nisus.com

Is there a setting to auto indent paragraphs in NisusWriterExpress? If not, can someone provide me with a perl script (macro) for doing this?

Thanks, Elaine

Elaine,

I don't understand what you mean by "auto" indent.

Every time you press Return your insertion point goes to the left location of the line wrap indicator... wherever you've set it.

Does Increase (or Decrease) Hanging Indent (at the bottom of the Format menu) help?

And, what would a macro do?

Well, in Word, you can set a value for a first line indent for paragraphs, so that when you press enter to start a new paragraph or line, the new line indents by a certain amount (say 1/2"). That way all paragraphs will automatically start 1/2" in without requiring you to hit the tab key each time.

It's the opposite of a hanging indent. Unfortunately, increase/decrease indent shifts the entire paragraph margin by 1/2".

I want the first line to automatically indent, so I don't have to stop typing to format.

BTW, I'm a writer, so I create very long documents. I've gotten used to simply hitting the enter key and getting the indent. It would be nice if I could do the same thing in NWE.



Thanks, Elaine

elaine, i too write, and am happy with how firstline indents work in nwe. if you look on the ruler line you'll see those cool little blue arrow guys converging on the ruler. The top one sets the first line; for a paragraph indent, drag the top one to the right however far you like your first line to come in from the margin. the lower arrow is for second & subsequent lines (so, for hanging indent, leave the top arrow at left margin and drag only the bottom one in however far you want for your hanging indentation of wrapping lines).

only trouble comes when you want a flush left subheading, which would require you to reset these markers twice (once to remove the firstline indent, once to restore it). solution is to let the subheading indent, type your header, hit return, start next paragraph with a word or two, pop back up to the header line and drag that top little blue arrow back over to the margin. until 2.0 gives us styles (where you could have a body style and a flush left style), this is it.

help?

Elaine (and keybored (thank you)),

Now I understand!

This is from the User Guide which you can download (4.3 MB) here.



Structuring paragraphs

This section describes the different ways you can define the appearance of paragraphs. When in page view, all paragraphs appear within the margins you set (outlined as the gray line around the area of the page). When in draft view Nisus Writer Express allows your text to run as far to the right of the document window as you wish. The four blue paragraph definition "droplets" appear on the ruler at the top of the window.

Select the paragraph(s) you want to modify before making any changes to the ruler.

To set the indent or outdent (hanging indent) position of the first line of a paragraph:

Drag the First Line In/Outdent Indicator across the ruler and release the mouse button at the position where you want the first character of your paragraph to appear.


The First Line In/Outdent Indicator in various positions relative to the Tail Line Wrap Indicator




To set the text wrap area:

Drag the Head Line Wrap Indicator and/or the Tail Line Wrap indicator across the ruler and release the mouse button where you want the lines of your paragraph to wrap.



The Head Line Wrap Indicator in various positions relative to the First Line In/Outdent Indicator


You can drag the Head Line Wrap Indicator independently of the First Line In/Outdent Indicator. If you drag the larger, upper, the Independent Drag droplet, when you release the mouse button, the smaller, lower Conjoined Drag droplet bounces into position. The First Line In/Outdent does not move.



The Independent Drag Head Line Wrap Indicator droplet



If you drag the smaller, lower Conjoined Drag droplet, when you release the mouse button, the larger, upper, the Independent Drag droplet bounces into position and the First Line In/Outdent moves the same distance as you moved the Conjoined Drag droplet.



Moving the Conjoined Drag Head Line Wrap Indicator droplet


The Tail Line Wrap Indicator


You can select any combination of the four indents and line wrap indicators by pressing SHIFT or COMMAND as you click each one.



I hope this helps.