces.
But it is useful to know how to do this automatically.

Betsie

There is actually a rule for this.  I have consulted 'The Oxford Guide to Style' (The style bible for all writers, editors, and publishers).

It states:  Indentation should be 1 em, with any sub-indentation in proportion.  The rule for all indentation is not to drive the text too far in, a concern that increases with the narrowness of the measure.  There is no indentation in the first paragraph folliwng a heading, epigraph, or dropped initial letter.

Jay Mandal

An em is twice an en in printing - but I'm not sure exactly how long it is or if it depends on the print size.

Carol

Thanks for that template idea. And Betsie does it state what an em relates to eg cm or mm?

Jay Mandal

It might just be the width of the letter 'm'.

Betsie

Yes it does explain and em and an en.  Just dashing off to my art class now but I'll be back with my book and technical stuff later.  It's quite complicated and all to do with machinations of printing (I think).  Back later folks.  By the way, it's a brilliant book I've found it very useful for settling quandries such as this.  Worth looking out for a paperback version - my hard back copy was £25 but a good investment for me when doing courses because it has the answers for the proper way to do stuff. (technical term that)

Carol

Hope the art class goes well. We wait with bated breath to find out how big an em and an en is. Seriously.

Crazy Horse

If you have manually inserted five spaces all you need to do is go to edit, enter five spaces i the "Find what" box then enter whatever you want say ten spaces in the "Replace with" box and click on "Replace All"

Betsie

The book says - An Em is a horizontal unit of space calculated as the square of the body of any size of type.  Originally it was reckoned as the width of a capital roman M.  An em space (or em quad) has the nickname mutton and is indicated in mark-up by the symbol (and the symbol is a small square).

An En is half an Em. 

I'm inclined to think that an em space is about as big as a capital M the same size and font as the typeface you are using.  If you look in any published book you will see that the indent is quite small - around the size of two lower case letters.

If you are used to using the symbol facility in Word you can find an Em symbol in the typeface you are using by clicking on insert, then click on symbol, if you scroll through you will find the little square things which must be Em measures (I think).

PS I failed miserably at my art class - we had to draw upside down flowerpots at odd angles placed on a scrunched up pile of fabric - I had trouble with the lumpy bits on the bottom of the pots and getting the holes to look right. 

Carol

I know what you mean Betsie, ruins it if you can't get it right. Never mind.
There are a lot of symbols in the insert symbols box, and I don't know what some of them are. I probably will one day, but is it really worrying me? No.

Jay Mandal

This might be a quick way of removing blank lines between paragraphs:
In Word got to find and replace, then More, Special, in Find What click Paragraph mark twice, then in Replace with, click paragraph mark once and then do either replace all or do it individually with find next and replace.

This might be a way of indenting the relevant line:
If you highlight the whole document, then right click, go to Paragraph, chose Special, first line indent and the about 0.5 cm.

I haven't tried it myself, so be careful what document you test it on!

Butterfly

Just a tip you may or may not know. It may be useful or not: How to change all the text to double spacing or single spacing if you've got it in double. The quick way is to: Hold down the control button and push A (this highlights all the work) then either push 2 or 1 and the spacing will change. It may help. The other trick that I use quite often is: ctrl (control) E centres the  work. ctrl L sends the text to the left. ctrl R you've got it sends the text to the right of the page. It is useful; well I find it useful